Letter from the Pastor

June 7, 2019

Letter From the Pastor – June 9, 2019

Fear is one of the most powerful of all human emotions. We are born with it. A little baby must learn to laugh for joy. But from the moment of birth he or she can weep for fear. This seems to suggest that the capacity to be afraid is part of our natural God-given instinct. And if that is the case, our challenge is not to get rid of it, but to learn how to deal with it. Let us take a look at the animal kingdom. Not one of them is without fear. And all of them seem to […]

May 30, 2019

Letter From the Pastor – June 2, 2019

In his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle St. Paul talked about a personal problem, which he describes as a “thorn in the flesh.” No one knows exactly what that was. It is generally assumed that St. Paul was suffering from some sort of physical malady. But the only thing we know for sure is that St. Paul had some sort of personal limitation, which he prayed to be rid of, but to no avail; and finally, he had to settle down and learn to live with it. I think that that should strike a responsive chord in the heart […]

May 24, 2019

Letter From the Pastor – May 26, 2019

A study of the history of war offers little encouragement to a world that is hungry for peace. In ancient times wars were fought on a small scale between village and village. Then it became tribe against tribe and province against province. Later the combatants were nations, then coalitions of nations. Until today it seems that virtually one half of the world is lined up against the other half. A similar development can be traced in the weapons that are used to wage war. At first people fought each other with clubs and rocks, […]

May 16, 2019

Letter From the Pastor – May 19, 2019

On Saturday, May 25, 2019, several men from St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers will be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of New York. Among them will be Deacon John Figueroa, who has served the Annunciation-Our Lady of Fatima Parish for two summers. I ask all our parishioners to pray for him and for the others who will be ordained with him as they begin their new ministry in the name of the Lord in this Archdiocese. May we here at Annunciation-Our Lady of Fatima pray fervently everyday for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life. […]

May 10, 2019

Letter From the Pastor – May 12, 2019

In 2015, at the Synod on the Family, Rick Warren summarized the present condition of our 21st century this way: “In today’s society, materialism is idolized; immorality is glamorized; truth is minimized; sin is normalized; divorce is rationalized; abortion is legalized. In T.V. and movies, crime is legitimized; drug use is minimized; comedy is vulgarized; and sex is trivialized. Again, in movies, the Bible is fictionalized; churches are satirized; God is marginalized; and Christians are demonized. The elderly are dehumanized; the sick are euthanized; the poor are victimized; the mentally […]