Letter from the Pastor

The month of June, as we know, is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Today, I ask the question:  What does it mean to love God?     For the most part, many are inclined to think of love as a fond feeling of warmth and  affection.  We sing about it; we read about it; we watch it in movies and on TV.   Love is a deep feeling that one person has for another.  And quite clearly, not even God can demand that.  How can we command the human heart to feel a certain way?  So if we are […]

One of the most fascinating things about the New Testament is the amazing faith that Jesus had in all sorts of people.  Follow Jesus through the years of His ministry, and you will see that same attitude reflected toward all sorts of people – a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery, a dishonest tax collector named Zacchaeus, and a Samaritan woman who had failed in marriage five times.  And one of the last things He did, just before He died, was express His confidence in a condemned felon, who was dying on the cross right next […]

Religious faith brings out all sorts of qualities in the lives of the people whom it touches.  It lays hands on some, making them generous, kind and loving.  It takes hold of others and makes them cold, harsh and cruel.  St. Francis of Assisi was motivated by religious faith to renounce a   personal fortune and lead a life of selfless devotion in service to the poor.  Many terrorists today are motivated by religious faith to lead lives of brutal persecution that results in the execution of hundreds and the imprisonment or displacement of thousands more.  Religious faith, strange to say, […]

There was a story recently told of a young woman whose life had gone from bad to worse.  She had experienced emotional problems and all of the things that go along with that. Talking with a counselor, she was trying to figure it out, and her conversations went something like this:  “When I was small, my mother and dad hired a nurse who was with me night and day.  When I got older, they sent me to a boarding school.  When I was old enough to drive, they bought me an expensive sports car.  After high school, they sent me […]

Several centuries ago our Lord prayed for the unity of all who live on the face of this earth.   Specifically, His words were these:  “I pray that they may be one, as we are one – I living in them, and you living in me – that their unity may be complete.  Of all the prayers that Jesus ever prayed, this one sometimes seems the farthest from being  answered, especially in light of the events of recent times.  Within the Christian community, for example, there must be at least a hundred different denominations and scores of divisions under each of […]