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Worship with us via LIVE STREAM or watch on your own time on YouTube We encourage all of our parishioners to live their spiritual lives the best they can from home. MASS CARDS - Available upon request, please call the Rectory at 856-667-8850.
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Advent. Expectation. Miracles.
My dear parish family,
We had a wonderful Christmas Bazaar (now two weekends ago). I just want to extend special thanks to everyone who made that day possible. Coming together to pull off an event like that is, well, a little miracle. God inspired each person who served as they did, to love, to chip in, and make the day special. It was a full and rich day at OLPH and I appreciate everyone who answered the call to serve and to welcome folks from our larger community into our parish. I hope you each met someone new.
While mentioning “thank yous”, I need to extend a special and gracious thanks to the anonymous member who came forward to say, “If other members match it, I will contribute up to $25,000.” Another little miracle for our parish family to move forward in faith and make improvements on much needed areas of our campus. I hope that each of you will give something to support the $25k match campaign, as each dollar is doubled up to the match. Who knows maybe someone else will come forward to help us match the rest of it! What does Jesus say: ask, seek, and knock. Well, it is time to ask with faith and confidence and wait for the good people of OLPH to respond with generosity, as the Lord has been generous with them. To be honest, I am excited by this campaign, but also nervous. It is always hard to ask for money. But we are not just asking for funds but for necessary improvements so that we can accomplish our mission.
Christ Jesus, King of the Universe, and King of our Hearts!
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This weekend we celebrate the last Sunday of the church year, Christ the King of the Universe. Next Sunday already is the first Sunday of Advent! But today we are focused on Christ Jesus as King, as Lord, as Sovereign of the whole universe. Immediately we each ask ourselves whether Jesus is Lord in my life and in my heart. If Jesus truly is ruler of all, then it is time to reaffirm that He is king of our hearts.
This week we wrap up the Harvest Principle Series. Over the past 5 weeks we have probed the reality that we reap what we sow. For better or worse, the seeds we plant in our lives and families and community, will bear fruit. I have enjoyed this message because of its emphasis on the living reality, the organism. Things are in motion; either we are growing, or we are dying; nothing is stagnant, and not just in one area of life but many areas. We cultivate the good and weed out the bad, all as the days pass and the seasons change. Even since we began this series the weather has shifted, and the bite of the winter wind has arrived.
Harvest Principle - Sowing the Seeds of Wisdom
Dear Friends in Christ,
Wisdom. Wisdom is a hard topic. It is the kind of thing we recognize but struggle to define. We know it when we see it but precisely describing wisdom can elude us. Growing up, Mom used to call me a “wise guy,” but I think she had something different in mind.
Scriptures have a lot to say about wisdom. We read in several places, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Pr 9:10; Jb 28:28; Ps 111:10 - and elsewhere.) With slight variations this line emerges multiple times. Often a morally upright life serves as the counterpoint. By that I mean avoiding evil, welcoming discipline, and not shirking asceticism coincides with the path to wisdom. Such putting our lives in order, by sowing the seeds of virtue and plucking the weeds of vice, runs alongside of fearing the Lord and seeking Wisdom. Hence, wisdom follows after a well-ordered existence that includes the fear of the Lord.
Harvest Principle - Vocation
Dear Parish Family,
We find ourselves at a special confluence; two rivers of thought intersect to create a beautiful spiritual and cultural landscape. It is the third week of our Message Series, Harvest Principle and our diocese kicks off Called by Name vocation campaign. The harvest principle is this: we reap what we sow. This reality helps us to see how our choices, our virtues and really our whole lives are connected to the seeds we plant. Last week we focused on character, and how we build our character through our choices for virtue. This week we center on vocation. Jesus himself says, “The harvest is great, but the laborers are few, so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Mt 9:37-8). This image Jesus paints has often been interpreted as a call for priests, a call for shepherds to join in the work of Jesus and the apostles. Hence, the confluence.
Bishop O’Connell has long encouraged all pastors to invite young men to the priesthood. He calls each of us a local “vocation director” and he notes that we need to seek out and nurture vocations. As the baby-boomer priests retire, our diocese finds herself stretched thin. In our area a decade ago, almost every parish had two priests. Now we are just about one priest per parish. And in the next five years, we can anticipate about 15-30 priests retiring, while about 10 men will be ordained. So, the crunch is coming.
Harvest Principle - Quite a Character!
Dear Parish Family,
Last week we inaugurated a new Message Series on the Harvest Principle… you reap what you sow; and it is always later; and it is always greater. This fundamental ground rule for life we see manifest in many ways. In our gardens, in our families, in our relationships. But probably the best place to begin with the principle is by looking in the mirror, starting with ourselves and the way we have the power to shape our habits and our character.
I read a great book on habits earlier in the pandemic, called The Power of Habit, and it made me realize how little things that changed in my life were having ripple effects. Regular trips to the gym that stopped; meetings with friends that went virtual; so many pieces of my life shifted, changed, stopped and that was affecting my habits. The pandemic has shaken up a lot of people’s lives and ways of doing things. So much is different. Our priorities have changed. And almost everything that affects habits eventually crosses over to character. What we do shapes who we are.
