Today we begin one of Holy Mother Church’s most ancient observances, the solemn fast of Lent. The ashes that we receive today are a relic of what in the early days of the Church was called the order of penitents. Before the sacrament of confession because widely available in the Middle Ages, it was only […]
Read more "The Order of Penitents"Judgment. Whenever we hear that word, we tend to cringe. Judgment. It seems to have a very negative connotation. Judgment, to many people, means a harsh decision, a punishment. We are probably reminded of the words of our Lord, “Judge not,lest you be judged.” Many of us have come to associate judging as a sin. […]
Read more "Don’t Judge Me!"“Share your bread with the hungry … shelter the oppressed and the homeless … clothe the naked … do not turn your back on your own … lavishly he gives to the poor.” If I were to ask how we could describe all of these injunctions in one word, I suspect that most of us […]
Read more "Sharing your bread is not charity"I returned yesterday evening from Washington, DC, where I participated along with several hundreds of thousands of people from our parish, our Diocese, and from the entire country in marching to demand legal protections for unborn children. Before moving abroad in 2011 I used to attend the March for Life annually, but it had been […]
Read more "Those Who Are Nothing"“It has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, … that there are rivalries among you.” In today’s epistle, St. Paul issues a rebuke to the Christians at Corinth. He has heard that there are rivalries and divisions among the Christians. He is probably disappointed. It has not been very long at […]
Read more "Unity in the Family"One of the joys of the Christmas season we just finished is receiving mail. Most of the time, our mailboxes do not contain many things we would like to receive – just advertisements, bills, and credit card offers. But for about a month, we are transported to another era when our mailboxes are filled with […]
Read more "Glorious in God’s Sight"Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we reach the zenith of our celebration of Christmas with the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. This feast was historically more important than the Nativity or Christmas (and in many cultures today is still celebrated with much festivity – it wasn’t until 1955 that Christmas ranked higher […]
Read more "Adoring like the Magi"+ AMDG + From the Gospel today, it would seem that it is Christmas all over again. And, really, it is. Christmas is one of the two great feasts of the Church’s year that is celebrated not just for one day, but for eight – an octave, eight days of celebration. On the eighth day […]
Read moreOver the site of our Lord’s birth, to no one’s surprise, is a church, the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. It is, of course, a beautiful church, with soaring arches and ruts in the stone floor from the countless numbers of pilgrims who have filed through over the centuries to reverence the sacred place […]
Read more "True Love is Present Here"Over the past few weeks we have been focusing intently on the figure of St. John the Baptist, the precursor to the Lord who prepared the way for Him. St. John has challenged us with harsh words and a dramatic call to conversion, a call that hopefully we have answered by becoming reconciled to God […]
Read more "Taking Mary into Our Homes"
Father Gregerson 