29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

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Simply put, the message we hear in the first reading and Gospel today is that we are to persevere in prayer.  In the first reading, Moses perseveres in prayer in the battle between the Israelites and Amalekites.  When he lowers his hands from prayer out of weariness (which perhaps we might interpret as ceasing to pray), the battle goes poorly for Joshua and Israel.  When he resumes raising his hands in prayer, the battle turns, and Israel has “the better of the fight.”  We are to apply this reading to our own earthly battles: the battle between good and evil; between pride/ego and — as Abraham Lincoln wrote — “the better angels of our nature.”  We too are encouraged to persevere in prayer.  Persevering in prayer is nothing less than relying on the Lord’s help, and is an act of humility, recognizing that, as the saying goes, “God is God and we are not.”  In this way, perseverance in prayer is the antidote to pride and selfishness.  It is also our act of faith and trust in God: that God has a plan which has our best interests at heart and that God’s action in response to our prayer will happen, in the right time, God’s time, which may not be our time!  In the Gospel parable, Jesus assures us that God’s response to our petitions will be speedy, but God’s time and our time are not always measured by the same clock!  Hence, we need to persist in prayer when God’s answer to our prayers comes more slowly than we would hope for. 


What are we to make of what seems to be a delay in God’s response to our sincere prayers?  Sometimes the case may be that God has already answered our prayers, just not as we were expecting, and we failed to see the response.  However, it could be the case that God’s delay in response to our prayers is preparing us for God’s response when it comes.  St. Augustine of Hippo wrote: 


If God at times seems to be slow in responding, it is because God is preparing a better gift.  He will not deny us…Ask, seek, insist.  Through this asking and seeking you will be better prepared to receive God’s gift when it comes.  God withholds what you are not yet ready for.  God wants you to have a lively desire for the greatest gifts.  All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.


So, in persevering in prayer, there is patience and trust — patience in waiting for the right time, God’s time, and trusting in God’s action in our hearts while we wait.


We should note something else that happens in the midst of that battle scene that teaches us how we are aided in persevering in prayer.  When Moses, Aaron, and Hur realize that the battle turns against the Israelites when Moses grows weary and lowers his arms in prayer, Aaron and Hur hold up Moses’ arms so that he may persevere in prayer!  We can, and should, hold each other up in prayer and in presence as we together persevere in praying, especially through difficult times in our lives when we grow weary in the battle of earthly life.  This can take the form of praying for each other, but equally if not more important, being present to each other, encouraging each other and praying with each other.  Often that companionship is exactly what we need to persevere in difficult periods of prayer!  And that should come as no surprise, for Christ himself told us that "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20).  We are strengthened with the presence of Christ himself when we gather together physically in prayer.  And let us not forget that we have a God who is fundamentally a God of and in relationship — Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity — and that made in the image and likeness of that God, we are fundamentally wired to be in relationship with our God and each other.  It is no surprise that we would be aided in persisting in prayer by being in community with each other while we pray!  Sometimes we ourselves need to seek out the community to pray together, to push back against the choice to remain isolated, praying (or not) on our own when we are able to gather with others.  But you and I are here today, and the fact that we have chosen of our own will and ability to come into community to pray invites us to consider who in our lives is not here today, or at all recently.  Perhaps we need to seek them out, to be present to them.  To encourage them, and invite them to join in prayer with us.  Perhaps we bring presence and prayer to them, if they are homebound.  In either case, in so doing we are lifting the arms of a weary sister or brother in prayer and making Christ present to strengthen us all, a presence the world so desperately needs.   

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

By Deacon Paul Cerosaletti • September 21, 2025
Language scholars who have studied the origins of the word mammon in Hebrew and Aramaic have found clear association with words meaning wealth, riches, money, profit and possessions. But there is also evidence that one of the root words for mammon also means “that in which one trusts.” On all of our US currency — each coin and paper bill — is a simple (and, I suspect, often overlooked) phrase: “In God we trust.” This phrase was added during the Cold War to distinguish our currency, and nation, from that of the atheist Soviet Union. On each of our denominations of currency, both coins and paper bills, we have this simple reminder in whom we should be placing our trust in — God — and not what we should be placing it in: the fruit of our human activity, especially money. It is a poignant reminder to us today in light of the Gospel passage we hear and our current experience. This reminder begs us to ask two questions of ourselves and collectively as a country and society: Do we trust in God first? Always, everywhere, in everything? Or do we place our trust first in small-“g” god, or gods of human origin? In answering those questions, we might ask ourselves, what do our actions say about whether we place our trust first in God, or in humans? Where are we spending our time and treasure? This past month has brought us yet more tragic and traumatic reminders of our society’s misplaced trust. The recent spate of wounding and taking of innocent lives through gun violence in service of an ideology of retribution is just the most recent in a continuing human saga of such behavior, behavior that places trust in leading with human action to resolve differences, over our openness and trust in allowing God to lead us to a conversion of heart and to reconciliation. There is more that could be said about the responsible use of wealth in service to God. About detachment from ‘goods’ of this world — goods that God gives us out of love to draw us closer and more deeply into love with God, that we might revere God and God’s creation, but not take those goods in place of God. But in light of our continuing tragedies and the lack of reverence for human life, created by God in the image and likeness of God, of which they are clear evidence, the most important response we can offer is what St. Paul exhorts us to in his letter to Timothy, when he writes: First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. And so we will pray to God, as St Paul asks. Pray collectively for those who have suffered violence in all forms against humanity. We will pray collectively for those wounded, those who have lost their lives and their families. And then perhaps most difficult of all, we will pray for those who perpetrated this violence, and all who are tempted to perpetrate violence against humanity. We should be challenged in our prayers to pray for people we don’t want to pray for. We may find the heart that is converted is our own. In all these prayers we place our trust first and foremost in God, who desires to save us, and who “proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). In this is our act of Faith. In this is our act of Hope.

Solemnity of Peter And Paul - June 29, 2025

By Fr. Chris Welch • July 1, 2025
Solemnity of Peter and Paul June 29, 2025 Peter and Paul are called the saints of Rome. Partly this is because, both died in the city. You may visit their burial places. The grave of St Peter is under the Basilica bearing his name and St. Paul is buried under the church of St. Paul outside the walls. (Being a Roman citizen Paul was buried outside the walls of Rome, while Peter was killed and buried in the city of Rome.) More about the churches later. Paul and Peter couldn’t be more different. It is said “God draws straight with crooked lines”. Why did God choose these men? A good question. It has been said “God doesn’t call the qualified, God qualifies the called.” Paul was a well-educated, Pharisee. An official of the temple. Paul spent his early career persecuting the followers of Jesus, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Peter was a simple fisherman. He often said the wrong things and at times had flashes of insight, as in today’s gospel. Peter spent time with Jesus and denied knowing Jesus the night before his passion and death. Later Peter was asked 3 times “do you love me” by Jesus. Peter was the apostles to the Jews, while Paul was the apostle to the gentiles (the non-Jews). The Basilica of St. Peter is probably the most famous church in the city of Rome. For years it was thought that the church held the remains of St. Peter. This was confirmed in the 1940s when excavations took place to find more room to bury popes in the crypt of the building. Workers found and ancient cemetery under the church. Today we can take the tour, often given by seminarians from the North American College Seminary. Be sure to reserve the tour before you arrive in Rome. The tours are limited. At the end of the tour, you will come to the Marble box with the bones of St Peter in it. When the bones were tested, they were found to belong to a man from the first century. After Constantine made Catholicism the official faith of the republic, He constructed a simple church over the cemetery. Later it was added to and today it is the large church we know of as St Peter’s Basilica. You may visit the Constantine chapel in the crypt of the church to see where the first church was located. When I was on my sabbatical in Rome in 2008, I invited my family to visit me and I arranged to offer mass in the Clemintine chapel. After mass I noticed that one of the metal doors on the wall was open. We crawled in and went behind the altar to tough the marble box where the bones of St Peter were placed. What a thrill to be so close to the great saint’s remains. To visit the tomb of St Paul you need to travel outside of Rome to the church of St Paul outside the walls, most of the tour buses do not go here, so be carful which tour bus you take. The church is next to a monastery with a nice cloister garden. On the base of the dome are faces of the popes. Years ago, excavations took place, and the bones of St Paul were found in the base of the church. Today we honor the great saints of the early church. It is due to the preaching of St Paul that we the gentiles, non-Jews are here. A few months ago the successor to St. Peter was a man from our nation, Pope Leo the XIV. Let us give thanks for these great man and these great saints.

Corpus Christi - June 17, 2025

By Fr. Chris Welch • June 16, 2025
Corpus Christi June 22, 2025 Today we celebrate the feast of the body and blood of Christ, the eucharist. The second Vatican council reminds us that the eucharist is the source and summit of our faith. All we are, has its source in this celebration. At this celebration we are given the most ancient text about the last supper, the institution of the Eucharist. In Paul’s letter to the community of Corinth he tells us what took place at the night before Jesus suffered and died. In this account Jesus says to the disciple “do this in remembrance of me.” This remembrance is not simply calling to mind something that took place over 2000 years ago. The remembrance is about living the life Jesus has asked us to live. We live his example, Eucharist for us is about who we are and how we live. Each week we come to be fed with the word of God and the gift of the eucharist. This Sharing in the one bread and one cup becomes a moment of transformation. We are changed by this celebration. We go forth to live what we have experienced. In the gospel today, we hear of the feeding of the 5000 with the five loaves and 2 fishes, Barbara Reed askes an important question in this month’s issue of Give us this day, “Did Jesus actually multiply the loaves and fishes. Or was it a miracle in which everyone was prompted to share with others what they had brought? A better question is: How do we replicate the giving of our whole selves, body, mind and spirit, to the One who is the source of all nourishment so that we may be broken up in love for the life of the world?” What we do on the weekend does not end at the doors of the church building. We go forth to live the Eucharist. This is what deacon Myers meant when he wrote his book “Living the real presence”. After we come forward to receive communion we have a moment of silent prayer as we contemplate how this celebration will remain with us for the days to come. Then we stand for the post communion prayer, our home work. The prayer tells us how we live what we have received. This is why we stay after communion. We stay to pray as the body of Christ and to hear what we are do next. Here is the post communion prayer for this mass: Grant, O Lord, we pray that we may delight for all eternity in that share in your divine life, which is foreshadowed in the present age by our reception of your precious body and blood Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Each time we come forward to receive the Eucharist we come as a community. We come as the body of Christ. The communion reception is a sign of unity. We come standing to receive. We are united in voice as we sing the communion hymn. We receive communion. We do not grab it we open our hands to receive. We are all receivers of this gift. All that is given to us if a gift and we receive this gift which is freely given by our God and then we go forward to give this gift all who we meet. The miracle of each mass is the gathering of the body of Christ and what we receive we freely give to others. The mass goes on and on throughout our days for our whole life.