3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C

Okay, so I need to address the pink elephant in the room — you all are thinking Fr. Chris and I are wearing pink vestments today!  They are not pink, but technically, liturgically speaking, they are Rose.  There is a church joke out there that will forever help you honor this subtle, but important distinction: these vestments are rose-colored because Jesus “rose” from the dead, he did not “pink” from the dead!


But seriously, in the Church, the liturgical colors are important; they have meaning.  Today, the third Sunday of Advent, is known as Gaudete Sunday.  Gaudete means “Rejoice” in Latin.  We rejoice because of the imminent coming of our Lord, who literally births into our world like a flower blooming, bursting forth amidst a desert of thorns…like a rose!  The rose color reminds us of this truth and that we should rejoice at the Lord’s bursting forth into our lives amidst the desert of thorns we perceive and experience in our own lives — thorns that sometimes scratch us, wound us, hurt us. Yet that beautiful, fragrant bloom comes amidst those thorns, amidst our hurt — just as our God does.


The liturgical color scheme of Advent (and Lent as well) reminds us of this truth.  The purple color — technically violet — is a penitential color.  I always tell the servers, “Purple ribbon for Penitential Act!”  Advent, like Lent, is a penitential season.  We reflect on our fallen nature, our wounded state during this season, not in an unhealthy, perseverative “I am unworthy” way, but rather in a contemplative way that leads us to awareness of how we have hurt others and ourselves and caused separation and division — a way of spiritual growth that leads us in humility to reconciliation with God and one another, drawing us into a communion of love with God and one another.


So the Church chooses the somber violet color to remind and invite us into a somber reflection of our fallen humanity, of our wounded and wounding nature, not to lead us there and leave us there, but in point of fact to lead us out of there through our salvation and redemption in Christ.  Something to be hopeful for, something to look forward to, something to anticipate — to anticipate, as we do in this season of Advent, the coming of Christ our Lord!  You see, violet is also a color of royalty; so the violet of Advent anticipates the coming of Christ our King!


This Rose color we choose today is a reminder of Christ's imminent arrival, his about-to-burst-forth, blooming into our lives.  Fr. Hyacinth Cordell, a Dominican priest, has described the rose color as “violet approaching white.” The pure white is the light of Christ coming into the world.  As Fr. Cordell writes, the Rose color anticipates the pure white of the Birth and Resurrection of Christ.  A birth and resurrection we are invited to participate in over and over again, with every Baptism, with every Reconciliation, with every Eucharist, with every act of love.  Indeed, what’s not to be joyful about?  And the Rose color of the Advent candle, the Rose color of these vestments, proclaim that Joy!


But I know; I get it.  Most of us are not capital J-O-Y-Joyful!  In fact, we often struggle to be lower-case j-o-y-joyful amidst the thorny thickets of daily life that reach out and grab us, hook us, wounding us and distracting us — obfuscating our path and experience of joy.  This is real.  How do we find joy in the midst of this reality?  First, maintain our faith and hope in Christ the Light, despite all that is going on around us, recalling that he illuminates the darkness and conquers all of the trials of this life.  Secondly, enter into and become the Light of Christ.  Bear the Light of Christ to each other.  Reach out to one another, serve one another; give to one another and do not expect anything in return.  In bearing the light of Christ to one another, we will find the Joy of Christ blossoming in our lives.  Sometimes the best therapy is to go help someone else.  The Gospel passage heard today reminds us of this:


Share your cloak and food with the person who has none…

Stop collecting more than what is prescribed…

Do not practice extortion or falsely accuse anyone…

Be satisfied with your wages…



Sisters and brothers, remember the simple act of reaching out to someone you know or a stranger with a simple work or deed of kindness can have the profound effect of imparting the Light of Christ, and joy, abiding joy to both them and us, in whatever darkness we may be experiencing. Never underestimate that.


A story that Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata told reminds of this truth.  She writes:


I will never forget the first time I came to Bourke [Australia] and visited with the sisters.  We went to the outskirts of Bourke.  There was a big reserv[ation] where all of the Aborigines were living in those little small shacks made of tin and old cardboard ... I entered one of those [little shacks] but it was only one room, and inside the room everything .... I told the man living there, “Please let me make your bed, to wash your clothes, to clean your room.”  And he kept saying “I’m alright, I’m alright.”  And I said to him, “But you will be more alright if you allow me to do it.”  [Finally] he allowed me…


After I cleaned the room I found in the corner of the room a big lamp full of dirt and I said, “Don’t you light this lamp, such a beautiful lamp[?].  Don’t you light it?”  He replied, “For whom?  Months and months nobody has ever come to me.  For whom will I light it?”  So I said, “Won’t you light it if the Sisters come to you?”  And he said “Yes.”  So the sisters started going to him for only about 5 to 10 minutes a day, but they started lighting that lamp.  After some time he got in the habit of lighting [the lamp].  Slowly, slowly, slowly the Sisters stopped going to him.  I forgot completely about that, and after two years he sent word — “Tell Mother, my friend, the light she lit in my life is still burning.”


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.

Most Holy Trinity, Year C

By Deacon Paul Cerosaletti • June 15, 2025
There is a widely-held truth of Christianity that is expressed in the statement, “There is no such thing as being a Christian in isolation.” It has also been expressed as, “There is no such thing as being a solitary Christian.” The fundamental reason that there is no such thing as being a solitary Christian or being Christian in isolation is that God, the God of our Christian faith, is a God of relationship — a God in relationship! That relationship is what we celebrate today in the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit — one God, three persons — each with unique roles in relationship to one another: God the Creator, God the Redeemer, God the Sanctifier. If, therefore, the God we believe in — the God we profess, the God that we worship and pray to, the God we trust in — is fundamentally a God of and in relationship, it follows that we, who are created in the image and likeness of that God of and in relationship, cannot express what we believe , cannot BE what we profess by being what our God is not: Christians in isolation; solitary Christians. We say that God is Love, and so God is. We sometimes identify the Persons of our Triune God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — as the Lover, the Beloved, and the Love between them . There is a mutual indwelling of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, and mutual giving and receiving in which each shares and receives all that they are with each other. This expression of love of the Holy Trinity is communion . And it is the highest aim of the Love of God to draw us into the life of love of the Holy Trinity that is that communion. The Church teaches that “the dignity of [humanity] rests above all [emphasis added] on the fact that [we] are called to communion with God” (Catechism #27). That is why today is of such high importance among our days of worship that we deem it a solemnity — The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Above all , we are called to communion with God. In the first reading we hear that the Wisdom of God, the Holy Spirit, “was poured forth before the earth...playing on the surface of God’s earth” and the Spirit of God says, “ and I found delight in the human race." Our responsorial psalm, Psalm 8, reminds us that we are made “little less than the angels, and crowned with glory and honor.” These verses signal that we are created for communion with our creator. In the second reading St. Paul tells us that “ the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” That sounds like communion, doesn’t it? Indeed, the very incarnation of Christ is the manifestation of our God coming out to us to draw us into the life of the Trinity! Therefore, if we are called into communion with God, then we, as the Body of Christ, are called into communion with each other . The very indwelling-dance of love of the Holy Trinity that we are invited and drawn into, invites — and also urges — that we go out and draw others into this dance of love. That's what the communion of our God does. That's what the love of our God is. The love of God poured into our hearts, as communion with the Holy Trinity, is to be poured forth from our hearts into this world in imitation of our Triune God: in little acts of love as simple as reaching out to make a connection to someone to let them know you were thinking about them, and greater acts of love through service that gather us, feed us, caring for each other in mind, body, and spirit; acts of mercy. For we are not Christians in isolation. And we cannot be Christians in isolation.