Consider This… Weekly Thoughts from Our Pastor and Parochial Vicars

This will be my last column as your Pastor. I’ve struggled with what to write and I keep coming back to what it means to be a Pastor. On October 31, 2020, I was assigned as Administrator to St. Mary’s. It wasn’t until March of 2021 that I was officially made Pastor of...

By now I am sure you have heard the announcement that I will be leaving      St. Mary’s as your Pastor to become the full time Vicar for the Renewal. This was not a position that I asked for, but Bishop Mike recognizes that for the  Renewal to receive the attention it...

Each week at the conclusion of the prayers of the faithful we have been praying our Prayer for Renewal. I hope that the words of this prayer have been sinking in since we began this a year ago. There is a line in that prayer that I believe needs to be a priority for...

When was the last time that believing in Jesus changed your behavior? Today as Church we celebrate the Epiphany, in which Jesus is reveled to the nations. In other words, Christ is for all people, not just the chosen people. The wisemen left their country to find...

We herald the fact that God is no distant lord, dwelling in isolation above the heavens, but love incarnate, born like us of a mother, in order to be a brother to each of us, to be close to us: the God of closeness.  God-with-us, Emmanuel, loves us despite our...

Merry Christmas! Today we celebrate a Savior being born for all of us. No matter what brought you to church, remember that the baby Jesus was born to save us from our sins. What we celebrate today reminds us that God will do anything for us to have hope, and to be...

The Roman Church has been singing the "O" Antiphons since at least the eighth century. They are the antiphons that accompany the Magnificat canticle of Evening Prayer from December 17-23. They are a magnificent theology that uses ancient biblical imagery drawn from...

One of the great struggles of our western culture is that we are always moving onto the next thing. We rarely appreciate the moment we are in, but are always concerned about ‘what’s next’? As we celebrate Gaudete Sunday, we are to be a people who celebrate this...

It’s the time of year in which we make our lists and we check them twice.  Personally, I live off of To-Do Lists and Post-It Notes.  If it doesn’t make it onto my electronic calendar or my weekly     To-Do List, well, good luck!  So, for ourselves, when we look at our...

As you can clearly see on the cover of the bulletin, there is a lot going on at St. Mary’s that can make this season of Advent the season of preparation it is meant to be. It can be tempting in our modern culture to jump directly into Christmas. That is why the season...

It is good that Thanksgiving is upon us.  We are given the opportunity in this holiday to be intentional about our appreciating so that we can respond accordingly to what is indeed important and allow our life to revolve around these priorities.  Amid our fast-paced...

Two years ago, Fr. Luke and I arrived at St. Mary’s to a parish that was struggling in many ways. Deacon Rick had been doing an outstanding job as administrator of St. Mary’s, but there were serious trust and financial struggles with the parish. Within the first few...