Assumption of Mary 2012

From the earliest centuries of the Church, the Assumption into Heaven of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, has been a subject of veneration and Christian doctrine.

However, there is no direct biblical source for this belief. There is no historical record. We don’t know the time or the place of the end of Mary’s life on earth. Our most faithful source is Apostolic Tradition. There are references to the Apostles’ belief in the Assumption in the writings of the early Fathers of the Church. Finally, after centuries of belief and veneration, just sixty years ago, in 1950, Pope Pius XII stated that Mary’s Assumption is Church dogma. Pope Pius XII wrote that Mary, “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” He merely stated as dogmatic truth what the Church has believed and taught from the beginning.
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First Mass Sacred Heart
I am in love. Deeply, madly, shamelessly in love.

I recognize the symptoms because I have fallen in love before. I have loved a woman. I was married for 37 years to Cynthia and we have six children. We lost Cynthia a few years ago to Cancer.

I’m not the only person here who has experienced love. Many of you know what it feels like to be deeply, hopelessly in love, and you know the joys, the demands and consequences of that love.
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The Mustard Seed

Thursday night I returned from a vacation in Italy. I prayed for you, my parish, at the tomb of St. Peter, and at the tombs of St. Francis and St. Clare in Assisi.

Two years ago, when I first arrived here at St. John’s, I told you that I was in love. Today, as I look forward to a new parish assignment from the Bishop, I want to reflect with you what it has meant to me to be your priest in this parish.
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I Believe in Jesus Christ

Many people are religious and want to believe in God, but don’t know him. We have all been in conversations where someone says something like, “I believe in God.” This is a very common sentiment, even among Christians when speaking to one another. It appears that many people today are religious, but don’t believe in Jesus Christ. One problem is that we Christians become sloppy in our language. The statement, “I believe in God”, doesn’t really say much, and doesn’t really clarify your faith as a believer.

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Easter Changes Things

Easter changes things. Once you experience Easter things can never be the same.

Once you accept the reality of Easter, you realize that those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and follow his commandments, cannot die. Our earthly machines wear out. Our flesh dies, but like Jesus, our brother, death cannot hold us.

Once you come to accept the reality of Easter, human history can never conform to secular history. History is not repeating itself. There is a beginning, a middle and an end of history. The center of history is the earthly life of Jesus, including his passion, death, burial and Resurrection.
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