News - August 2014 RSS Feed

As a priest I have frequently seen the beauty and effectiveness of the sacrament of reconciliation, or, if you prefer, confession. So convinced am I of its efficacy, indeed its necessity for saving souls that I frequently speak about it as a regular topic of catechesis when I travel throughout the diocese.

Here is the homily of Bishop Robert F. Vasa for today’s Mass: St. Bernard was a great preacher and teacher on the love of God, and particularly the love of God in our favor. And perhaps if he was living today he would be a great advocate and proponent of that message of mercy so frequently proclaimed by Pope Francis and made doctrinal by Pope John Paul II and initiated by St. Faustina.

Our reading and response are certainly not the cheeriest messages in the world. And it’s complimented by St. John Eudes, whose feast day we celebrate today who, writing to his confreres, would say, “Apart from the Lord, there is only death and destruction.” Yet another cheery note.

In today’s first reading, “Ezekiel does something unusual … when his wife dies. He does not go into the usual” ways of mourning that people would have expected from him. He did not even weep.

This week’s liturgical observance of the memorial of St. John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests, on August 4 offered the opportunity to once again encourage prayer and even sacrifice for our clergy.