Happy Sunday!

It’s been awhile since I’ve had an opportunity to write a letter for the bulletin! It’s been great being back after my retreat and Thanksgiving. Thank you so much to everyone who kept me in your prayers. This Sunday, though it is December 8th, we will celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent. Monday, December 9th, will be the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and it IS a Holy Day of Obligation. We will have four Masses: 6:30am at OLG, 8:15am at SFdA, 12:15pm at SFdA, and 5:30pm at SFdA.

When I was a young priest, about one year after ordination, I was called to the hospital to anoint a dying mother of three young children. She had a painful, terminal cancer. After celebrating Last Rites with her, I said, “Don’t be afraid.” She looked me square in the eye from her hospital bed and said, “Oh Father, I am in a lot of pain, but I am not afraid. Something wonderful is about to happen.” A few days later she died.

When I was a young boy in Burlington, Vermont, my dad had a good friend named Phil who owned a sporting goods store. I loved sports, so meandering the treasure-filled aisles was an unmitigated joy. One afternoon, we were shopping for a baseball glove. Dad said to me, “Hey Johnny, see that man who just walked into the store? That’s Phil.” I remember being fascinated and a little terrified. I recall thinking, “That man right there is in charge of everything in this store!”

I recently moved into a new neighborhood. On my first evening I went grocery shopping and could not find my usual favorite Greek yogurt. Strangely, my heart started to race. All the losses of my previous life hit me. So many of my old friends, habits, comforts, and predictable experiences had fallen away. There I stood, a grown man, crying like a little boy whose world was falling apart in the dairy aisle.

Once at an evening Mass as a poor college student, the collection basket was fast approaching, and I only had a ten-dollar bill. I was planning on using that to buy my favorite Chipotle burrito that night for dinner. Should I keep the money? Who would know if I did? If I gave it away, what would I eat? Would I be okay? I kissed my future burrito goodbye, dropped the money in the basket, and winced. But strangely, the rest of the Mass I felt more engaged than usual. I had skin in the game. I left the Mass excited to see how God would take care of me. And he did, in amazing ways.

Happy Sunday,

It’s good to be back in the U.S. after our parish pilgrimage. It was a beautiful opportunity to visit Holy Sites around Italy. I offered Mass regularly for our whole parish community in Rome, Assisi, and San Giovanni Rotundo (where Padre Pío lived). While it’s good to be back, unfortunately, I will be on the move quite a bit in November.

Leprosy and blindness and deafness — oh, my. The disabilities cured by Jesus in his public ministry really are quite something, aren’t they? Vividly symbolic and rich food for reflection. It just wouldn’t be the same if Jesus had cured eczema or athlete’s foot or compulsive nail-biting.

Blind Bartimaeus, sitting by the side of the road, in particular captures my imagination. Because I have a confession to make, sometimes, I like to sit in the darkness, even though I know it isn’t very good for me.

I thought it often in my first year as a mother, when I was every day discovering what this new life of parenthood looked and felt like: doing anything with kids is a hundred times harder than doing it without kids. But it’s a thousand times better. From eating dinner to going to Mass to taking a walk around the block — every single outing, even the simplest ones, had an extra level of logistical complexity.

Happy Sunday!

This year we are excited to host a “Lessons and Carols” concert during Advent to benefit the restoration of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel downtown. The concert will be on Friday, December 13. Last year it was a beautiful concert put on by the Sedona Academy of Chamber Singers. They generously volunteered their time to put on this Advent concert. “Lessons and Carols” is a Lenten tradition that alternates between hymns and readings from Scripture that culminate in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Please mark your calendar for this year’s event!

Happy Sunday!

This week I leave for my vacation and the parish pilgrimage. While I am looking forward to the Holy sites we will visit, I’m sad to miss such a great part of the autumn. Everyone will be in my prayers in a special way along the pilgrimage and especially in Assisi, the home of our patron, St. Francis. I am looking forward to returning to these holy places and offering Mass at a few of them.