News - April 2019 RSS Feed

A new St. John Neumann museum is opening on the campus of the Redemptorist saint’s shrine in Philadelphia with a five-day celebration. The festivities kick off Monday, April 29, with a formal ribbon-cutting by Archbishop Charles Chaput.

Father Carlyle Blake, C.Ss.R., died on Holy Thursday, April 18, 2019, at age 83. A native of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, he was the son of the late Arthur and Viola (née Calistro) Blake. He was professed on August 2, 1957, and ordained to the priesthood on June 17, 1962.

Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. . . . but their story seemed like nonsense, and they did not believe them. —Luke 24:9, 11 You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death.

Isaiah 52:13–53:12; Psalm 31; Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9; John 18:1–19:42 Pope St. John Paul II once described God’s mercy as “love more powerful than betrayal” and “grace stronger than sin.” The passion of Jesus Christ is precisely a story of God’s powerful love and grace.

Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; Psalm 116; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15 Everything was set in place. Jesus had designated the meeting place, the Upper Room, to have the Last Supper with his disciples. He was well aware that the inevitable darkness of this Holy Thursday night would bring betrayal, denial, and the scattering of the disciples.

Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 69; Matthew 26:14-25 There is no more sacred week than Holy Week. It is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on four points of our precious faith: 1. The tremendous love God showed us by dying on a cross: “There is no greater love than this, than to give one’s life for another” (John 15:13).

Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 71; John 13:21-33, 36-38 The suffering servant in Isaiah 49 is a hidden servant. He is hidden in the womb when he receives his call, then hidden in the shadow of God’s arm, and finally hidden like an arrow in its quiver.

Mary Magdalene is traditionally depicted with a vessel of ointment, in reference to the anointing of Jesus. Isaiah 42:1-7; Psalm 27; John 12:1-11 As we enter into the solemnity of Holy Week, our Gospel brings us to the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14–23:56 Is there a more heartbreaking verse in the Bible than this? “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Psalm 22:2). Jesus is saying to his Father from the cross, “Are you here with me?

Ezekiel 37:21-28; Jeremiah 31:10-13; John 11:45-56 Meditating on the passion of Christ, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote that although all sinners were the authors of Christ’s passion, “the cross is the overcoming of sin through God’s more powerful love.

Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 18; John 10:31-42 Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel, “The Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10:38). This is the same Jesus who tells us from the cross that through his act of suffering and death he has forgiven our sins and purified us of all that would get in the way of our new life.

Genesis 17:3-9; Psalm 105; John 8:51-59 As priests we witness the making of a covenant each time we celebrate a wedding. The bride and groom stand before God and give themselves to each other in a covenant.

Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95; Daniel 3:52-56; John 8:31-42 Did you ever stop to think about the good you can do by example? I heard a story recently that gives an example for reflection. A group of businessmen had just finished a meeting and were scheduled to catch a flight to another city for another important meeting.

Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 102; John 8:21-30 A symbol of sin becomes a sign of God’s desire to save. Today’s first reading from Numbers reminds us how easily the people’s hearts became hardened. Despite witnessing so many signs of God’s election performed through Moses—leading Israel out of slavery, then bringing them to Mount Sinai and into God’s offer of a covenantal relationship—Israel became Generation Kvetch: complain, complain, complain.

Susanna and the elders Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62; Psalm 23; John 8:12-20 In the first reading, Daniel, like a shrewd detective, brought the truth to light and condemnation to those who lied.

The steeple of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, S.C., by Spencer Means from New York City, USA – CC BY-SA 2.0 , Link Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11 In June 2015 a young white supremacist named Dylann Roof viciously attacked African-American worshippers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Nine were murdered and many others seriously wounded.

The prophet Jeremiah Jeremiah 11:18-20; Psalm 7; John 7:40-53 We live today in a world of us and them . We’re divided into red states and blue states, friends and enemies. Jeremiah had enemies, and he wanted vengeance.

St. Vincent Ferrer Wisdom 2:1, 12-22; Psalm 34; John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 In his Gospel, John emphasizes the reality that Jesus handed over his life for us. As Jesus says, “The Father loves me for this: that I lay down my life to take it up again.

“God speed ye plow and send us corn enough” Exodus 32:7-14; Psalm 106; John 5:31-47 “The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people’” (Exodus 32:9). The term stiff-necked was entirely familiar to the people, for whom the ox was the most common domestic animal, frequently used for plowing.

Isaiah 49:8-15; Psalm 145; John 5:17-30 Jesus is criticized by the Jews for having healed a paralytic on a Saturday. The Jews taught that on the Sabbath day one could not work because God himself had rested on the seventh day of creation (Exodus 20:8-11).