A message from Father Pete

Matthew 1:16-25; Luke 2:41-52 At the birth of a newborn baby there is joy, apprehension, dreams, and a desire to make time stand still. It is a period of acknowledging the awesome continuation of humanity that has culminated in this love act of superior proportions. It is two people holding their own creation, this precious person who is unlike any other. They have generated a life, but it's a gift-life that represents their love, their commitment, their completion of all that is true and beautiful in the world. Every baby is born to live. The tremendous dedication of our medical community is spent accomplishing this. It’s your child of love who has changed your life and will grow into touching the lives of many others in many different and distinct ways. Your baby was born to live. Only one baby was born differently: Jesus. Jesus was born to die, specifically to free every person from the stains, the results of original sin. From The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Editio...

Micah 5:1-4; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45 We are within days of celebrating Christmas. We remember Christmases past and look forward to the Christmas present. We have pushed ourselves to get everything completed, and we are ready. What is our overall disposition? Many of us come with worries and anxiety: What new variants of COVID-19 will appear? Will our elderly sick be able to live more years? Will there ever be an end to the societal problems in the world: migrants fleeing to find a welcoming, peaceful country to raise their children … people living in horrible conditions because of wars and poverty … exploitation of children being sold for pleasure … killings … beatings ... starvation … racial and cultural inequities and abuse … and far too many living without hope. Yet hope is the meaning of the season. Hope is the direction of the readings. Our God came to the world to take on human flesh. This always was His plan. And God’s plan includes every person born into our world: the ac...

Zephaniah 3:14-18; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18 Nothing gets one more worked up than the word “test.” It brings us back to our “school mentality:” When is the test? What’s going to be on it? Is it going to be an open-book test? Does this count toward the final? Will there be a retest for those who are not prepared? Can you … please … tell us what is important to study? You haven’t given us enough warning that you are going to test us! We have so much work to do in other subjects … and ... other teachers are having tests too! It’s just not fair! Sound familiar? After ordination, I taught for 23 years in Catholic high schools. These are some of the questions the word “test” engendered. In Luke’s Gospel today, three different groups are anxious and worried. John has been preaching to one group about the coming of the Messiah. He has just chastised them before today’s reading: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruits as evidence of your re...

Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6 We are reading this blog because we are interested in the Lord and how He is leading us closer to Himself and the Church. I’m sure you “blog-readers” are continuing your search journey by reading articles and books that you’ve heard about or recommended to you, telling of God’s concern and continued care for you and your loved ones. Put simply, the bottom line is that you and I are interested in the Lord … we like to talk about the Lord … we have gratitude for the love the Lord is constantly sharing with us. Now, since we have all this enthusiasm, how often do we share that gratitude with the people we are leading to the Lord through our example, our care, our sharing of God’s love? Yet that is exactly what we are doing. You might say, “I really don’t do much … I’m not that well versed in the Church’s teaching … I don’t have a background or have time to spend in Scripture study or Theology … I’m just me, doing what I can.” But you are ...