Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today in the Gospel Jesus takes on one of the most prevalent misconceptions of His time, and perhaps of ours as well, that good things happen to good people and bad things to bad people. That there is a karmic balance, and when tragedy strikes, perhaps there is some kind of divine re ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Every Second Sunday of Lent we hear the Gospel story of the Transfiguration of the Lord. This year in our lectionary cycle, we hear Luke’s account. Jesus, accompanied by three of His disciples goes up to the top of Mount Tabor to pray. The disciples, exhausted by the climb, fall asle ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
This year we have chosen for our Lenten theme “Walking Back Home.” The imagery of pilgrims walking has been recurrent in my mind, and I have been considering the ways in which life in general, and the season of Lent in particular, mirrors the experience of a walking pilgrimage. F ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
I hope and pray that you and your loved ones are safe and sound, and that the New Year has started well for you.
It’s that time of year when we launch our Annual Ministries Appeal (AMA), our sole fundraiser for the needs of our parish. For successive years now, your response ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In the Gospel today Jesus lays out crucial tenants of what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Christ. The instruction to love one’s enemies and bless those who curse you would have been completely foreign to the people of Jesus’ time, and remains one of the greatest challe ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today’s Gospel is a familiar one, the Beatitudes, but in Luke’s Gospel we have a slight change in venue from Matthew’s. Jesus is preaching down on the plain rather than up on the mount. The message, however, remains the same. It is a message of comfort and hope for the suffering, ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
This Sunday we are fortunate to have our beloved Bishop, Danny Garcia, with us to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation for thirteen young members of our community. At their Baptism, their parents chose for them to embark on a journey of faith in our Catholic Church. They have rece ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Last week we left Jesus in the synagogue in His native Nazareth, having just revealed to His friends and neighbors that He is the Messiah, the Son of God and the fulfillment of the Scriptures. By any measure, this is a bombshell. At first the reception of Jesus’ announcement seems ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
During the Advent season this past year I talked about the unique nature of the Gospel of Luke. Luke was by training and profession a physician, a scientist who was meticulous in detail and scrupulous in research. Luke was not an eyewitness of the events about which he writes, but to ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
It is one of the great joys of being the pastor at our beautiful Mission that I have the opportunity to officiate at many weddings. Today’s Gospel is a frequent choice for the wedding liturgy, for obvious reasons, and thus one that I could easily recite by heart. While it offers up ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today we hear the Evangelist Luke’s account of the moment when Jesus comes to the River Jordan and is baptized by His cousin, John. I often ask in my homily at Baptisms a question that is not answered completely by the Scripture, why did Jesus choose to be baptized?
For us, ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
In today’s Gospel we meet more members of the familiar cast of characters in the Christmas story, the Magi. Often in Sacred Scripture the people we encounter are examples of who our loving God is encouraging us to be. In studying their interaction with God, we may discover ways in whic ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
The moment has finally arrived. After an Advent of preparation and anticipation, we welcome our Savior once again into the world this Christmas. However, many Christmases you have already experienced, this is a fresh opportunity to embrace the wonder, joy and mystery of the Incarnati ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
The season of Advent is drawing to a close, are you ready? If you are like me, the answer is probably not! Do not worry, there is still plenty of time for us procrastinators to get our holiday shopping done and everything wrapped and under the tree, or so I keep telling myself. Even ...
Dear Friend of Carmel Mission,
Today we celebrate Gaudete Sunday, and we are encouraged to be joyful, to “rejoice in the Lord always”, as St. Paul says in the letter to the Philippians. (Philippians 4:4). In the first reading the prophet Zephaniah calls us to rejoice because not only is the Lord is our midst ...
