Search
April 24, 2022
Challenges: Fr. Brendan & Fr. Ben
-
A very blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to all of you. In keeping with our tradition, there will be a special Divine Mercy celebration this Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm at St. Vitus Church. The Divine Mercy Holy Hour is scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm and include Adoration, Chaplet, Confessions & Benediction, and Veneration of a Relic of St. Faustina.
I am very grateful to Fr. Brendan for leading this devotion and to Fr. Ben for always being available to help. We are very blessed to have two young, enthusiastic, and very devoted priests to serve our parish family in Fr. Brendan and Fr. Ben. Despite all of our bantering, I feel truly blessed and I am sure many of you do as well, to have both of these young priests as part of our pastoral team. Both of these fine priests are eager to serve at any hour, day or night. They respond to sick calls and to any of our parishioners’ needs. They are truly an inspiration to me, as a pastor for many years, to see these younger men coming along and soon to take the reins of responsibility in a church that is far different than it was when many of us first embraced the faith. The challenges facing the priesthood today are beyond anything I could have
imagined in 1987 when I was ordained.
Shortly after my ordination, however, the world began to change very drastically. The first scandals broke in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the ugly revelations that
began in those days to be revealed up until the present time. But despite the tears, sorrow, embarrassment and shame, these young men continued to answer the call to the priesthood. Because they believed in Jesus Christ and His priesthood! They continued to be tenacious in faith and daring in spirit. They were bold enough to persevere in giving themselves completely to Christ even in the shadow of those who had failed. My admiration for these men of God is only more enhanced by the privilege of getting to know them personally.
It is an undeserved and a truly humbling honor of any human being to be chosen as an instrument of Jesus Christ’s mercy to his people. The priesthood of Jesus Christ is a miraculous gift to humanity. The sacrament of the priesthood is another incarnation miracle. The priest gives his human flesh over to the work of the divine in humble service. Through his words and actions, the sacraments are celebrated; souls are healed and saved. To be a conduit of God’s grace is not a privilege or honor that any human being can take upon themselves. It is only by the call and grace of God. Unfortunately, as we know, all humans are frail and inclined to fall.
The corruption of the best is the worst. This is a phrase frequently used by many prominent authors. We have all suffered from the fall of the best. Today on this Mercy Sunday let us give thanks to God for these priests in our midst who are a shining example, an encouragement to all of us of the grace of God that is bearing much fruit in our midst! Please join me in thanking them for their service.
I also wish to thank our entire pastoral team, including our deacons, Deacon John and Deacon Dan, and our religious women, Sr. Annie and Sr. Veronica for their loving and faithful service to our parish family.
Next weekend, we begin celebrating the Feast Days of all seven of our churches during the year. The first one is the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker which we will celebrate at 4:00 pm on Saturday, April 30th at St. Joseph the Worker Church.
God love you,
