“Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.” (Luke 13:10) With these opening words, the Gospel for Monday’s daily Mass pressed home the agony and suffering of the previous Saturday. The heinous attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue must serve as a call to all Catholics to remember that our very spiritual roots stem from the Tree of Life—in more layers than I realized when I first sat down to write this letter...

A heartfelt thanks to all of you for the warm welcome Fr. Chris and I received on our first weekend in the parishes. You are so vibrant! We are so delighted to celebrate the love of the Lord with you!...

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, Words cannot express the gratitude that I, Father Bob Vular, your new administrator, and Father Chris Mannerino, your new parochial vicar, feel after the warm welcome we have received at Saint Richard and Saint Catherine. Though we all find ourselves in the midst of transition, your example of hospitality and eagerness is a testament to your faith in Jesus Christ, and of the fine shepherds who have served you through the years. Father Chris and I can only pray we are able to respond in kind! We all have questions. Indeed, we all have fears. But let us also be full of hopes! For, “we know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Christian author C.S. Lewis once wrote that Christianity is not so much about being nice people but in being “new men.” We see this contrast in today’s Gospel. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus first answers in the predictable way. Follow the commandments! “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” Perhaps for some of us it’s easy to answer this way. “I’m a good person!” he seems to reply. Does he truly follow all the commandments he professes to follow? Does he - in word and deed - check off all the boxes of the moral law? Perhaps. Whether he’s being honest or fudging the truth, Jesus accepts his answer at face value with compassion. “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”

It was good to have Fr. Andre this past weekend. He helped us keep our problems in perspective. People in his part of the world struggle to have safe drinking water. Our problems do not seem so big compared to theirs. Yours in Christ, Fr. Vince

As we go about our days, we necessarily label, classify, and prioritize. What’s “in” and what’s “out” on our priority list? Because humans are social beings, we tend to do the same thing with people. We can only invite six people to the dinner party. Our young child wants to invite certain friends to her birthday, but we’re keenly aware of who the parents are, and the prospect of spending several hours with them is enough to give us pause.

The Oscars. The Super Bowl. TV talent shows. Your son’s Little League championship. We live in a culture set on competition. The desire to “be the best” goes beyond hobbies and into politics, the corporate world, and parenting comparisons at the park. This desire is as old as the human race, and it surely arose in Jesus’ day. While Biblical society was significantly less open and upwardly mobile than our own, power was attractive. From what we know, many of Jesus’ disciples had come from lowly backgrounds. Now they followed an increasingly popular rabbi who seemed primed to do something big.

Jesus has many who love His Kingdom in Heaven, but few who bear His Cross (Luke 14:27). He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting. All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for His sake. Many follow Jesus to the Breaking of Bread, but few to the drinking of the Cup of His Passion. Many admire His miracles, but few follow Him in the humiliation of His Cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them. Many praise and bless Him, as long as they are receiving any comfort from Him. But if Jesus withdraw Himself, they fall to complaining and utter dejection.

“Jesus ... went by way of Sidon ... into the district of the Decapolis.” For most of Jesus’ ministry, he remains in Galilee and areas with a predominantly Jewish population. Today, however, we see Jesus traveling through a heavily pagan area. This makes the utterance of faith in today’s Gospel all the more astounding. “He has done all things well.”

The range of emotions that most of us have felt in the past two weeks over what has been covered by the media about our Church is vast: Anger, Shame, Sorrow, Disgust and Dismay to name a few. What can the average person do to make any difference? As someone who has read extensively on the subject, I can say that the answers are not so simple, but the response each individual person can make is very powerful.

Excerpts from my Homily of 8-19-18 If someone asks you, “Why do you stay in the Catholic Church?” after the previous week, you might  look at what the Apostles experienced in the life, betrayal, trial and passion, death and resurrection of Christ, to find an answer.

Congratulations once again to John and Norenne Krzan on their 60th Wedding Anniversary. May you have many happy years ahead!   We wish Deacon Mingwei Li a safe journey back to school and success this semester in Seminary. Deacon Ming will be back here at the parish around the Christmas season.

Hello St. Richard Parish! I will be here in replacement ministry until your new administrator arrives in October. Some have termed what I will be doing as “babysitting a parish”. This is somewhat true; as a good babysitter I have all the important phone numbers to call if there are any problems or misbehaving. The staff is also working on converting the comfort room to be a “time out” room for all ages. (just kidding).

Oremus pro invicem!  I’ve been concluding this column with this simple Latin phrase for the overwhelming majority of my tenure at Saint Richard.  It was a fairly common phrase around the seminary, but out here in the real world, it’s not used as often as it should be.  So, as a refresher: it’s translated as, “Let us pray for one another!”  As I finish my time here at the parish, it seems to be a phrase worth reflecting on.

First, I want to share three important pieces of news, in an attempt to over-communicate things.  I’ll tackle these chronologically.  First, Bishop Zubik will be presiding and preaching at the 5:00 pm Mass on Saturday, August 11.  Friends of the Bishop are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary that day, and the Bishop wants to be here to celebrate with them.  Please give him a warm welcome (and more importantly, pray for John and Noreen).  Second, as of the time of this writing, the plan is to release the new Mass schedules the weekend of August 18/19.  I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to work, but the Diocese has told us that they’re going to try to over-communicate the message.  Remember that the new Mass schedule does not go into effect until Monday, October 15, with the rest of the On Mission changes – so you’ll have two months to figure out a strategy should “your” Mass be changed.  Finally, we have a date for Confirmation – Saturday, October 6, at 10:00 am.  This is relatively soon, so I encourage the parents of our Confirmation candidates to be particularly mindful of any communications coming from the Faith Formation Office.  I have no room to talk on this one, but: don’t procrastinate!  If they need something in terms or paperwork, get it done.  Bishop Zubik will be our celebrant this year.

Bringing in a guest speaker today…Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  This is from his Angelus address of July 15, 2012.  Enjoy!   “Today, 15 July, in the liturgical calendar is the Memorial of St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan, Doctor of the Church and the successor of St. Francis of Assisi at the helm of the Order of Friars Minor. It was he who wrote the first official biography of the “Poverello,” and, at the end of his life, he was also Bishop of the Diocese of Albano.

After last weekend’s surprise announcement, I probably ought to use this space just to make sure we’re all on the same page.  So here’s what’s going on:   · My new assignment begins on August 6, and yes, I was the one who requested that it start earlier than October 15.  Waiting until October would have been a real disservice to the students at those colleges I am being called to minister to, and if I have to leave St. Richard anyway, we might as well do it right.  I’m grateful to the Bishop for making this change.

Today’s Gospel offers a rare framework -- a story in a story. Most of the healing miracles are standalone encounters. One person approaches Jesus, demonstrates faith, and is healed. The evangelist tells the next story. This Gospel, however, is different. Jesus is on his way to heal one person, a young girl of twelve, and is interrupted on his journey by “a woman afflicted with hemorrhages.” She bravely approaches Jesus in a crowd, despite being ritually unclean from her bleeding, and stretches out to touch his cloak. She is healed! Jesus meets her eye, confirms her faith, and continues on to resurrect the young girl.

I don’t want to alarm anyone, but Christmas is only six months away.  That should still allow for plenty of time to buy a nice gift for that special pastor in your life, but you can’t put it off.  It’s a process, after all.  Now that the rummage sale has come and gone, opportunities to pick something really nice might be few and far between.  (As a side note, we’ll have a final report from the rummage sale shortly.  There are still a few outstanding bills and such, but it looks like we did very well once again.)

“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God.” What is a kingdom? Is it the brick and mortar that build up the castle? Is it the expanse of land a king can reasonably defend? Our notions of kingdoms may be romanticized in the modern era, but for the Israelites, a kingdom held deep historical meaning. Thousands of years before the birth of Christ, the Israelites had asked God for a king. After the reigns of David and Solomon, the united kingdom dissolved into factions, and the land was conquered by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and, finally, Romans. For the Israelites, a kingdom was something to build, both structurally and civilly. While this had ended in ruin for their ancestors, many of Jesus’ contemporaries longed for the restoration of an earthly kingdom.