Dear Father Shea,

Before you take over shepherding the flock that is in the Northwest Valley, I wanted to share with you who your new flock is. I’m sure as it was with me, they will work their way into your heart very quickly.

The first thing to know is that there are “year-rounders”, who thrive in any kind of weather and “fair-weather friends”, called such because they thrive here in the nice weather and smartly evacuate when the temperature hits triple digits.

Dear Friends,

Every October we celebrate World Mission Sunday, which helps us remember that we are a missionary Church in keeping with the command of Jesus before his Ascension: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Every now and then it is good to pause and ask what fruit has our support of the missions produced?

Dear Friends,

The Shroud of Turin is still, well shrouded in mystery. The Shroud is thought by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus. I say, “thought” because no one has ever been able to empirically prove that it is and no one has been able to prove that it isn’t. The Shroud of Turin is the most studied and investigated artifact on the planet. And despite the most sophisticated and highly technical scientific analysis it still refuses to yield its secrets.

Dear Friends,

“The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus” Matthew 27:20

Pilate offers the crowd a choice. The Gospel writers keep the Hebrew name Barabbas instead of the Greek translation: Barabbas meaning in Hebrew son of God. So the choice Pilate offers: which son of God do you want? The revolutionary, the zealot or this one the Nazarene whom you call king of the Jews…We want Barabbas.

Dear Friends,

Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving these three legs hold up our Lenten disciplines and support and encourage our spiritual growth. Prayer is one of those non-negotiables that has to be part of every disciple’s life. Just as with Fasting we don’t need a diet plan but need some discipline (that’s what makes us a “disciple”) with prayer we need no workshop or seminar just a commitment to do it!

Dear Friends,

Let’s put on our Moral Thinking caps to consider the issue of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

The issue has popped up again with a recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court. The Court ruled that since Alabama passed a Constitutional Amendment that enshrined that human life begins at conception, the embryos created through IVF are human life and therefore require the protections afforded to human life. This includes the embryos that are created via IVF and are frozen.

Dear Friends,

My first assignment as a priest was at an Italian speaking Parish in West Philadelphia. I told the Cardinal who assigned me there that I was being stereotyped. He didn’t find that amusing. I remember him telling me that his mother was an Italian immigrant and she appreciated being able to go to confession in her native tongue. Va bene, Your Eminence. And so it went.

Dear Friends,

Our old friend norma loquendi says that the term “toxic asset” is an oxymoron that you can bank on! It is amazing at what speed we distort the meaning of words or just outright change the definition of a word to make it seem like it is something it is not. George Orwell would be proud. One of my favorite obfuscations is “pre-embryo.”

Dear Friends,

We were treated to another Special Counsel’s Report, telling us another President did some wrong things but because he is a “sympathetic, elderly man with a poor memory”, the Special Counsel didn’t think a Jury would convict him. That’s a unique Senior Adult Get Out of Jail Free Card! Think of it guys: if you forget to take out the trash, you can tell your wife, “Sorry honey, I am an elderly man with a poor memory”. Or if you get pulled over by the police for having a lapsed car registration, or forget your Wedding Anniversary or your kids’ birthdays, just pull out that card!

Dear Friends,

Happy Lunar New Year! I must admit I never gave much thought to the Lunar or Chinese New Year except to participate in some of the celebrations of Asian parishioners. But then in December of 2019, a very well educated Chinese- American lady, who works as a scientific researcher said that 2020 was going to be a very, very, bad year. The reason she gave was that 2020 was the Year of the Iron or Metal Rat according to the Chinese zodiac. In the Chinese zodiac there are several zodiac cycles that converge each year and the convergence for 2020 was the worst possible. That indicated the year would be a difficult one, filled with great challenges, natural disasters, economic chaos, diseases, sickness, and death. My first thoughts were that she was being overly dramatic and superstitious. Then came March of 2020…

Dear Friends,

What’s in store for ’24?

Well, first on the list is some updated signage on the campus to help visitors find their way around. Included in that is a new digital sign on the 128th Ave. side of the campus. The sign, as many of you have asked, will be able to display Mass times and other events at the Parish. We are one of the only Churches without a digital sign, not that I am “keeping up with the Jones” but you would be amazed at how many phone calls we get for information on Mass times, events, and other happenings at the Parish.