This Sunday is Passion Sunday, popularly known as Palm Sunday. At Mass we participate in the telling of Jesus’ passion and death. That was the worst thing that has ever happened, yet it led to the greatest thing that has every happened, at least for humanity: the Resurrection of Jesus and our potential resurrection as well. Here I include many facts from the Shroud of Turin in Italy, the burial cloth of Jesus.

We hear in this Sunday’s Gospel the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. But what if we were to rise from the dead only to continue to suffer for eternity? It wouldn’t be worth it. What if we were to rise from the dead free of what causes suffering? What if we could be free of what causes suffering in this life? What if we could be free of sin? That would be worth it.

In a follow up to last week’s pastor’s column on the virtues, I thought I would write one on the vices. Many of you have seen the “How to go the Confession” guide that Holy Redeemer has been using for years; now at St. Thomas and Star of the Sea. In it, there is an excellent examination of conscience. The list of sins in it has helped thousands of penitents to get a better grasp of what acts would constitute serious sin, when coupled with knowledge of the seriousness at the time it was committed, and freedom on the part of the penitent at the time it was committed.

Two Sundays ago, I wrote a pastor’s column called “Do Something Special for God this Lent.” In the top five of twenty-four recommendations was going to Confession at least once during Lent.

We are fortunate at Columbia River Catholic to have multiple times and locations for the sacrament of Confession.

Last Sunday two different parishioners in two different communities asked me whether or not they needed to keep their Lenten resolution on Sundays or if those were days off. Basically, they wanted to know if their dietary resolutions needed to be upheld on Sundays during Lent or if they didn’t. What about those Lenten resolutions that aren’t dietary? My reply is that our Lenten resolutions are not mandatory, but gifts given to God.

Lent is an extended penitential season when Catholic Christians try to become better Catholic Christians. Specifically, we try to make some sort of special sacrifice for God’s glory, the salvation of souls, and atone for our sins and the sins of the whole world. Some people do big things for Lent and some people just one small thing, but we should all do something for Jesus–who did everything for us. 

In these turbulent times — marked by conflict abroad, fragmentation at home, and profound questions about our shared moral life — the Church once again lifts high the Gospel as the light by which we must walk. The Second Vatican Council, Catholic Social Teaching, and the Jan. 9, 2026, address of Pope Leo XIV to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, illuminate our path with clarity and a renewed urgency. In his address, the Holy Father framed the challenges of our age through the lens of St. Augustine’s “City of God,” offering a deeply Christian vision of peace, justice, and right order.

Beginning this weekend, Fr. Emmerich Vogt (Dominican) will begin a pre-Lenten mission at Holy Redeemer by preaching at all the Masses. The mission will end on Thursday, February 12. I hope you can make at least some of the mission, if not all of it.

From Archbishop Paul Etienne

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Like many of you, I take time at the start of the new year to reflect on the previous year and pray about priorities for the future — not just for myself as your archbishop, but for the archdiocese as well. I take my ministry as your archbishop very seriously. While it can be challenging at times, I am grateful and honored to serve God and you in this way.

We are blessed to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ in the one and only Church He established with St. Peter and the Apostles. That blessing isn’t deserved; it has been freely given to us by others. We, in turn, must freely pass on what has been given to us. All Catholic parents are responsible for their children’s religious upbringing. This is done in many ways.

“Then Peter said in reply, ‘Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on the twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.” Mt 19:27-29

Epiphany is a Greek word that means revelation or manifesta- tion. Two Sundays after Christmas we celebrate the manifesta- tion of the infant Jesus to the three non-Jewish Kings/Magi/ Wisemen. Although we celebrated it last Sunday, January 4, I want to address it a little further here. In celebrating Epiphany, we are acknowledging the reality that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, came for all of us, not just the Jews.

 “Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

The Sunday before Christmas I ran a pastor’s column about the Holy Family settling into Bethlehem and the cave in which baby Jesus was born. Today I write about Our Lord’s birth in the cave and the shepherds who saw the angels and visited Our Lord.

 Two thousand years ago in the first Advent, the week before Jesus’ birth, the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph would have been traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem. What was it like reaching Bethlehem and settling into the cave? Fortunately, in the visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich we have an idea.  Blessed Anne was the greatest visionary on the Life of Jesus the Church has ever known. She passed away in 1823. You can find all of her visions from Angelico Press, much of them are free online as well. In this pastor’s column I share some of what she saw concerning the Holy Family’s travels from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

 All too often we reject, out of hand, things of a supernatural nature.  To be sure, we need to discern things that are not natural. God normally operates within the laws of nature, laws he created, however he is not limited by them. God does occasionally perform miracles that nature or science cannot explain. Years ago, I heard about the Holy House of Loreto in Italy. It is supposedly the house that the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in while they lived in Nazareth. Somehow, it was miraculously transported to Italy in the 13^th century (1200’s). In the spirit of Advent and the Holy Family’s journey to Bethlehem, I submit a fascinating article on how the little house where they lived in Nazareth made its way to Italy. Enjoy.

 This Monday, December 8th, we mark The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of only three Marian Feast days that are so special that we observe them as holy days of obligation. To get some idea of how important the Blessed Virgin Mary is to God and thus to the Church and us, look at the list below of Marian Feast days throughout the liturgical year. 

Over the past couple of weekends all three communities in our parish family, Columbia River Catholic, have had townhall gatherings exploring the same questions of “who are we?” I wasn’t at any of them, yet the feedback I got was that those seven town hall gatherings varied in tone and answers from a love fest to court room. The compiled results of those seven gatherings and this stage of our journey will be published in a future bulletin and sent to the Archdiocese of Seattle.

More than at other time in human history, people are swamped with information. With the internet being in the palm of everyone’s hand, information is everywhere—some of it true and helpful, some of it misleading and evil. We must be discerning not only about the information we access, but the degree to which we access it. This is also true of where we get information about our Catholic faith.

This Sunday we celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, a church in Rome. As odd as that sounds, celebrating a church, you will have heard about it in my homily, and hopefully have some deeper insight into the connection between the physical and spiritual. However, it does line up nicely with this pastor’s column on campus projects. I meant to have this in the October 19 pastor’s column entitled “Share the Good News,” but I ran out of room. So here is the follow-up to that with some great things to know and share with others about our physical campuses.

October is the month of the Rosary, so I write here a second and final pastor’s column on it before the month ends. I wanted to run this two weeks ago, but events prevented it. I have run a version of this column in the past and do so again, as the mysteries in it release phenomenal graces for those who put them into practice.

 While the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary have been around for centuries, it wasn’t until 2002 that Pope Saint John Paul II (St. JPII) introduced the Luminous Mysteries. He got his inspiration from a priest he canonized only the year before, Saint George Preca (1880-1962).