We all want the war in Ukraine to end but what can we do? Prayer of course, Jesus says it can move mountains (Mt 21:22 & Mk 11:24). This past Friday, Pope Francis and a great number of the world’s bishops and pastors (including yours truly and hundreds of our faith filled parishioners) consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In the apparition of July 13, 1917, in Fatima Portugal, Our Lady had asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, stating that if this request were not granted, Russia would spread “its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecution of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be destroyed.”

There is something special here at Holy Redeemer, and its’ not just a feeling. It can be seen in the number of people who have returned to Mass, and the number of people who never left (for covid), or in the number of kids we have at the 11am Mass, or in the 50 altar boys that we have, or the hundreds of people who join small faith sharing groups or go on retreat with us, or the 100–200 people who show up for weekday Masses at 7am, or the number of people who stand in line for Confession every week, or the percentage of parishioners who have made a commitment to be a steward of the Church here, or the number of people who pray the rosary before Mass, or the incredible fundraising we’ve done from the start to build this campus and pay it off – the list goes on and on. Holy Redeemer is a lighthouse among parishes, beckoning others to our safe shores for truth, communion, and grace. It is also a catalyst for the ultimate act of trust in God – religious vocations.

“Ding dong, the witch is dead. The wicked witch is dead . . .” Those are the words from a song from the Wizard of Oz, and that’s how I feel about the end of the covid pandemic. It has been a long two years since we closed everything down and went through three waves of the virus. At last, the masks have come off, the signs have come down, and we can return to being human – phew! I feel as if some great moment has come for the world, as if a world war has ended, and we need a ticker tape parade and public events to mark the occasion – but we aren’t – how awful. This is a moment to mourn the dead and grieve what has been lost; to celebrate the end of a tyranny that has ruled the world for two years, and the return of humanity.

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

Although Lent began last Wednesday, it's still not too late to make a resolution, there are six weeks left. Great things, even little things, don’t happen without a commitment and a plan: marriage, parenting, career, good health, etc., all take great commitments and a plan. So does our faith. Martyrs have died for the Lord, and saints have given their whole lives for Him. This Lent please join me in making a commitment, with God’s grace, to make a plan to better yourself in Christ.

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

Now is the time to start making a Lenten resolution, it will begin this Wednesday. Great things, even little things, don’t happen without a commitment and a plan: marriage, parenting, career, good health, etc., all take great commitments and a plan. So does our faith. Martyrs have died for the Lord, and saints have given their whole lives for Him. This Lent please join me in making a commitment, with God’s grace, to make a plan to better yourself in Christ.

I’ve mentioned recently in a homily or two that I have been having moments of anger. They usually pass within seconds but they seem to occur nearly every day. The almost daily part is new for me. Where is this coming from? The world. I’ve been spending too much time on the internet and not enough time applying myself to constructive things like my ministry and spiritual reading. When these feelings of anger come over me, they are always for some perceived injustice in the country, world, or the Church’s hierarchy (not you). What gets me is the momentary hatred I feel, as if for a couple of seconds a demon enters me. Its’ not me, and it hurts and frightens me. The answer? Love the very people that in my moment of anger I’m hating.

In our Gospel today Jesus tells us to love our enemies. This seems unjust, until we remember that in our sins, we are God’s enemies and he loves us just the same. Jesus would go so far as to suffer crucifixion for our sins; loving His enemies enough to die a horrible death for them. Okay, but Jesus is God and I’m not. In my humanity, how am I supposed to love my enemies?

There is a good degree of ignorance regarding the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, and I hope to remedy some of that here so that we’ll all be better informed and better able to effectively use the sacrament.

First, what is a sacrament? “A sacrament is an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us through the work of the Holy Spirit. The sacraments are seven in number: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance (Confession or Reconciliation), Anointing of the Sick (Extreme Unction), Holy Orders, and Matrimony” (Glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)).

What is the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick? “Also known as the sacrament of the dying, administered by a priest to a baptized person [Catholic] who begins to be in danger of death because of illness, injury, or old age, through prayer and the anointing of the body with the oil of the sick. The proper effects of the sacrament include a special grace of healing and comfort to the Christian who is suffering the infirmities of serious illness or old age, and the forgiving of the person’s sins [through Confession]” (Glossary CCC).

In the Gospel this Sunday, the apostles catch a great number of fish because of Jesus’ intervention. They are excited to catch so many fish yet the fish are simply an analogy of the great productivity that comes from serving God. Jesus says they will become fishers of men. The bountiful catch is symbolic of the number of future disciples they will be gaining for the Kingdom of God. This future catch is dependent on one thing – their holiness.

As Christians we have inherited a universal call to holiness or sanctity; that is to say, God desires and equips us to be saints, but most Christians don’t try. Failure to pursue sanctity saddens Our Lord and eventually us; for one day we will stand before Our Lord at our final judgement and see all too clearly at that time what our failure to try has cost us – and others.

Regardless of our state in life, we can become saints: priests, consecrated religious, married, single, employed, unemployed, laborers, homemakers, students, soldiers, prisoners, etc. It doesn’t matter what we are doing or our situation in life, God is equipping us to be saints and through us, to lead others to Jesus Christ, His Church, salvation, and holiness.

Last Sunday I wrote about the anxiety that our world is causing us at this time, and the antidote to it, sanctity. Today I want to continue in that vein by drawing our attention to the work of demons in our lives.

When we find ourselves anxious or upset we cast about looking for the cause. We look at others for the source of our suffering, and we look within ourselves to see if we’re the cause. What almost no one does is look for the presence and work of demons. When we are tempted to anger, distress, depression, cowardice, lust, greed, envy, gluttony, laziness, vanity – do we ever stop to think how the fallen angel assigned to us at birth, is influencing that feeling in that moment? Because they do. At birth we are all assigned an angel from God to assist us on our journey through this life to heaven, our guardian angel. So too at birth does hell assign to us a fallen angel to tempt us into sin throughout our lives, and ultimately lead us to hell. When we find ourselves in a moment of temptation it is important for us to recognize the presence of the Evil One and call out for help from heaven, then turn our minds from the temptation. Of course it helps not to put ourselves in the near occasion of temptation e.g., screens (TV, smart phone, internet), sugar, alcohol, the news, etc.

I love that little introductory line just above this one, it comes from Hebrews 13:8 where St. Paul is relating that through all the trials and changes of life one thing remains constant – Jesus Christ and the eternal Truth. What it says to me is this: I am God, fear no man, be faithful to Me, I am God.

Our world seems awash in bad news, more so than say five years ago e.g., covid, crime, government spending, inflation, supply chain problems, congressional deadlock, civil discord, loss of faith in democracy, Russia, China, and the list goes on and on. What makes our round of problems even more anxiety inducing is a pervading sense that things aren’t going to get better, but worse. As if things are on the brink of some kind of societal breakdown. So people are living now with a heightened sense of anxiety and dread compared to only a few years ago. What can be done about it?

As you can see from the title, I’m addressing a very serious and sensitive evil that is plaguing the world. In my seventeen years as a priest I have heard thousands of Sacramental Confessions; a large percentage of those involve at least the occasional viewing of pornography. Viewing pornography is every bit as addictive as alcohol or a street drug, and most people who view pornography truly wish that they didn’t but the temptation in the “moment” is often times too much to resist. Pornography was big business in the age of magazines but now it’s amazingly huge in the age of the internet, as the internet is everywhere: your home, businesses, hotels, schools, libraries, and of course hand held devices with internet access. Added to that accessibility is the producer of pornography who is aggressively trying to put his filth in front of you.

It can be easy for us to take the free practice of our Catholic faith for granted in a country where freedom of religion is a constitutional right. We shouldn’t. As long as religion doesn’t present a threat to the non-religious people who run this country, then they are okay with letting us practice our faith; but the moment our faith is seen as a clear threat to the establishment’s monopoly on education, the media, abortion and sodomy “rights”, and all manner of evil, then watch out! Bear in mind that all countries in Latin America and most in Europe were Catholic at one time, with Catholic monarch’s reigning and the Church giving civil society its laws. In time, every one of them became godless and turned upon the Church, persecuting her clergy and religious practice, and ridding themselves of Christian laws. In most of those countries the list of martyrs is long.

I don’t closely follow covid related stuff. When I start to see or hear something about it, I move right along, I have from the beginning. I don’t talk about it either as some people are zealous about their position, not willing to reason with others. It’s also a tar baby, getting you stickier and stickier when you touch upon the subject with no end in sight – ugh.

With that said, the omicron variant is spreading super-fast, doubling the number of infected worldwide every 2 – 3 days. So a lot of people are super scared all over again, like they were when this all started, or when the delta variant came on. I guess it will sweep through the world in the next couple of months. If covid is something we’ll be living with forever in one mutation or another; omicron might end up being a relatively good thing in that it is a far less deadly than past variants, thereby giving the world natural immunity (better than vaccine immunity) without the much higher death rates of the previous variants.

“For behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.” Lk 2:10-11

It is my sincerest hope that the divine person of Jesus Christ, fill you with life and light this Christmas. If that is true, then you join me in being the most fortunate of people; for most people live without the knowledge that God became man, born of a virgin, to love us to death, and guide us to our true home – heaven. Imagine the world being without a savior, we’d be doomed to confusion and hopelessness. Many people throughout the world live like that now, as most people aren’t Christians and most Christians don’t practice their faith.

As the title of this column suggests, I have a few things to share about the Church as we roll toward Christmas and the end of another year.

The first is the state of the Catholic (universal) Church. Some of you are aware that Pope Francis has called for a synod on synodality. The words synodality or synod are a bit ambiguous, but its basic meaning in the context of the Church, is a body which gives the pope a way of discussing the issues of the day, and receiving feedback and advice from the episcopacy (bishops). Popes have always done this, consulting with their bishops on different matters, in one form or another. Pope Francis has used synods as a way of giving him legitimacy for making changes in the Church that he wants to see. Pope Francis wants to use the coming synod on synodality like previous popes have used ecumenical councils, such as Vatican II, to make permanent changes in the Church.

October is the month of the Rosary, and so today I submit another pastor’s column on this incredible devotion. I ran this column last year and plan to do so annually, 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). St. George was a Maltese priest who founded a society of catechists which endures to this day, yet his greatest contribution to the Church was a set of private mysteries that he would pray the Rosary with. He called these the Mysteries of Light, hence St. JPII’s “Luminous Mysteries.” You can see here how they inspired St. JPII and how closely they paralleled his own Luminous Mysteries

Most of you reading this have heard by now that Archbishop Etienne is ending the dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass. The dispensation meant that attending Mass wasn’t an obligation as long as it was in effect. The dispensation ends this Wednesday, December 8th, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Mass times that day are 7am, 11am, and 7pm. If you know of other Catholics in Western Washington that have stopped going to Mass since the pandemic began, please pass this column onto them, either in paper or through our website (mouse over the “Resources” tab and click on “Pastor’s Columns”).

I include in this pastor’s column two things. The next couple pages are from a previous pastor’s column on the precepts of the Church, specifically the first one about the obligation to attend Mass. The final page has a letter from Archbishop Etienne about ending the dispensation from attending Mass.

In our Gospel this Sunday we hear Jesus describe himself as a King, and not just any King, but The King. Kings have Kingdoms, so where’s Jesus Kingdom? Everywhere He Is, and since He’s God, that means everywhere. If only he had subjects that would listen to Him and obey Him.

We live in a world that doesn’t recognize Jesus’ Kingship or authority at any level. That’s a tragedy for only in Him can we hope to find the fullness of goodness and peace. One day all political parties will cease to exist. One day all republics or democracies will cease to exist. One day the United States of America will cease to exist. One day the earth as we know it will cease to exist. Focus on what exists forever: God and souls. Do not sell yourself out to things that are passing away.

You and I were made to be saints, for Jesus says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). One day when we get to heaven, if not before, we will be saints. Yet many will not make it to heaven if people like us don’t do what we can to share our faith through our time, talent, and treasure. That’s not an exaggeration. In heaven we will be made aware of all the souls that made it there because of the sacrifices we made for Jesus and His Church in this life. Likewise, we will be made aware of all the souls who didn’t make it because of our poor example and lack of effort – that could be you. If God is our highest priority, and He should be, then He should be seen in our day planners and checkbooks.

October is the month of the rosary and as you know by now, I’m a big fan of every Catholic praying it daily (so is God). For these reasons, I’m in the midst of writing pastor columns on different aspects of the rosary. What follows is the second part of a brief history of the rosary taken from a small booklet called The Rosary – The Great Weapon of the 21st Century. If you missed the first installment from last Sunday, you can find it on Holy Redeemer’s website here, or click on the resources tab, then click on the pastor columns tab. Information to obtain a copy of the booklet can be found at the end of this pastor’s column. Enjoy reading.