The one-year celebration of our 40th anniversary has just come to an end with the visit of Archbishop Wilton Gregory last Saturday. It was a beautiful day. The weather could not have been better, cool and dry! Inside the church, the Holy Spirit was fully present and filled our hearts with the warmth of His Love while our Blessed Mother put her protective arms around our shoulders. There were many moments that brought much JOY to those attending (if you could not attend see footnote below) including the powerful homily delivered by the Archbishop. In his homily, Archbishop Gregory commented on the Parable of the Vineyard Workers (Matthew 20:1-16) and God's Unique Justice, "God's justice is always directed toward generosity... We have all been recipient's of God's generosity... The parable is not about what we have earned or what we merit though our labors, but what God has given to all of us out of his superior generosity. The parable is not about what we do, but what God does so generously for all of us." Archbishop Gregory concluded his homily, "honoring the hard work of the parishioners of Our Lady Help of Christians for 40 years in the establishment and growth of a fine community of faith". He gave...

St Paul's Letter to the Philippians is filled with Joy, Peace and Hope in Christ. In this weekend’s Second Reading (Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a), St. Paul proclaims, “TO ME LIFE IS CHRIST.” What a powerful and inspirational statement! How do these three words "LIFE IS CHRIST" apply to your own life? They are challenging. Of course, as Christians, our life is to “center on Jesus Christ, our Savior, who died for our sins on the Cross and rose on the third day giving us such a great hope in eternal life.” But in reality, there are so many distractions and difficulties in daily lives that most of us tend to focus on ourselves, and how to resolve our daily challenges alone, forgetting to ask God's help. Through St Paul's exemplar life, God is inviting us to say, "To me too, like to St Paul, LIFE IS CHRIST.” Last week's second reading (Romans 14:7-9) amplifies this theme, "None of us lives for oneself and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord, we are the Lord's. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” As we...

Early today, as in most mornings, Fr. Ben and I were praying in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament in the little chapel of our Rectory. In addition to the prayers in the Breviary of the "Office of Readings” and the "Morning Prayer" we also spend a full half-an-hour in silence. This is one of the best moments of my day. Today, the words coming into the silence of my heart were repeatedly, "REJOICE IN THE LORD! ALWAYS REJOICE IN THE LORD! REJOICE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD! REJOICE! GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD!" I was also recalling the words of St Paul’s to the Romans (second reading for this weekend), "None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord" (Romans 14:7-9). St Paul was in jail when he wrote his letter to the Romans. Following his dramatic conversion from persecutor of Christ to disciple of Christ, he spent his entire life living for Christ. Though in jail, he was totally free, no longer having chains attaching him to the world. He was ready to die for Christ. He had just proclaimed also from his jail, “Nothing, neither life nor death, can separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus Our Lord." (Romans 8:38) Paul was totally at peace, feeling the Presence and the Love of Jesus Christ. I pray to God that as we enter our 40 HOURS OF ADORATION TONIGHT, beginning at 10 pm, together we can find...

Our parish is getting closer to Heaven by 65 feet! As you come to Mass this weekend, you will discover that our church has been rising toward Heaven. In the Old Testament, climbing to the top of a mountain was seen as a way to pray to God in solitude and get closer to Him. At Masses, the rising incense is an image of our prayer reaching out toward God. Come and see our new architectural look! We have just come to the end of all the activities originally proposed under our 3-year Capital Campaign. From the very beginning, we had planned the installation of a steeple as the last project, the one crowning the renovation efforts of the last three years. You may recall that the steeple was the new architectural design serving as a logo of our campaign. It was meant to emphasize the importance of evangelization. A new external look was meant to make us more visible as a church. Our parish council had talked about the parish goal of architectural evangelization. We would like to take this opportunity to express once again our thanks to all of you for your generous support to the successful implementation of this 3-year construction and renovation program. As you know, we did face some unexpected delays in the last few weeks. But with the help of the Holy Spirit and with good weather this week, ...