The entire Catholic Church can give thanks to God for the 12 years Pope Francis served as our Shepherd: March 13, 2013, to April 21, 2025. As our Archbishop Robert Cardinal McElroy said: “Today the Church and the world have lost a true shepherd of souls, a beacon of unwavering hope, and a voice of penetrating truth. From the very first moments of his service to the universal Church, Pope Francis enshrined the mercy of God at the heart of his proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In doing so, he illuminated with new depth the pastoral dimension of the Church’s mission, which is rooted first in embracing love rather than in judgment. It is this embracing love which led Pope Francis to be a prophetic advocate for the poor and the dispossessed, the unborn and the immigrant, the victims of war and the earth which is our common home. It was this love also that animated his tender personal care for all those whom he encountered personally in their suffering --- those who saw their life marked by failure, the sick, those suffering from addictions, the incarcerated, those who had lost their way in life. It was in these intimate moments of pastoral care that we saw with such poignancy the heart of the pastor who had embodied mercy and love to the suffering in Buenos Aires and refused to diminish that commitment even when the strictures of the papacy fell upon him.” All Catholics in the entire world are now mourning until Pope Francis’ Funeral Mass is celebrated in Rome this Saturday. We too at OLHOC are praying for the repose of his soul. We have already invited you to...

We have finally entered the Holy of Holy, the most sacred time of the entire Liturgical Year: The Holy Week, the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ! It is the climax! Without the Death of Jesus on the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead there would be no meaning to our Faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ. There would be no Hope as Jesus is our only Hope! To reach this climax we have walked together throughout the 40 days of Lent. This Jubilee Year 2025 of Hope we began our Lenten Journey with an amazing 40 Hours of Adoration and Confessions following a one-day parish Retreat reflecting on the biblical roots of the Jubilee. At the same time this Lenten Season has seen an unusually large number of funerals, a time to reflect on our human fragility and our belief in eternal life. Without such belief there is no purpose in life, no sense of direction. Jesus is our only Hope! Jesus says to his disciples: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:1-6). He knows he is going to die. He wants to comfort them. Do not be anxious. I will never leave you alone. What a reassuring statement from...

We enter the Holy Week walking with Jesus and processing with Him into the Church. We are waving Palms. We are singing. We recall the entrance of Christ the Lord into Jerusalem to accomplish the Paschal Mystery: Passion, Death and Resurrection. Our hearts are filled with Hope and Joy! This is the great celebration of Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord. This is our own entrance into the Holy Week. We sing: "Hosannah to the son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Hosannah in the highest." As we process into the church, holding our palms high, we remember Jesus' entry into Jerusalem for our salvation. We are entering the eternal Jerusalem! We are entering together with the first followers of Christ who began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen and proclaimed: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest " (Luke 19:37-39). We too on Palm Sunday are filled with joy as in procession with Christ we are entering the summit of the entire Liturgical Year: The Holy Week! We are entering Heaven on earth! Since my childhood in Southern France, living 10 miles away from the great Pilgrimage Site of Lourdes, I have...

I could sense the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout the entire Eucharistic Celebration from the Procession Entrance through the Closing Hymn. I felt in my heart a deep sense of JOY. A beautiful Liturgy in both its simplicity and its spiritual depth. I have a hard time to find the words to describe such an experience, an experience of the Presence of God at the Altar and an experience of the Unity of the assembled congregation into the Body of Christ. Have you ever felt this way when participating in a Eucharistic Celebration? Many of you were present. This was last Sunday’s Eucharistic Celebration at the 11:30 AM Mass. We had waited for nine months... Our seminarian « John V« was ordained Priest last June—we give numbers to our seminarians, last year we had...