Dear Friends,

When we look at the state of our world today, we can easily get discouraged. There are many reasons for this but one reason that is common and perhaps most apparent is the division we see in the world. We are technically more connected than ever before, more aware of our fellow man’s existence yet we seem to be just as divided as ever. Even within the Church we see this division. Division is nothing new, it’s been around since the fall of Adam and Eve when Adam blamed Eve for his sin. However, what we see in our modern era is a radical individualism, an idea that we must be reverenced as unique and distinct from all others and that our individual identity is more important than anything else.

Dear Friends,

I want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who participated in the just concluded Parish Census. I am glad to report that we have gathered great data through this exercise, and we are now ready to move forward to the Survey portion. Like I mentioned in my previous articles and video messages, I am very interested to hear your thoughts about our Parish namely, what you think we do well and sets us apart as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel; what you think we could improve on and what new things you desire to be introduced in order for our parish to continue thriving.

Dear Friends,

What do you do when you can do nothing? You pray. This is the image of faith in its rawest form. When there is nothing else that can save us, all we can do is cling to the help of God. All we can do is pray. In these moments when we feel that all hope is lost and all our supports fail us we encounter what I like to call “gutter grace.” Whether someone has left the faith or never encountered Jesus, it is typically in life’s gutter where the faith is most profoundly encountered.

Dear Friends,

On the weekend of March 9/10, we officially launched our Census exercise in order to determine the size of our parish. Though during the most part of last month our focus shifted to Holy Week, Easter Triduum and Easter itself, the Census exercise has been ongoing for those who did not do it the first weekend it was launched. Now it is time again to refocus our attention to Stewardship under whose context we began this Census exercise. We want to acknowledge that we are all called to give of our time, talents, and treasure as a gratitude to all of God’s gifts to us.

Dear Friends,

First, He rose from the dead after a horrible torture and death and, threw the whole world momentarily into confusion including the well-trained soldiers deployed to guard the tomb. Then, excitement and then celebration, the kind of which was never witnessed before. But, before the reality of His Resurrection began to sink in, however, He became elusive, appearing and disappearing to His disciples even through closed doors.

Dear Friends,

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Divine Mercy, and as we do so, we do it on the backdrop of an even-greater solemnity, the solemnity of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We began the celebration of this momentous event in our Church with many blessings. At the vigil Mass we welcomed into our Church 23 new members 11 of who received baptism while the rest received the sacraments of Confirmation and first Holy Communion along with them. This was followed shortly after Mass, by the convalidation of the marriages for two of our couples in the Church.