In the Nicene Creed that we profess at Sunday Mass, we come across a word that is rather challenging: “consubstantial.” This is an indirect translation of the most controversial word in the history of Christianity — the Greek term homoousios.

The Church, especially in the English language, has multiple I nstances where the same word has multiple meanings. It's very similar to how lead and lead, while spelled the same, are two very distinct things. For the Church, the word “catholic” has multiple meanings, and which meaning is being used is commonly distinguished by the use of capital letters: Catholic and catholic.

In many Catholic churches, flowers are the most commonly used decorations in the sanctuary. They can be found near the altar at Mass, or in front of statues and other prominent works of art. Flowers serve the purpose of reminding us of God's creation and the beauty of his handiwork. Nikolaus Gihr, in his book The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, elaborates on this spiritual meaning.

Last weekend, many thousands of youth attended celebrations in Rome as part of the 2025 Jubilee celebrations. In 2001, during his 1,000th general audience as the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II addressed youth, in particular altar servers, while remarking on World Youth Day in Rome during the Jubilee of 2000. He said:

Each month on the second Sunday at 5pm, we offer a special candlelight Mass where the sanctuary is lit primarily by a multitude of candles surrounding the altar. The music is different from the other masses with a beautifully contemplative and prayerful mood to draw us into the wonder of the Eucharistic Mystery that unfolds before us on the altar. Incense is burned throughout the Mass to engage another of our senses. This engagement of our senses tunes us to enter the contemplation of the things of Heaven and our relation to them, in the very place where Heaven comes down to touch the Earth.

In 2022, Pope Francis wrote an Apostolic Letter entitled Desiderio desideravi, addressed to the Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and the Lay Faithful on the topic of the liturgical formation of the People of God (i.e. all baptized members of the Church). In this letter, our late Holy Father asks the everyone to join in rediscovering the beauty and truth of the Liturgy of our Lord, and emphasizes to the clergy the importance of offering the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the exact manner that our Lord and his Church has commanded us to offer it, for not doing so would be “robbing from the assembly what is owed to it; namely, the paschal mystery celebrated according to the ritual that the Church sets down” (D.d., 23). He calls for celebrating a Mass that is filled with rich symbolism that points to the paschal mystery and invites us to engage with this transcendent liturgical action. He says, “Wonder is an essential part of the liturgical act because it is the way that those who know they are engaged in the particularity of symbolic gestures look at things.” (D.d., 26)

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a conference hosted by the Archdiocese of San Francisco entitled “Fons et Culmen”, which is a manner that the document Sacrosanctum Concilium from the Second Vatican Council used to describe the Sacred Liturgy. "Fons et Culmen”, Latin for "Source and Summit”, designates the liturgy as the "summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed" and the "font from which all her power flows." This means that the liturgy is central to the Church's mission and life, serving as the primary means through which the faithful encounter God. It is through the Eucharistic celebration that believers are united with Christ and each other, receiving grace and strength to live out their faith.

“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…” 249 years ago, these words were inscribed in our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.

“These are the ones who, living in the flesh, planted the Church with their blood; they drank the chalice of the Lord and became the friends of God.”

This is the antiphon, sung at the beginning of the Mass on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, which describes the effect of their martyrdom: their blood being spilt planted the Church, and through their acceptance of martyrdom, they entered perfect union with God. The Church, since the earliest times to even today, is built and sanctified by those who give their life for Christ, and through this gift of themselves, they are joined in perfect communion with Him.

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ), a special day where we draw attention to our Eucharistic Lord, and was instituted as a Feast in the entire Latin Church after a Eucharistic miracle in Bolsena, Italy in 1263.

In the beginning, there was a man named Adam, and he had a great deal going for him. He had an intimate relationship with God—the Lord walked in the same garden and called to him by name—and, as a result, he also formed a beautiful relationship with his wife, his own self, and his surroundings. But one day, leaning into a tree, he turned away from God, turned on his wife, and turned his life (and the world) upside down.

In the account of Pentecost as recorded in scripture, we’re told the fire of the Holy Spirit fell upon Our Lady and the apostles in the Upper Room, were they were not consumed nor harmed by the flame. Once we hear such a thing, we’re immediately led back to Moses before the burning bush at Mount Sinai. The bush was on fire, but was not consumed. The bush wasn’t consumed because the fire was expressing the presence of God. It led Moses to greater reverence. It was a sign of his purification and of his call to go and proclaim freedom from slavery and an exodus back to the Promised Land of his forefathers.