Dear Parishioners,

I was reflecting the other day of how grateful I am to be back in parish work and assigned here at Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. How good to the see the life of parish families – people who have been here since day one and those who are new members, those who come for the winter months and call this home. A parish is a place of encounter. First with God, but then with the Church, the people of God. The Church and our Sunday worship of God is a great reminder to us that God is part of our daily lives.

Dear Parishioners,

We are now on our short journey in ordinary time in the Church. The root of the word ordinary comes from the word order. The focus for this short period is Ordinary Holiness—Ordinary Lives. Meaning, recognizing that holiness is about living lives that have a natural order toward God and Godly things. The Church provides that structure and order.

As a priest, I’m amazed how happily married couples remember the tiniest details of their earliest encounters. They effortlessly report things like: “he wore a blue shirt,” “we ordered brussels sprouts,” “her hair was up in a bun,” and “he spilled shrimp cocktail sauce at my family’s open front door when it was ten degrees below zero,” (that one’s courtesy of my mom). We delight in remembering and speaking of when our new life of love began. The little details are glorious reminders that it’s all real.

Dear Parishioners,

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Epiphany this weekend we are in the last days of the Christmas Season. This day reminds us of two things; first, the message of Christ is meant to reach far and wide to distant lands; second, the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh have a deep meaning of who Jesus is and what the wise men believe. Gold is meant for a King, frankincense is used to honor the holy and divine and myrrh is an oil used to anoint the body at death. Each reveal something about this Newborn Child and His destiny for all mankind.