From the Pastor: 3.29.09

FROM THE PASTOR: March 29, 2009 MANDANTUM: The Washing of Feet on Holy Thursday In John’s gospel, chapter 13, 34-35 we hear the words of Jesus, “Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other.  This is how all will know you for my disciples: by your love for one another.” It is has been a part of the Church’s practice for centuries to imitate the Lord through the ritual enactment of the new love commandment of Jesus Christ in the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday.  Pope Pius XII restored the mandatum rite in 1955 as a part of a...

Homily: 3.29.09

5th Sunday of Lent (A-readings): 3rd Scrutiny March 29, 2009 – 9:30 a.m. Mass Old St. Joseph’s Church – Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J. – Pastor The tomb is cool and dark.  It is also quiet – quiet as, well, death…  The dead man’s mind is quiet, too, for the most part – although occasionally, a thought drifts by.  These were more frequent at first; but they grow fewer and farther between as the hours and the days drift by.  “People are wrong about death,” the man muses.  “Oh, sure, the transition itself was tough…  If I hadn’t been dying already, the...

Homily: 3.22.09

4th Sunday of Lent (A-readings): 2nd Scrutiny March 22, 2009 – 11:30 a.m. Mass Old St. Joseph’s Church – Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J. – Pastor So… how’s your Lent going?  Believe it or not, we’ve passed the halfway point already.  That’s why I am wearing rose instead of purple.  We do the color switch when we pass the halfway point – as a kind of mile marker to let us know how far we’ve come, and how far we have yet to go.  The old Latin name for this Sunday was “Laetare” Sunday – one of the Latin verbs for “Rejoice.”  That’s why I’d like...

From the Pastor: 3.22.09

FROM THE PASTOR: March 22, 2009 The Paschal Triduum, the celebration of the Lord’s passion and rising, comes from the Latin word for “three,” referring to the three days.  In the Biblical keeping of time, days, especially great days of celebration, begin on the evening before the feast.  The Triduum thus officially begins on Holy Thursday evening and ends with evening prayer (Vespers) on Easter Sunday.  According to the “General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar,” the Church stresses us the paramount importance of the Paschal Triduum: “The...

Homily: 3.19.09

Feast of St. Joseph – 3-19-09 Old St. Joseph’s Church, Philadelphia Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J. – Pastor – 12:05 p.m. & 6:00 p.m. Happy Feast Day!  As best I can tell, our parish, as well as the high school and the university which had their beginnings here, bear the name of St. Joseph because he was the patron of our founding pastor, Fr. Joseph Greaton, S.J.  And we all know the basics about St. Joe, of course: carpenter, husband of Mary, foster father of Jesus. The good news is that Joseph’s existence and his role in the life of Jesus are attested to in the...

From the Pastor: 3.15.09

FROM THE PASTOR: March 15, 2009 I have just returned from a four-day trip to visit a friend in western Pennsylvania.  This was the first time that I have been away for more than a “day trip” since becoming your pastor at the beginning of September; and it taught me a few things that seem worth sharing. First, it confirmed what I already knew: that I am hardly indispensable.  Old St. Joseph’s survived – and generally thrived! – for 275 years without my being part of it.  That it survived four days of its 276th year without my being at the helm should come as no...

Lecture: 3.15.09

St. Ignatius Loyola: Pilgrim of Faith Part I: Who Was Ignatius Loyola? The World of St. Ignatius The Renaissance… recovery of classicism strong current of humanism the discovery of the individual The World of St. Ignatius Age of Discovery… exploration, East and West establishment of colonies for trade and resources rise of nation states and middle class new cultures and peoples to evangelize (and learn from?) The World of St. Ignatius The Reformation… Church in turmoil, in need of certain reforms challenge of contrary “pagan” values with recovery of...

Homily: 3.15.09

Rev. Daniel M. Ruff, S.J. – Pastor Old St. Joseph’s Church – 3-15-09 – 6:30 p.m. 3rd Sunday of Lent (A readings – First Scrutiny) Palestine is a semi-desert climate; when the rains come, once a year, they dump lots of water for a month or two, and then they disappear until the next year.  As a result, water is precious and scarce.  One of the things which enabled the people of Israel to live in the hill country was the discovery of limed cisterns – deep holes in the ground lined to make them watertight.  The cisterns – like the one alluded to in the Gospel...

Homily: 3.15.09

Daniel M. Ruff, S.J. – Pastor Old St. Joseph’s Church – Saturday 5:30 Vigil Mass 3rd Sunday of Lent B – 3-15-09 As I may have mentioned before, in the Jewish and Christian scriptures, whenever God creates, he orders and organizes.  No, he is not some fussy Felix Unger, an obsessive-compulsive who does white glove tests to find dust on top of the kitchen cabinets – I don’t mean that kind of ordering and organizing.  I mean helping everything to find its proper place and function – helping it to be what it was created to be – and placing it in proper...

From the Pastor: 3.08.09

FROM THE PASTOR: March 8, 2009 In a number of places in his epistles (I Corinthians 9, Galatians 2 and 5, Philippians 2, and Hebrews 12), St. Paul compares living the Christian life to running a race.  Now as you can tell by looking at me, I am no athlete.  My gifts and interests from early on lay in different directions; I was a geeky, bookish child who read like a fiend, dabbled in visual arts, and listened to lots of music.  I was helped in my non-athleticism by grandmothers, a great-grandmother, and maiden aunts who worried that sports were dangerous and were happy...