Theft in Church on 7.8.12

We are sorry to report that a woman had her purse stolen during the 6:30 pm Mass on July 8. During mass, she took her crying child out to the courtyard and when she returned her purse was gone from the rear pew. By the time she was able to cancel her credit cards the thief had already attempted $3,000 worth of online shopping. For your own safety, please do not leave handbags unattended at any time during mass.

From the Pastor: 7.29.12

Another year has flown by – I have been your pastor for nearly FOUR YEARS! – and it is time once again to celebrate the feast ofSt.Ignatius Loyola on Tuesday, July 31.  We are honored this year to welcome Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M.Cap. as our guest presider and homilist for the 6:00 p.m. Mass; and the Archbishop will also join us for the festive dinner which follows.  So what – or rather, who – is it that we are celebrating?  For many of you, this will be old news; but I am keenly aware that we constantly have new parishioners registering.  I am also...

From the Pastor: 7.22.12

Well, it is the middle of summer; and as the delegates to the Continental Congress sing at the opening of the musical “1776,” “It’s hot as hell in Philadelphia…”  It’s a time when we all thank God for air conditioning.  But here’s a thought…  One disadvantage of our ability to control the temperature of our home and work environment is that we can now be reasonably expected to put in a full day’s work 24/7/365! I like at least to imagine that back in the days before the Flood, when offices had nothing but fans to circulate the warm, humid, summer...

From the Pastor: 7.15.12

Our parish has recently lost two quiet spiritual giants, and I think that their stories deserve to be told to a wider cross section of our parishioners.  Valistene Fontaine – who would surely have laughed at the notion that she was a spiritual giant – passed away on June 20 at Holy Family Home inWest Philadelphia, where she had resided during the last couple of years of her life.  The brief death notice in the “Inquirer” did not mention a birthdate, but I know from what Val had told me herself that she was in her early to mid-80s.  Valistene and I went way...

Homily: 14th OT(B) 7.8.12

It has been more than 40 years since Fr. Michael Buckley, S.J., wrote his often reprinted letter to a group of Jesuits about to be ordained.  He began this way: “There is a tendency among us Americans, common and obvious enough, …to estimate a person’s aptitude for a profession or for a career by listing his strengths. Jane speaks well, possesses an able mind, exhibits genuine talents for leadership and debate; she would be an excellent lawyer. John has recognizably good judgment, a scientific turn of interest, obvious manual dexterity and deep human concerns; he...

Homily: 13th OT(B) 7.1.12

A few years ago, I stumbled across a book by Ann Finkbeiner called After the Death of a Child.  As with many books of its kind, the author had written this one as part of her own grief process after losing a 20-something son of her own.  She had been attending meetings of Compassionate Friends – a support group for parents who have lost children – and she gradually realized that very little had been written about the experience of such parents.  As a result, Finkbeiner decided to interview a lot of her new acquaintances and to write up the results of her findings. I...

Homily: Corpus Christi 2012

When I was a kid and I had to do something I was not enthused about – say, dry the dishes, or cut the lawn, or study for a test – my mom used to say, “Offer it up for the poor souls in purgatory.”  The idea behind this old-fashioned piety was that we could somehow ennoble and enhance the less pleasant parts of our lives – our sufferings, if you will – and make them holy and redemptive, both for ourselves and for others.  We believed – and I still do – that by consecrating them, by giving our sufferings to God, we could turn them into sacrifices.  We...

From the Pastor: 7.8.2012

With a parishioner volunteer, I am currently co-leading a three-part discussion series on the parable of the “prodigal son” with our guests at Food, Faith, and Friends (a.k.a. Outreach).  Most of us could probably recite this familiar masterpiece of Jesus’ storytelling almost word for word.  Yet as familiar as it is, like most great literature, the parable seems inexhaustibly rich, and therefore always interesting to revisit – especially if we get to “see” it through the eyes of others with whom we can explore its meaning and impact anew. One thing which...

From the Pastor: 7.1.2012

A visit from an out-of-town Jesuit friend whom I hadn’t seen in years provided the excuse recently to experience the newest jewel in our city’s cultural crown – the freshly minted “Philadelphiacampus” of the Barnes Foundation, which opened to the public on May 19.  It would be hard to live in Philadelphia and not to know about the legal hue and cry which surrounded the building of this new facility and the relocation of the priceless art collection from its original Merion home which Barnes had built for it in 1922; but I like to think that, on the whole, Mr....

Homily: Nativity of John the Baptist

Since the readings this morning/evening are all about John the Baptist, you’re probably wondering where the Advent wreath is, and why it feels so unseasonably warm outside…   Nope.  Reality check.  You did not sleep through summer and early fall; and the weather is actually pretty standard issue for late June inPhiladelphia.  But welcome to the Catholic liturgical calendar, where some feasts – like the Nativity of John the Baptist, which we celebrate each year on June 24 – actually “trump” the observance of Sunday when they fall during Ordinary Time. So...