Our annual Mass of Remembrance will be this Monday, November 4th, at 7pm.  (We usually have this Mass on All Souls Day.  This year, however, All Souls falls on a Saturday, so we’ve moved the Mass of Remembrance to Monday.)  The Mass of Remembrance is a longstanding tradition at Christ the King.  Each year, we invite all those who have lost a loved one over the past year, and we pray by name for those parishioners who have died this year.  It is a beautiful opportunity for family, friends and fellow parishioners to gather together to support one another and to pray for their deceased loved ones.  I know this is often a very meaningful evening for those who are still grieving their loved one’s death.

Our prayers for the dead are a real act of Christian hope.  If we didn’t believe in heaven, there would be no reason to pray!  Our prayers for those who have died express our belief that there is a life beyond this life, and that Christ’s Passion, death and resurrection have made it possible for us to have a well-founded hope for this eternal joy.  Every time we pray that God will welcome our loved ones into heaven, we are […]

One hundred copies of this book were donated to us so that we could make it available to as many parishioners as possible, so I hope many of you have been able to read it.  It’s a brief but powerful reflection on the effect that the abuse scandal in the Church has had on people’s faith.  Bishop Barron frankly addresses the crisis of faith that this scandal has caused, prompting many faithful Catholics to question why they should remain in the Church.  Bishop Barron doesn’t sugarcoat the scandal or make excuses for poor leadership, but his answer is that the best response is to stay and fight rather than to jump ship.  He offers a sobering but compelling explanation of why the things that make the Church good and beautiful and holy are not things that any sinful human being can destroy.  My own take on this is that it would be tragic to let the sinful actions of clergymen deprive you of the Eucharist and the other graces that Jesus offers us through His Church.

Several parishioners have talked to me at different points over the past year to let me know about the struggles that these failures in Church leadership have caused for them.  Because of leaders who abused the trust that was given to them, some people struggle to trust the human face of the Church at all.  It’s […]

I hope that you’ll take some time to look at the insert in today’s bulletin, which details our year-end financial information the last fiscal year.  (Our fiscal year ended on June 30, 2019, but I always wait until our Finance Council has the chance to review these statements before publishing this information.)  We want to be as transparent as possible about parish finances; our parishioners sacrifice a lot for our parish, and you should know how your money is being spent.

The past fiscal year, of course, included our capital campaign.  I am so grateful for the overwhelming response to this campaign, and I know that we are all eagerly awaiting the fruits of this campaign as we watch our new addition being built.  The capital campaign is not included in the bulletin insert; instead, this insert deals with our regular financial operations, which continued as normal during the campaign.  While our collections were down a bit, I think this is typical of a capital campaign year, and I greatly appreciate the effort that parishioners made to keep up their weekly giving while still supporting the campaign.

As you look at these statements, you can see that there is room for improvement in our financial position.  On the one hand, we are able to pay our bills and maintain our facilities thanks to our parishioners’ support, as well as to discipline in our spending.  We are also diligent about preparing for future capital expenditures, so we have been able to stay ahead of these expenses.  On the other hand, though, we continue to run a deficit.  While we’ve cut this deficit over the last two years, it’s still not sustainable in the long-term.  Our priority is to […]

The Flight to Egypt
The Losing of the Child Jesus in the Temple
Mary Meeting Jesus on the Road to Calvary
The Crucifixion
Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross
Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb

It may sound strange to name a feast after a title that sounds so sad, but we in Holy Cross see it differently.  After all, we profess the Cross of Christ to be our only hope, and Our Lady of Sorrows helps to show us how.  Our Constitutions say it this way: “There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother Mary, who knew grief and was a Lady of Sorrows. She is our special patroness, a woman who bore much, she could not understand and who stood fast. To her many sons and daughters, whose devotions ought to bring them often to Her side, she tells much of this daily cross and its daily hope.”
We are reminded that Mary, even though she was conceived without original sin, didn’t have a perfect life.  She still suffered much, through no fault of her own.  She knew what it was like to have to flee your homeland, to worry about your child, and to watch Him suffer.  And yet through all of these sufferings, her faith never wavered.  And because her faith was so strong, she persevered through them to the perfect […]