By now we have all noticed the days becoming shorter and the nights cooler. This Sunday is the autumnal equinox, when the length of day and night are equal in both the northern and southern hemispheres. It marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall, at the halfway point between the summer and winter solstice.

This weekend we celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of perpetual adoration of the Eucharist in our parish. So I share with you my prayerful meditation about our Adoration Chapel

Stewardship of Faith Weekend

The crowds challenged Jesus to show them a sign the day after he fed them and many others with five loaves and two fish. What a difference a day makes! But I won’t criticize them because I sometimes forget the Lord’s blessings and seek more miraculous signs every day to affirm my faith. Thankfully, Jesus anticipated this weakness by giving Himself to us in the Eucharist. “Do this in memory of me,” He said. So we remember Him every week, even every day. While doing so we savor His words: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35).

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just about things that happened 2000 years ago. His wonders and signs continue to happen in our day. Case in point: the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis

Last Monday I visited a dear friend from Steamboat Springs who had just taken the Flight-For-Life helicopter to Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree. Kathy had a meningioma tumor removed from her brain stem a month ago but had to quickly return because of excess fluid buildup in her cranial cavity. As she anticipated another surgery to drain the fluid, she looked at me with a peaceful smile and said, “I’m just so grateful; so grateful that the doctors can do this surgery. Jesus is with me, I know He is. He’s just so sweet.”

For the next seven Sundays (July 14 – August 25) the second reading at Mass will be from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. So to help you better appreciate this great letter, I offer you the following introduction which was written by Dr. Tod Warner. It appears in The Word on Fire Bible: Acts, Letters, and Revelation (2022, Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, p. 370-371; Used with permission). You may want to refer back to this introduction as you prepare for Mass over the next seven weeks.

Have you ever heard the saying, “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is,”? It may apply to the letter you received saying you have won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, or to the email saying you have been gifted a villa in northern Italy. But some people actually use this saying to reject the Christian gospel. It seems too good to be true.

When things go wrong in our lives it is common to blame God. As people share their problems with me, they often say something like, “I don’t know why God is punishing me.” Some also blame God for the illness or death of loved ones as they say, “Oh well, God took them to himself.” As people of faith, how can we understand all the complicated problems we experience, including sickness and death?

This is my second Father’s Day after my dad’s passing. As I was looking through my photos, I realized that I have very few of him without my mom. They were devoted to each other for 63 years of married love. Since I am also remembering my ordination during June, I thought to share with you a photo of that day with Archbishop Charles Chaput and my parents. I fondly refer to this photo as “Three Fathers and a Mother.” And I am filled with gratitude for each of them.

Fr. Ernest's Reflection on the Corpus Christi Procession

“Joseph, Mary, Francis, Clare, Carlo, Therése, Michael… Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” We lingered there for a few moments as the aromatic chrism permeated their foreheads. What really happened beneath the surface was known only to them and the Spirit of Love.

As the disciples gathered in the upper room on that first Pentecost, “suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as a fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2: 2-4)

On this Fifth Sunday of Easter the Church calls us to reflect upon our relationship with Jesus as branches on the true vine. “Abide in me, as I abide in you,” He says. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” (John 15: 4-5). With this description, Jesus distinguishes himself as more than a philosopher or a wise moral teacher, more than a prophet of God. He is the very source of life, itself! No teacher of another religion was ever so bold as to say, “Without me you can do nothing.”