St. Gerard Majella Roman Catholic Church

Friends, in today’s Gospel, a spirited woman engages Jesus in an argument. It is one of the only scenes in the Gospels where someone cajoles Jesus into doing so...mething he wouldn’t ordinarily do. There is a long tradition that stresses the woman’s perseverance in the face of the test that Jesus sets for her. There is another reading that shows how the woman exemplifies the proper attitude toward God, a combination of humility and boldness, of deference and defiance. But the reading I want to emphasize is one conditioned by the philosophy of the other. The Old Testament speaks insistently of the stranger, the widow, and the orphan, those who have no one to care for them. They press upon us even when we would greatly prefer them just to go away. We the Church are the Body of Christ, the physical presence of Christ in the world. And so people come to us demanding food, sustenance, friendship, love, shelter, liberation. So often we are tempted to do what Jesus does initially and what the disciples do: tell them to back off. But the whole of the Christian life consists in remembering the suffering and need of the annoying other. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021121.cfm

Thank you to all who donated Valentine’s Day candy! The children in our outreach program will feel extra loved because of your generosity! God bless you and Happy St. Valentine's Day!!

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches that evil comes from within. From our hearts come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, ...deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. The Church teaches that such evils are consequences of original sin. The doctrine holds that there is something fundamentally off about us, that all is not well, that we are off-kilter, skewed, mixed up. We Catholics don’t hold to a doctrine of total depravity, but we do indeed hold that original sin has worked its way into every nook and cranny of our lives: our minds, our wills, our desires and passions, even our very bodies. As G.K. Chesterton argued a century ago, original sin is the only doctrine for which there is empirical evidence, for we can feel it within ourselves and we can see the effects of it everywhere. One of the surest signs of our dysfunction is that we tend to celebrate all of the wrong people and despise or look down upon the best people. Pay very close attention to the people that you don’t like, to those that you consider obnoxious; it might tell you a lot about your own spiritual state. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021021.cfm

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus chooses to preach on Isaiah 61 for his inaugural address in his hometown synagogue. He felt that this text summed up who he wa...s and what his mission was. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he declared. The Ruach Yahweh, the breath of Godthis is what has seized and animated Jesus. After the Resurrection, he breathed on his disciples, communicating to them (and the Church) something of this spirit. Animated by the Ruach Yahweh, what does he do? He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. The lowly hear this, those who are oppressed, the poor, the unjustly treated, the marginalized and forgotten. What are the glad tidings? That God’s love is more powerful than the powers of this world. This is the message of Christ. Therefore, when you place yourself on the side of this power, you are on the winning side, though dark powers gather around you. It is fully expressed in the Paschal Mystery. The world threw its entire power against Jesus, and God raised him up. Nothing can overwhelm or overcome the authority of the Lord God. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010721.cfm

A Statement from Bishop John O. Barres

Two great resources to learn about the Saints! https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day https://www.loyolapress.com//s/saints-stories-for-all-ages