St. Paul had his hands full with the Corinthian community.  The coastal city had merchants from all over the world and the early Christian community, in addition to being a mix of Jews and
Gentiles, had many different ethnicities and lots of differences and disagreements.  In his letters, Paul was attempting to bring unity to the community.
 
In our second reading this weekend, Paul is emphasizing that the Holy Spirit gives special gifts to each person and all these gifts are equally important.  From a human perspective, we tend to rank gifts and talents: some are much more important than others.  But Paul is saying that ALL the gifts are needed and important.
 
The same applies today.  Our human way of thinking would say that my role in our community is more important than the roles that others play.  But the reality is that all of our roles are crucial.  Take the Sunday Mass, for example.  I might stand in the front and lead the congregation, but what kind of service would we have without a lector, a musician, a cantor, choir members, participants to sing and pray as a community, hospitality ministers to welcome people and answer their questions, a family to bring up the gifts, etc.  It is when we all work together, using the talents God has given us, that the community and its liturgy come alive.  It is not just the priest: it is all of us, every single one.
 
The same is true for the parish in general.  Where would we be
without the excellent office manager and communications expert? Our finance team?  Our faith formation team?  Our liturgy and
music planner?  Our scrip and receptionist volunteers?  I don’t have the talents necessary to do all these ministries.  No one has the talents to do them all.  We each have to use the gifts that God has given us and work together, so that our community can be alive and
vibrant, with spiritually fulfilling liturgies.
  
God has given each of us talents that can be used for the community.  Are you using and sharing your talents with the community?  It is important that we don’t just take, but that we give back through our God given talents.  That is what will make our community alive and vibrant.  That is what it means to be the Body of Christ.
 
Church sign of the week: Waiting for something to turn up?  Start with your own shirtsleeves.

This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  With this feast, we end our celebration of Christmas and begin Ordinary time.  In fact, this is also the first of the 34 Sundays of Ordinary time. This feast is very appropriate for this transition, because, as we hear in the Gospel, Jesus received the call from His Father to leave His life of 30 years with His family and begin His ministry. In one sense, His “hour had come.”
 
Notice what we are told: After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him… Jesus was praying.  So often we are told that He goes off by Himself to a deserted place to pray.  He did it before He selected His apostles, His “inside” team.  He did it in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus needed the help and guidance of His Father and He took the time to be quiet and listen.
 
We need direction in life and God wants to and will give it to us.  But we have to give Him the chance. The way we do that is by spending quiet time, sharing our concerns and struggles, but then being quiet and listening.
 
Our lives are very hectic.  We rush from one thing to another. Our phones and the internet are always calling for our attention.  Let’s make sure, in the middle of all the noise and distractions, that we are giving the Lord the time and attention He needs in order to guide us.  That way, we will never get lost.  God bless.
 
Church sign of the week: Exercise daily: walk with the Lord!
 

This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, the
manifestation of Jesus as the Messiah to the whole world through the three Magi.  His manifestation to the Jewish people was through the shepherds.
 
In a homily resource I use from a Fr. Tony Kadavil, I found the following:
 
In 1895, Henry van Dyke wrote the story, “The Other Wise Man," telling of a fourth wise man called Artaban. Our hero is not mentioned in the Gospel because he missed the caravan. He got to Bethlehem too late to see the Baby Jesus. But Artaban did make it in time, using one of his gifts for the newborn King, to save one of the Holy Innocents by bribing a soldier. For 33 years Artaban searched for Jesus. He did not find Jesus, but all the while the fourth wise man used the precious gifts he had brought for the King to feed the hungry and help the poor. Then one day in Jerusalem Artaban saw the "King of the Jews" being crucified. He started to offer his last gift for the King, a great pearl, to the soldiers as ransom for Him. But then he saw a girl being sold into slavery to pay family debts. Artaban gave his pearl to buy freedom for the girl. Suddenly the earth quaked as Jesus died on the cross and a stone struck Artaban. Dying, he heard a Voice saying: "When you helped the least of my children, you helped me. Meet me in Heaven!" Artaban, the fourth Wise Man, had been making God present in his community for years by helping others. God asks each of us on the feast of Epiphany to be a fourth Wise Man by becoming God’s epiphanies, making His love present in the world around us by our acts of love and kindness.
 
God has given us many precious gifts of time, treasure, and talent.  We are called to use these to manifest His love and concern to the world around us. How are we doing?  How can we do better?  A good reflection at the beginning of a new year.  May 2025 be a happy and healthy one for you and your family, as you share God’s gifts with those around you. God bless.
 
Church sign of the week: The meaning of life is to find your gifts. The purpose of life is to give them away.

Christmas is a time when we come together and celebrate as a family, so it seems appropriate that we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family on the Sunday after Christmas.
 
We don’t know too much about the family of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus except that they were refugees for a while, they carefully followed the precepts of their religion, and Joseph was a simple carpenter who lived with his family in Nazareth. But it must have been a good family, because we are told Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
 
Family is important for shaping the “wisdom” of a child, not the book learning, but how to find true meaning in life. Some examples: how do parents settle differences? Do they argue and scream at each other? Do they throw things? Or do they discuss their differences, either coming to an agreement or agreeing to disagree in a way that is manageable?
 
Are the parents honest? If the family sees someone drop a wallet, do the parents pick it up and give it back to the person or do they take the money out of it? Are the parents truthful or always telling “little white lies”?
 
How important is faith in the life of the parents and the family? Does the family pray and attend Mass regularly?  Do children see that parents are happy and at peace because of a strong relationship with the Lord? Or is religion a perfunctory and marginal part of family life?
 
Many more examples could be given, but the point is made: while children ultimately decide for themselves how they will live life and what is important to them, what they see and absorb growing up has a profound influence on them.
 
As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, let us pray for all families, especially parents, that they may model true wisdom for their children. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, bless our families and help our parents impart true wisdom to their children.
 
Church sign: If we don’t teach our children to follow Christ, the world will teach them not to.

Jerusalem was the center of Jewish faith, life, and existence. It was the place of pilgrimage, the only place where God was present among His people. So, it was turning everything upside down when Micah declared in today’s reading that the Messiah would come from a little, rural town: Bethlehem.
 
From the beginning to the end, Jesus turned everything on its head. The Jews were expecting a great, political ruler who would make them #1 again. Jesus was born of “nobody” parents in a stable. It was announced to shepherds, not the ruling class. The only people of importance who were in the loop were three Gentile visitors from afar. The end was even more shocking: instead of conquering all other kingdoms and making the Jews the rulers of the world, Jesus was tortured and killed by the religious leaders of his own people.
 
This week we will celebrate that unthinkable way (for the Jews) that the Messiah came into our world. Jesus still comes into our world each day in many, varied ways. A strong message for us is to remember that our way of understanding and seeing things is not God’s way. We constantly have to be open to the almost unthinkable, because God can and will surprise us. Perhaps Jesus will come to us in an unexpected sickness. An encounter with a homeless person. A surprise event that changes everything for us, be it something we perceive as good (a promotion) or bad (an illness). And only time will tell if these events are “good” or “bad.”
 
As we celebrate the birth of our Christ this week, let us thank God for the gift of His Son and our Savior. Let us ask God to open our eyes so that we can see Him coming into our lives in the people and events of each day. We are truly blessed! We also ask Him to help us live in such a way that we are bringing Christ to others, as we pray: Come, Lord Jesus, into my heart and help me to bring your goodness and kindness to all I meet.
 
I wish you and your family a blessed Christmas. Thank you for being part of our Pius family.
 
Church sign: The best gift ever was wrapped in swaddling clothes.

I expect the Christmas consumerism push to start the day after Halloween, which has been happening for years.  But this year I noticed it even before Halloween!  While gift-giving is a wonderful way to share love, it can get out of control and the bustle of preparing to celebrate Christmas can overshadow its true meaning: we are celebrating the birth of our Savior.
 
It would be strange to go to a birthday party and bring a gift for everyone there, except for the person celebrating their birthday!  Do we bring a gift for the child Jesus to our celebration of Christmas?  What would be a meaningful gift? What would Jesus want?
 
Obviously, Jesus doesn’t need any “thing.”  While He might like “peace on earth” or the end of poverty and suffering, those are obviously above our pay grade: there is no way we can bring about those monumental changes by ourselves.  But we can make a small contribution!
 
I invite us in these last 10 days before we celebrate the birth of our Savior to spend some quiet time with Jesus, asking Him what He wants for Christmas and then be quiet and listen.  Perhaps He will say being less impatient in traffic or with an annoying family member.  Or maybe spend more quality time with family members instead of scrolling on the internet. Or use some spare time to volunteer at a food pantry. Or visit some homebound relatives or neighbors. Or spend less money on myself and support causes that help others instead. Or…or…or. We have the custom of making New Year resolutions.  I wonder how many of them we keep?  Perhaps if we spend some time before Christmas in quiet with the Lord, asking Him what He wants from us for His birthday, and then resolving to give Him that special present, we will be more likely to follow through with it than we do with New Year resolutions. That will make our
celebration of the birthday of our Savior truly meaningful.  God bless.
 
Church sign: Jesus will help us through our holidaze.

On December 8th, we normally celebrate the feast of the
Immaculate Conception of Mary, the patronal feast of the United States.  This year we celebrate the 2nd Sunday of Advent and
the feast of Mary is moved to the following day.
 
I would like to look at the meaning of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, because it fits into the Advent theme of preparation, both preparation to celebrate the first coming of Christ and
preparation for His second coming by living in such a way as to help bring about the Kingdom of Peace and Love.
 
This feast celebrates that Mary was kept free of original sin from the moment of her conception AS A PREPARATION for being the Mother of God.  But I think the greatest thing about Mary was her willingness to say fiat voluntas tua, may your will be done. She didn’t know what would happen.  I’m sure it was scary and unnerving.  Yet, she trusted God enough to accept His will; as a result, Christ our Savior was born for our salvation.
 
By our baptism, we have been commissioned, as was Mary, to bring Christ into the world.  We do it by the way we live and interact with others.  The more we can bring love, peace, forgiveness, and gentleness into the world around us, the more we are preparing the way for the Kingdom of Peace and Love to take over our world.
 
As we celebrate the patronal feast of our country, let us pray to Mary that all citizens of our country can leave behind hatred and divisive language, growing in our ability to work together for the common good, especially for the most vulnerable.  That is preparing the way of the Lord, our task for Advent.  Immaculate Mary, help us prepare the way of your Son in our country and world.  May we bring unity and peace by all we say and do. Amen.
 
Church sign: We rise by lifting others.

In this first Sunday of Advent, our readings continue the theme of being ready for the end times.  Next week they will turn to preparing us to celebrate the birth of our Savior.  I was struck this year by the following phrase from our Gospel: Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life.
 
Those of us who are trying to live a life according to Gospel values have probably done well at controlling carousing and drunkenness.  We have learned how to use our faith life and our religious observance in community to help us grow in our ability to obey the commandments and be kind to those in need.
 
But, what about “the anxieties of daily life”?  As we have gotten older, have we gotten better at trusting that God is in control and all will be OK?  Yes, there are the major crises that happen: two weeks ago, I shared about being diagnosed with tuberculosis as a teenager and being smashed between two cars, wondering if I would ever walk again.
 
I am thinking more about the pressures and anxieties of everyday life: running from one task to another, putting up with annoying people, coping with unexpected interruptions and delays, etc., etc.  How do I cope with these “anxieties of daily life”?  Am I able to stay calm?  Am I able to say a short prayer, asking the Lord to help me?  Can I keep my focus on what is really important, despite the distractions?  Perhaps how we grow in our ability to handle small inconveniences and anxieties prepares up to cope with the big ones, when they come along. How am I doing at coping with the stress and anxiety of daily life?  God is there to help: am I letting Him?
 
Church sign: If God is your copilot, change seats!

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King.  Very often an icon or statue of Christ the King presents Christ as we hear at the Last Judgment in Matthew: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne…
 
While the Last Judgment presents our ultimate goal, to be on the side that enters the Kingdom, we are not there yet: we are in the process of building up the Kingdom by the way we live our lives.  From that perspective, I like an icon or statue of Jesus the King as He is presented in our Gospel today: defenseless, alone, beaten with whips, crowned with thorns, and plopped in front of Pilate, the secular power whom Jesus allows to have complete control over Him.
 
This is a King who humbles Himself in a most degrading way and allows Himself to be tortured, all to bring about the Kingdom of justice, love, and peace.
 
My friends, this feast calls us to imitate Jesus, not just to win glory for ourselves, but by doing our best to bring about His Kingdom of justice, love, and peace.  There is so much unhappiness and pain in our world, so much conflict and division.  There are many who do not have the basic necessities of life.  We can’t solve it all, but we need to model our lives after our King, doing our best to bring about His Kingdom in the lives of those we are able to touch.
 
We can’t do it all. It isn’t all our work.  But we can do our part. Let us resolve to do so, as we pray: Christ, the humble King, give us the strength to follow your example in building up your Kingdom of justice, love, and peace.
 
Church sign: Make the rest of your life the best of your life!

As we approach the end of the Church year and the feast of Christ the King, our readings can be scary, talking about the end times in what is called apocalyptic language.  The purpose is not to scare us, but to invite us to live as we should and trust in God’s love and protection.  Over the course of my life, I have become a little better at doing that, but it has been a struggle.  A couple major events helped me.
 
When I was 17 and a senior in high school, I was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a death sentence in those days.  As my parents were taking me to the sanatorium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where I would be locked up, my mother said to me, “God loves you and will take care of you.”  I kept saying that to myself and He did: my parents gave permission for me to be experimented on with new drugs and they worked right away (they are the go-to drugs today): in less than a year, I was released.
 
When I was 35, I was smashed between two cars when I stopped to help someone who had slid off the road on black ice.  It looked like I wouldn’t walk again.  Once again, my mother reminded me of God’s love and protection.  It took nine months, but I was able to walk again.
 
These were two dramatic incidents in my life, but there were many smaller ones.  I suspect if you reflect on your life, remembering times you were in a bad place or felt threatened, you will find that God was there and helping you get through it.  What a wonderful gift our faith is! 
 
As we approach the celebration of Christ the King, let us thank Him for being a King who always walks with us and supports us.  We are truly blessed.
 
Church sign: No God - no peace.  Know God - know peace.