Once I gave my three-year-old niece a certain toy for Christmas. When she opened it, she was happy. Shortly thereafter her five-year old sister opened another present from me: the same toy, along with some play jewelry. The three-year-old cried out: “That’s not fair! Why’d she get the jewelry, too?!”READ MORE

Happy Sunday!

Praise to you O Lord for a wonderful and blessed community of Saint Joan of Arc parish. My heart is filled with gratitude with the over 40 ministries our family has to offer. Thank you to our staff and volunteers for making our Ministries Fair a success.

Happy Sunday!

This past May I led a pilgrimage to Mexico to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Saint Toribio Romo, Saint Jose Sanchez del Rio and the area of the Mexican martyrs in Guanajuato, Guadalajara & Sahuayo. It was on May 3 when I discovered the celebration of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is celebrated in Mexico instead of September 14.

Happy Sunday!

One of the many blessings at our parish home is the wonderful VOLUNTEERS! This week we pause for a brief moment to say THANK YOU and celebrate the service many provide behind the scenes. We are so grateful for our founding members who have given hours of time, love and energy in various ways. We at Saint Joan of Arc parish are a grateful community and want to honor you on the Feast of the Birth of Mary on September 8th with a special gathering of food and fellowship.

Happy Sunday!

One of the greatest treasures of our parish is the presence of our Eucharistic and Adorable Jesus in our Saint Katharine Drexel Chapel for us to be in His presence and pray. What a loving and generous act of our Blessed Lord to console and strengthen us in our faith. The Imitation of Christ describes: “When Jesus is near, all is well and nothing seems difficult. When He is absent all is hard. When Jesus does not speak within, all other comfort is empty, but if He says only a word, it brings great consolation” (Book II Chapter 8).

Happy Sunday!

You may have noticed our beautiful flower arrangements near the altar at Mass during the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary last week. Thanks to the Little Flower Ministry of young ladies dedicating their service to the Lord with altar arrangements and preparations for the Holy Mass for beautifying our sanctuary. The flowers help us be reminded of God’s creation and beautiful skillset of his handiwork.

Happy Sunday!

When we hear about Holy days of obligation, many thoughts come to mind. Routines experience an inconvenient schedule during the week, a guilty conscience weighs heavy on us and now we have to plan to attend Mass because the Catholic Church said so. As grateful Catholic sons and daughters of the Church, we receive these Holy Days of obligation as an extension of Sunday, the Lord’s day. With their richness and beauty of how they direct our hearts and minds to contemplate the goodness of the Lord, we want to be part of those celebrations.

Happy Feast of the Transfiguration!

The extremely hot July has passed us and we are another month closer to cooler weather which means more outdoor activities such as hiking. One of my favorite outdoor activities are hikes around the valley and northern Arizona. The feast of the Transfiguration reminds me of the ascent of a mountain. We spend time conditioning ourselves, preparing food and water to make such a climb. The focus is always the summit and we do not distract ourselves with what we have already done. In fact, one continuous step at a time allows the efforts of our climb to reach the summit.

Happy Sunday!

Three years ago I was appointed Associate Director of the All Saints Catholic Newman Center at Arizona State University. As you know it was difficult to leave St. Joan of Arc. Many questions and concerns crossed my mind. Will the university have students on campus? As I began to observe, very few students were present on campus. It was an eerie sight as we were accustomed to seeing thousands of students everywhere.

Greetings and blessings!

On July 10th, our Knights of Columbus Council here at St. Joan of Arc installed new officers which included my appointment as chaplain. I am grateful for the past Grand Knights, past officers and current members who fulfill their duties with the council. I offer my sincere congratulations to our new Grand Knight Chuck Reader and the rest of the officers. After attending the ceremonies, the brotherhood of the knights was inspiring as the men were reminded to embrace the cross of Jesus Christ. This brotherhood resembled a portion of the Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary vision prayer: “In brotherhood we strive to be discipled by Jesus in all things; to embrace joyfully His cross.”

It’s not uncommon to hear people complain that we Catholics often fail in communicating our faith. Fair enough. We can and should improve there. But it’s interesting to notice that Jesus himself was implicitly accused by his disciples of a similar failure. This week in Matthew’s gospel they are perplexed that he speaks to the crowds in ambiguous parables. The Lord’s riddles leave many people more confused than before. He responds by pointing out that his parables have an intentional dual purpose: to hide (for some) and to reveal (for others) his Gospel: “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted” (Matthew 13:11). Is Jesus being unnecessarily difficult, obscurantist, or, worse, elitist?

Blessed Sunday to all!

Thank you for the warm welcome back to Saint Joan of Arc parish! My heart has experienced an immense amount of joy and excitement this past week. The homecoming was also met with beautiful and ornate arrangements of decorative artwork around the church.

Happy Sunday!

While giving thanks and praise to almighty God, my return to St. Joan of Arc was received with tremendous joy and acceptance. This is the parish where I learned to be a priest for three blessed years from 2017 until 2020. As I return to being the pastor of souls, the Parochial Administrator, my heart is filled with gratitude and my intent is to fulfill this function with the diligence of a good householder. The advantage comes from the previous years of getting to know many of you. Since then, we have grown as a parish and I look forward to meeting our new families and the newest additions to the growing family. I am aware of some faithful departed members and I will miss them. In your kindness, please let me know who has gone before us.