Welcome, Deacon Ned!

The Strength of the Holy Family, Patrons of Refugees

St. Agnes Catholic Church December 27/28, 2025 Feast of the Holy Family https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122825.cfm Happy 3rd / 4th Day of Christmas, and happy Feast of the Holy Family. Despite our lovely Christmas carols and our beautiful nativity scenes, the little town of Bethlehem would not sleep in heavenly peace for long. We sing together with the angels, “peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!" But the reality is that the powers of the world recognized Jesus, not as Lord at his birth, but as a threat to their rule. From his hilltop fortress three miles from Bethlehem, King Herod looked down on royal David’s city and did not plan to come and adore Jesus. Instead, the old dictator, who was in his mid-seventies and was wracked with illness, became increasingly desperate to cling to power. He hatched a plan to massacre every boy two years old and younger in Bethlehem and its vicinity. ...

What Christmas is About

Bellarmine University Our Lady of the Woods December 24, 2025 Christmas Eve Vigil Mass Readings “I just don't understand Christmas.... I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.” So says Charlie Brown in the 1965 cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas. My nine-year-old son, EJ, has been obsessed with Peanuts lately, and I have seen this short little special multiple times during Advent. Charlie’s friend Linus responds to his complaint, saying, "Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.” I think this show has lasting appeal because we can all relate, at various moments, to Charlie Brown’s morose feelings about Christmas. Though we are supposed to feel merry and bright, sometimes the garishness of the season and the relentlessness of it all can make us feel that our hearts are two sizes too sma...

Jesus' Hard Sayings

Jesus’ Hard Sayings Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B August 19/20, 2021 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082221.cfm Good morning / afternoon, St. Agnes. It’s been a long first full week of classes for me—and I am sure for all of you who are parents, teachers, and students. I just started my 17th year as a teacher. [This is my first at Assumption High School where I teach Theology]. I have been reflecting this month on an early experience I had as a student teacher preparing for my first classroom. I was up at the University of Notre Dame in an Education class. The professor was legendary educator named Dr. Thomas Doyle who everyone called “Doc.” He grouped all of us student-teachers by subject matter around tables. So, I was working on a problem with several other new Theology teachers when Doc came to talk to us. He said something I’ll never forget: “You The...

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