This Sunday we celebrate first communion for some of our youngest parishioners! Make sure to pray for them as they receive the graces God gives through the Eucharist, The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s only through these graces that we can live our spiritual lives and grow in the holiness God calls us to, and those graces are what lead us to eternal life. Those receiving first communion are making an important step on their journey to heaven: pray that they will live well the grace they receive for the first time today.

This week we celebrate Ascension Thursday, when Christ ascended to His Father in heaven. It falls 40 days after Easter, the span of time that the resurrected Christ stayed with His apostles and disciples before ascending to heaven. Nine days after Ascension we celebrate Pentecost, when Christ sent the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and His Church. Those nine days are the origin of novenas, i.e: prayers for nine consecutive days, because the first novena was a prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit during the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost.

I have news to announce regarding the assignments for the Dominicans here. No worries though—no one is leaving, but rather our community is growing. Fr. Jonah Teller OP, whom you may remember was our summer deacon here in 2019, will be joining us as our new parish vicar. He’ll be replacing Fr. Clement Dickie OP, who will now head the Catholic Center at NYU. Fr. Isaiah Beiter OP will remain with us, continuing to serve at the Catholic Center. In all we’ll be adding a new friar here and no one is being reassigned to another community. When Fr. Jonah arrives, we’ll have five friars serving here.

Over the next few weeks, St. Joseph’s, along with other parishes across the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, will conduct the Annual Friars Formation Appeal. This appeal is critical in supporting the formation expenses of the next generation of Dominican friars. God has continued to bless our province of Dominican Friars with many vocations: dozens of friars will be sent out into ministry over the next decade.

We’re now in the Easter Season as we leave the Octive of Easter behind and await Ascension Thursday, when the resurrected Christ ascends to the Father in heaven, and Pentecost, when Christ sends the Holy Spirit upon His Church. If you’re looking for spiritual reading, this time is great to reading the Acts of the Apostles (just after the Gospel according to John). Acts recounts the adventurous early days of the Church, detailing the Apostles’ mighty deeds wrought after Pentecost. 

Today is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, the end of the Easter Octave, and Divine Mercy Sunday. We celebrate God’s work of salvation in the world and our lives, so let us today give thanks to God for His goodness is the source of all good things.

Happy Easter! Today our Lord has risen and our salvation is secured! Today Christ has defeated sin and death, and they no longer have dominion over us. Today the path to eternal life, to our true homeland in heaven, lies open before us in Christ; therefore, our hearts should rejoice because the fulfillment of our deepest desires is possible in Christ. Life now has a happy ending!

Holy Week is here! Today starts the holiest week of the year, when Our Lord won our salvation. Let us enter into this grace-filled time and encounter Christ anew. Let us meditate upon our salvation in Christ and join our hearts to His. The events we relive this week are the center of human history: the most important actions even taken in the universe, for Christ’s victory on the cross is our victory over sin and death. Evil, sin, and even death itself no longer have the final say in our lives; rather, we take joy in Christ’s having defeated them all and given us a share in His triumph. This week we relive Jesus’ victory: His facing down death on the cross and His triumph at the resurrection. Let us mourn the cost Christ paid this Good Friday, and let us marvel at the victory He achieved this Easter.

This week is our annual parish Lenten mission and Fr. Cajetan Cuddy OP will the preacher. He’ll preach from Monday the 27th through Wednesday the 29th at 7pm each night in the church. The topic is “In Search of Real Spirituality: The Only Three Questions.” We hope that everyone can make it—Fr. Cajetan is a wonderful preacher and it will be a great mission.

This year our annual St. Joseph parish dinner will be next Saturday, March 25th, after the 5:30pm vigil Mass (so 6:30pm). Tickets are on sale at every Sunday Mass until we sell out. Tickets are $25 per adult (to cover some of the cost of the dinner). Monte’s will be providing the food, as in previous dinners, so the food will be great! We’ll have Catholic trivia again too! I hope to see everyone there.

The week after our St. Joseph dinner, the week of the 26th, will be our parish mission this year. Our former vicar at St. Joseph’s, Fr. Cajetan Cuddy OP, will be the preacher this year. He’s excited to come back to St. Joe’s! He’ll preach all the Sunday Masses the weekend before, and the parish mission will be Monday through Wednesday, 3/27-29, at 7pm in the church.

This year our annual St. Joseph parish dinner will be on Saturday, March 25th, after the 5:30pm vigil Mass (so 6:30pm). Tickets are on sale at every Sunday Mass until we sell out. Tickets are $25 per adult (to cover some of the cost of the dinner). Monte’s will be providing the food, as in previous dinners, so the food will be great! We’ll have Catholic trivia again too! I hope to see everyone there.

This year our annual St. Joseph parish dinner will be on Saturday, March 25th. It’s always on a Saturday near the Solemnity of St. Joseph (March 20th) after the vigil Mass. Tickets will go on sale next Sunday and will be sold thereafter in the parish office (during office hours, 8am-4pm) and at the Sunday Masses until we sell out. Monte’s will be providing the meal again so the food will be great! I hope to see everyone there.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, a season of penance that prepares us for the celebration of Easter. The point of penances is to open our souls to God so that we can hear His voice in our lives. It’s a form of repentance, meaning sorrow for our sin and turning from sin back towards God. Penance and repentance are thus hopeful acts: that we can be united with God by turning towards His mercy and grace.

Lent is quickly approaching: 2/22 is Ash Wednesday. Start thinking about what penances you would like to take on this Lent. There are many graces to the Lenten season so make sure to take advantage of them; it can be a time of great spiritual growth. Pick penances that will help give you the inner freedom and space to move closer to Christ. For instance, fasting from social media or the internet works well for people today. Also, make sure to increase your daily prayer during Lent—the point isn’t simply to empty ourselves of the things that distract us from God, but also to fill ourselves with the things of God.

Erin O’Kane, our parish secretary for the past four years, is moving on as she completes her master’s degree. We wish her well in her future service to the Church. However, we  need to hire a new parish secretary. If you know anyone who may be interested in the position please refer that person to the parish.

This Thursday is Candlemas, also known as the Presentation of the Lord. It’s called Candlemas because there is a special blessing of candles at the beginning and then a procession. This year we’re re-introducing this special candle blessing and procession. We’ll bless the church candles we’ll use throughout this year, and you can bring your candles that you want blessed. It starts in McGuire Hall at 7pm, and after the opening candle blessing we’ll process into the church for the rest of the mass. I encourage everyone to attend that evening—it’ll be a grace filled night. We’ll still also have our normal 12:10pm daily mass that day too, but without the candle blessing. 

This upcoming Saturday, the 28th, is the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians in Church history and a Dominican saint. His theology is the basis of our Dominican training and much of what you hear in our homilies is rooted in St. Thomas’s thought. The school of theology based on St. Thomas’s writings is called Thomism; if you’d like to learn more about St. Thomas’s theology, check out these short videos from the Thomistic Institute at https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org.

Today we celebrate Epiphany, or the revelation of God made Incarnate, made man. It’s an astounding thing when considered: that God, who is the primal cause of everything, who created the cosmos and holds it in existence at every moment, took a human nature to Himself and entered into our history.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God! We celebrate Mary because she had the unique mission of being the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. It was through her that God became man. She is also the mother of all those joined to Christ in baptism, so she is our spiritual mother.