4/6/2014 – 5th Sunday in Lent- John 11:1-45

     Today, we mark the 5^th Sunday of Lent.  We are getting closer to the end of our Lenten journey.  In just a week, we will hear the Passion of our Lord on Palm Sunday, as we enter into Holy Week, one of the most profound experiences we Christians have in our entire liturgical year.

      Today, our Lenten journey takes us face to face with Lazarus, a beloved friend of Jesus.  Lazarus has been sealed away in the tomb for 4 days when Jesus arrives in Bethany.  At Jesus’ command, “Come out, Lazarus!”, Lazarus comes out of the tomb,  with his hands and feet all tied up with strips of material, with a cloth covering his face.  “Unbind him, let him go free!”  Jesus commands.

       We have been searching for God in all things during our Lenten journey.  In one of his books, No Man Is an Island, the Trappist monk Thomas Merton had this to say about seeking God:  “In all His acts God orders all things, whether good or evil, for the good of those who know Him and seek Him and who strive to bring their own freedom under obedience to His divine purpose. All that is done by the will of God in secret is done for His glory and for the good of those whom He has chosen to share in His glory.”  So if God orders all things for the good of those who seek him, as we strive to be obedient to him, how do we approach this when we feel that we are bound up like Lazarus in our lives? Sometimes, the things that bind us are tied to the circumstances of our lives, while other times the things that bind us up are things of our own choosing.

      I remember talking to a prisoner who had been a drug addict for many years, whose life revolved around getting his next fix of heroin or methamphetamines.  He told me that his life was dark and ugly all the time, but it was nothing he could break away from.  In the midst of that darkness, he said that he would pass by a Catholic church on his way to work.  He said that in the midst of his ugly, ugly life, he would stop in at the church to pray, one of the fews signs showing him that God was still there in all that was wrong in his life.  Although he and the other prisoners definitely did not want to be in prison, did not want to be bound and constrained by time served in a correctional institution, many of them admitted that being sent to prison was a wake-up call that saved their lives.  I told them that there were worse prisons we can put ourselves into compared to serving times as a prisoner behind the bars.

      When I was a missionary I worked with a model called liberation theology.  Through the reading of the Exodus story in the Old Testament, the poor whom I worked with in the jungles of South America identified with the people of Israel who were enslaved in Egypt.  God led the Israelites out of slavery and liberated them, bring them to the promised land and to a covenant with Him.  God liberated these slaves on many different levels – on spiritual, economic, political, psychological, social, and religious levels just to name a few.  As a missionary, we studied Scripture with the villagers whom I served, we listened to their stories and their reality, and we discerned where God was calling them to help themselves. Agricultural projects, a rice milling machine, a distance learning high school, a carpentry workshop and a sewing workshop – these were some of the projects we started with them to give them hope and to help them earn a living and gain confidence in themselves and in their journey of faith.

      We are bound up in a lot of different ways.  Sometimes we can physically break through those boundaries, and in other ways, we can break free on other levels.  As a missionary, I had to overcome a lot of adversity and struggle, not the least was sickness and violence.  Yet, through my missionary work and through all I had to endure, on many levels, God liberated me as well.  How are we bound up – and how is God leading us in the situation we are in?  How do we search for God and find him in those things that tie us down?   Everyone of us here at St James has a story – everyone of us has a particular journey of faith.  Julie and Andrew Battaile have really touched me since I have been here at St James with their deep faith and their enthusiasm for life. I share with them a love of the outdoors and of exploring new places.  Julie is now going to reflect upon the raising of Lazarus and how we seek God in the ways we are bound up by things in our lives. 

4/5/2014 – Friday of 4th week of Lent – Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22

     Today's reading from the book of Wisdom explains to us how the wicked often lie in wait for the righteous one, wanting to destroy him because he is inconvenient and opposes their actions, how the righteous recognize the sins of the wicked, how this threatens them.  These are the forces of darkness that were at work in the world described by the book of Wisdom, the forces of darkness that tried to destroy Jesus in our Gospel reading, the forces that tried to entrap him wherever he traveled in his ministry in ancient Israel. 

     But our psalmist assures us today: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted – he confronts the evildoers – he hears the just cry out to him.  We might look out at our world today and see a lot to cry out about. We see acts of violence in our community, acts of terrorism in the world, people attacking others with their words and their actions. Perhaps we are broken hearted at seeing all that is going on in our world, in the struggles we are enduring in our own lives, for our inability to let go of things that have happened in our lives in the past.  Let us remember that in the middle of our Lenten journey, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit.  Let us feel the Lord mercy and compassion with us.  And let us in turn be the presence of healing, the presence of the Gospel values, in a world that is so desperately in need of them.

4/3/2014 – Thursday of 4th week of Lent – Exodus 32:7-14

      We hear how the Lord’s anger rises up against the people of Israel for rejecting him in the middle of the Exodus, how they make a molten calf as an idol to worship instead.  The Lord wants to punish the people and save Moses, but Moses intercedes on their before.  I think of the saints as interceding on our behalf in a similar manner, in offering their prayers, compassion, and fidelity on our behalf to help us when we have strayed from the path.   Many of us Catholics grow to see some of the saints as our friends and our advocates, as those who are helping us when we need that help the most.

     Today we celebrate one such saint who wrote these inspired words that were turned into a song in the Broadway musical GODSPELL in the 1970s. “Our Lord Jesus - Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.”   St. Richard, the Bishop of Chichester, England, prayed those words to Jesus way back in the 13^th century.   Today we celebrate the feast day of St Richard of Chichester.  Seeing, knowing, and loving God more clearly: Isn't that the heart of our Lenten journey?  And St Richard did not just preach through his words.  In his life as bishop, he advocated for discipline among the clergy, he was generous in his help of the poor, and he denounced corruption and abuses in the Church and in the government.   May St Richard and the community of saints help us and guide us on our Lenten journey of repentance and renewal. 

4/2/2014 – Wednesday of 4th week of Lent – Psalm 145, Isaiah 49:8-15

      The prophets were sent to Ancient Israel to not only relay a message God was sending them, but also to bring them back, to reconcile them to the Lord.  Israel may think that God had forsaken them for their transgressions and sins, but Isaiah reaffirms the message of the covenant that God made with his people, of his steadfastness in maintaining that relationship. The psalmist echoes this same message, telling us that the Lord is gracious and merciful.

      It is interesting, the saints that we celebrate in the Church, how they reveal different aspects of the faith.  There was a movement in the early Church called the Desert Fathers and Mothers that arose in the late 3^rd century, when men and women left their earthly possessions and the comforts of society to live in isolation as hermits in the desert.  Mary of Egypt is one of the saint on the liturgical calendar for today.  She is said to have been a well-known singer and actress in Alexandria, Egypt in the middle of the 4^th century. She realized her evil ways while praying in front of an icon of the Blessed Mother, having moved to the desert of Egypt to live as a hermitess for 47 years.  Her fame spread after her dead body was found in the desert, as she achieved a large devotional following as a saint in medieval Europe. There has been a great interest in the Desert Fathers and Mothers in recent years, because many in our modern society are looking to their wisdom and their witness as an inspiration to try to so attached to the material possessions and superficial values of our modern world.  Indeed, we are called to recognize the ways, both big and small, that we can change our lives in order to truly live out our faith. May we trust in God’s mercy and in his faithfulness to us as we continue our journey during Lent. 

4/1/2014 – Tuesday of 4th week of Lent – John 5:1-16

       The pool at Bethesda is located just outside the city walls of Jerusalem.  The pool was originally built to supply water for the Temple, but by Jesus' time it no longer served this function.  By Jesus’ day, the pool had acquired a reputation for healing qualities.  Jesus singles one man out from the many who are gathered there to be healed.  This man acknowledges that he has no one to put him in the pool, a direct admission that there are no family or friends to help him. It's difficult for us to imagine how he would survive there very long by himself without anyone to help him out.  This man did not know that it was Jesus talking to him, so he obviously did not anticipate being healed by Jesus.  Although the man expects to be cured by the waters of the pool, Jesus bypasses the pool altogether and cures him directly. It is interesting that, unlike some other healings Jesus performs, Jesus doesn’t link the cured person with his or her faith.   Jesus just cures him because he needs healing. The cure that happens in this Gospel passage has a very reassuring and positive message to all of us as we continue our Lenten journey. The man is cured, he is saved, because he merely wanted to be well.

         The holy season of Lent is an opportunity for all of us to grow closer to Jesus and to contemplate the great love God shows us through his beloved Son. May our Lenten prayer today be that we may be able to recognize the opportunities that Jesus extends to us every day.  May we use the gifts given to us to bring life and abundance to our daily lives.

3/31/2014 – Monday of 4th week of Lent – Psalm 30

      “Rejoice Jerusalem, and all who love her.  Be joyful, all who were in mourning.  Exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.”  These words are the entrance antiphon for the beginning of yesterday’s mass on the 4^th Sunday of Lent.  Several adults and youth wondered why I wore a rose colored vestment yesterday, wondering if it was a special feast day or something.  Yesterday was Laetare Sunday – from the Latin word rejoice.  It is named that because we should rejoice, for we have passed the halfway mark in our Lenten celebrations, and our Easter festival is near.  Our psalm today also talks about rejoicing, for the Lord has brought us up from the netherworld, preserved his people from those going down to the pit.   Strong words indeed.   Sometimes, we may feel like things are closing in on us, that the bad is overwhelming and overcoming the good in our lives.   Yet, we are to have hope, as we had hope yesterday on Lataere Sunday.   May we continue to accompany Jesus with our own crosses during this Lenten season, and may we be resurrected with him on Easter morning.  Amen, I say to that!

3/30/2014 – cuarto domingo de cuaresma – Efesios 5, 8-14, Juan 9:1-41

      Hoy es el cuarto domingo de cuaresma.  Estamos en la mitad de nuestro camino cuaresmal.  En dos semanas, entramos en la semana santa con el domingo de ramos. Tradicionalmente, este domingo se llama “Laetare" de una palabra latin, debido a la antífona gregoriana del Introito de la Misa, tomada del libro del Profeta Isaías: Regocíjate, Jerusalén.

       Podemos empezar hoy con el mensaje de Paul en su carta a los efesios: "En otro tiempo, ustedes fueron tinieblas, pero ahora, unidos al Senor, son luz". En las tinieblas de nuestra vida, a veces, no podemos ver la luz de Cristo en su presencia. Este tema continua en el Evangelio: Antes eran ciegos. Ahora ven. En el Evangelio, Jesús vio un ciego de nacimiento. Sus discípulos le preguntaron: ¿quién pecó, el ciego o sus padres? ¿Quién tuvo la culpa de que naciera ciego?  Nosotros, seres humanos, siempre buscamos razones par justificarlo todo.  En verdad, siempre buscamos culpables para condenarles o responsables para premiarles.  Podemos mirar esta realidad en la frecuencia de los juicios que tenemos en nuestra sociedad.  Jesús ve la realidad de nuestro mundo con otros ojos. El nos dice que Dios no ve la ceguera como castigo por el pecado del ciego o de sus padres o de otra persona, sino como ocasión para manifestar la actividad salvadora de Dios. Cristo nos explica que el ha venido para hacer visibles las obras de Dios. Dios está en la ceguera y está en la curación. Dios está presente en todas las experiencias de nuestra vida. 

      Jesús, en su encuentro con el ciego de nacimiento, realizó un signo de salvación.  El realizó la obra de Dios, el trabajo de la compasión de Dios, el amor de Dios.  Cristo nos explica que para Dios, no hay culpables; hay sólo personas que salvar, personas destinadas a ver la gloria de Dios, personas llamadas a ver y a conocer a Jesús, nuestro salvador.  Jesús, con un poco de barro y con su saliva, le untó los ojos del ciego y le mandó a lavarse a la piscina de Siloé. El ciego obedeció y vio. Se lavó y recuperó la vista y después, conoció a Jesús -  conoció a Jesús desde la perspectiva de fe.  Con cada pregunta que tuvo, el ciego respondió a las preguntas con más claridad sobre la identidad del que le había curado: "Ese hombre llamado Jesús". "Es un profeta". "Si ese hombre no viniera de Dios, no podría hacer nada". Y finalmente - "Creo, Señor".  El ciego empezó a ver con los ojos de la carne, y poco a poco, el podía ver con los ojos de la fe.  Para nosotros y para el ciego, la fe es luz; la fe es visión; la fe es conocimiento y adoración.  Sólo Jesús puede hacer este milagro de abrir los ojos para ver las cosas de Dios y las cosas del mundo con los ojos de Dios.  En verdad, nosotros somos este ciego en el Evangelio.  Estamos llamados a recuperar la visión de nuestra fe.  Y nuestro camino cuaresmal puede ayudarnos para mirar nuestra vida y nuestro mundo con los ojos de fe.

3/30/2014 – the healing of the blind man - 4th Sunday in Lent – John 9:1-41

       Questions.  So many questions.  What's striking about today's account of the healing of the blind man at the pool of Siloam is the presence of so many questions.  We begin with a question that Jesus' disciples ask: They wonder who was responsible for this man's blindness.  The disciples assume that this man is blind because someone had sinned, a common belief in the ancient world.  The blind man's neighbors ask questions, wanting to know how he recovered his sight.  The Pharisees, as always, ask many questions about who Jesus is, about how he broke the law in curing this man on the Sabbath.  It's striking that the Pharisees' questions are so condemning; they aren't concerned with the blind man's welfare – they do not celebrate his gift of sight.  

       In light of all these questions in today’s Gospel, what about the questions we ourselves in the search for God in our lives?  Depending upon what questions we ask and how we ask them, our questions can either help us to see through the lens of faith, or they can blind us to God's presence with us. The disciples, the man's neighbors, and others question whether this man was really blind since birth.  In asking such questions, they don’t see the joy and the miracle in what Jesus did in healing him.  They could only ask what their view of the world and their expectations allow them to envision, which is a very distorted view of reality. 

        Having been healed, this man is able to live a different life not just because of his newly obtained sight, but because of his newfound spiritual sight.  He recognizes Jesus as the Son of Man, as the light of the world.  The Pharisees were never physically blind, but they were blind in a psychological and spiritual sense.  The truth is hidden from the Pharisees by their need to control, in only asking those questions that they hoped would reinforce their rigid view of God and the world.  They can’t behold the miracles that Jesus performs with awe & wonder, but instead they try to condemn him & trap him. 

        In our search for God, in our journey of conversion and repentance during Lent, we need to be willing to see things differently.  We need to ask new questions that will give us honest, insightful answers, that will allow Jesus to challenge our biases and suppositions, for it's often difficult for us to see God in our lives in a new way, even when it's before our very eyes.

       “Our Lord Jesus - Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.”  St. Richard, the Bishop of Chichester, England, prayed those words to Jesus way back in the 13^th century.  In fact, the feast day of St Richard of Chichester takes place this upcoming week on April 3.  Seeing, knowing, and loving God more clearly: Isn't that at the heart of what our Gospel is about today?  Isn't that the heart of our Lenten journey?

        The light of God can be given to us in any condition we are in, whether we’re currently blind, or whether we can already see clearly through the eyes of faith.  We are invited to recognize God's light in Jesus.  For the disciples, the Pharisees, and the neighbors of the blind man, opening themselves up to the light of Christ meant a new understanding of sin, a different way of looking at the purpose of human life, and the meaning of God's actions in human history. 

What about us?  What blindness do we need to strip away? What questions do we need to ask?

Thought for the day - reach out in Christian love when you use the social media -

Facebook can be a wonderful thing.  I am connected on Facebook with current and former parishioners and with family and friends, with the ability to share a lot of wonderful things with them.  However, we all know that social media can be used in a very destructive and mean-spirited way as well.  I saw the following article on a blog that I subscribe to.  The Tablet is a very well-known Catholic publication in Great Britain.  It is sad when social media is used to rip people down, rather than to lift people up.  We should all keep this in mind when we post things to the internet.

No, not like that, unfortunatelyTwitter and Facebook are rich sources of snide and nasty comments and it appears that Robert Mickens, The Tablet's man in Rome has fallen foul of his own FB post. Why, oh why, do people divulge personal opinions on places such as Twitter and Facebook? Now Micken's post was not just personal, it was grossly offensive referring to Pope Emeritus Benedict as 'the Rat'. Apparently, there are many in the liberal world who call themselves Catholic but who also like to smear the good name of a good and holy man.
(Posted by Richard Collins at LINEN ON THE HEDGEROW)

3/28/2014 – Friday of 3rd week in Lent – Psalm 51

      “I am the Lord your God – hear my voice.”  We hear this message in the psalm today.  We hear this message echoed in the answer Jesus gives the scribes, when they ask him to name the greatest of all the commandments.  How do we hear God’s voice?  How do we respond?  There is not just one answer to that, just as there is not just one way we seek God in the reality in our lives, just as there is not just one way to look for God and to convert our hearts during this holy season of Lent.

      This weekend, we commemorate the anniversary of the death of Sister Thea Bowman.  She is someone from right here in our Diocese of Jackson who could one day be named a Saint by the Church. However, in many ways, she is already recognized as a Saint and as a great example of faith by many believers throughout the world.  Thea Bowman actually was born in Yazoo City and grew up in Canton.   Her mom sent her to Catholic schools, knowing that this was the best education her daughter could receive.  Thea became Catholic when she was 9 years old.  She became the first African American woman to join the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Wisconsin.   Thea helped the Church celebrate the voice of African American Catholics, the contributions and spirituality that they brought to the faith.  Her joyful spirit, her love of music and literature, inspired countless students and those who heard her presentations.  Sister Thea Bowman died on March 30, 1990 at the age of 53.  Many believe that one day she will be canonized.  But whether she is even officially canonized or not, one thing is for sure, is that she heard God’s voice, and that she tried to bring that voice in her own way to the world. 

3/27/2014 – Thursday of 3rd week in Lent – Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9, Jeremiah 7:23-28

      “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.”  As believers of Christ, we certainly do not want hard hearts, but in the busy world we live in, in all the different message and cynicism bombarding us each day, in the frustrations and anger that may arise within us, we may easily develop hearts that get very hard and very jaded.  The grace of God calls out to us today during our Lenten journey: renew your hearts and come back to me.  Jeremiah spoke out to a people that had definitely hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks.  God reminded them through Jeremiah that he had sent them prophets and servants, but that often they had been rejected.  Echoing the reality that Jeremiah spoke about, we can reflect upon how we often reject God in a lot of ways in our lives, in our thoughts and in our actions, in the thoughtlessness and hardness in which we treat our brothers and sisters, in the way we do not make our faith a priority in our lives.  What can we do about that?  Thomas Merton had this to say: We can often hide the precepts of God’s wisdom in our hearts – the precepts of humility, meekness, charity, renunciation, faith, and prayer.  The values that the precepts and prayers communicate, the life that they are trying to give us, can remain completely hidden from our human eyes.   Let us open our hearts up to the Lord, to the values he is trying to teach us.   Let us not turn our hearts away from him, not matter how much of a temptation that may be.  Let our hearts not become hardened. 

3/24/2014 – Monday of 3rd week of Lent – Luke 4:24-30

     “No prophet is accepted in his own native place.”  Jesus knew this so very well, as the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders of the people refused to listen to Christ’s message. It is prophetic that we have this Gospel reading today as we commemorate the anniversary of the martyrdom of one of the great prophets of the 20^th century – Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. When chosen as the Archbishop of this Central American country, the rich and powerful of the country were delighted – they saw him as one of their own.  However, Romero saw the reality of the oppression and the atrocities that were taking place across the land.  Romero was not afraid to speak out against these injustices, but this made a target himself.  He was martyred by the military forces of that country on March 24, 1980. Sometimes we don’t hear the truth in the voices of the prophets of our land, as Jesus points out in today’s Gospel.  Word is that Pope Francis is a supporter of the cause of Archbishop Romero – a fellow Jesuit -  for beatification.  How many other prophets are speaking out in our faith, but we are refusing to recognize their message?

3/23/2014 – el tercer domingo de Cuaresma – Ciclo A – Juan 4, 5-15, 19B-26, 39A, 40-42

     Antes de ser misionero, trabajaba como voluntario en el Cuerpo de Paz Norte Americano en el país de Guinea en África.  Cuando llegaba en la isla de Kassa de la costa de Guinea, me daba cuenta que debería vivir en una pequeña choza hecha de ladrillos de barro – un lugar muy primitivo. También, me daba cuenta que necesitaba caminar más de una milla en un sendero para sacar agua de un pozo para mis necesidades de agua potable y de baño.  La primera vez que fui al pozo  veía un gran grupo de 25 mujeres se reunía allí, esperando su turno para obtener agua, conversando y socializando.  Varias de estas mujeres empezaron a reír y gritar, mirando el balde subiendo en el pozo.  Vi a una gran tortuga en el balde de agua, moviendo y tratando de salir - una sorpresa para este grupo de mujeres.  Fui a mi choza, y  me daba cuenta de que yo era el único hombre allí al pozo.  Desde ese primer día en esta aldea en África con mi primer viaje al pozo, me deba cuenta que estaba en una cultura muy diferente, con reglas y tradiciones diferentes que tenemos en los EE.UU. De hecho, yo era el único cristiano que vivía en esta isla 3.000 habitantes, la mayoría de los cuales eran musulmanes o seguidores de las religiones tribales africanas.  Con mi fe y mi propia experiencia, servía al pueblo de esa isla como voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz.

      Pensaba en mis experiencias en África como leía acerca de la mujer samaritana del pozo en el Evangelio.  Jesús se encontraba con ella en medio de su realidad, tal como él se encuentra con nosotros en nuestra propia realidad también.  En el Evangelio, Jesús estaba cansado y sediento de un largo viaje, se encontraba con la mujer samaritana en el pozo y le preguntaba por un trago de agua.  Esto no es un choque para nosotros, pero visto a través de las normas sociales del Antiguo Israel, fue un acto muy atrevido.

      El pozo era la fuente de agua y la fuente de vida de las pequeñas comunidades de Israel.  Las mujeres se reunieron en el pozo dos veces al día para obtener agua para sus familias.  El sol del medio día estaba muy fuerte, así que esta tarea se llevó a cabo en la madrugada y horas de la noche como todas las mujeres se reunieron en el pozo al mismo tiempo.   Ir al pozo no era sólo una tarea - también era una actividad social para las mujeres cuando se tomaron un descanso de sus tareas del hogar.  

       No es una sorpresa que Jesús estaba con ella en el pozo al mismo tiempo, pero fue valiente que le hablaba en público, ya que los hombres de esa sociedad no hablaron con mujeres desconocidas en lugares públicos. Se establecieron las barreras en los tiempos bíblicos para mantener a ciertas personas de diferencia.  La ley judía mantenía que los judíos de Judea no podían tener contacto con los samaritanos, ya que los samaritanos se casaron con la población local y fueron vistos como habiendo corrompido su herencia judía.  Jesús rompía esta barrera con su interacción con la mujer samaritana.

       A veces la vida no sale como esperamos - sabemos eso a partir de nuestras propias experiencias.  En algún momento nos golpeamos con la adversidad o la tragedia, con los desafíos o las luchas.  Jesús percibía la existencia de esas cosas que existían en la vida de la mujer samaritana. Cristo entraba en su realidad.  Ella entraba en la realidad de Cristo, dándole un trago de agua.   Anteriormente, la mujer samaritana estaba incapaz de alejarse de las heridas y pecados que tenía en su vida, pero ahora tiene una conversión como fruto de su interacción con Jesús.  Se convierte para ser discípulo en el contexto de su realidad.  Su conversión y su testimonio son instrumentales en la conversión de toda su aldea en su discipulado.

      Buscamos a Dios en todas las cosas.  Nosotros lo buscamos en medio de la adversidad y la luchas de nuestra vida, en medio de los desafíos y las tragedias.  Estoy leyendo un libro de un sacerdote jesuita de la India - Paul Countinho.  El título de este libro contiene una pregunta muy interesante : ¿Qué tan grande es tu Dios ?  ¿Es nuestro Dios sólo una teología o una lista de mandamiento o un montón de escritos en la Biblia ?  O es Dios para nosotros una experiencia y una relación?  La mujer samaritana utilizó su relación con Jesús para cambiar su manera de vivir y para evangelizar a su prójimo. ¿Estamos dispuestos a hacer lo mismo?

St Joseph's Table - Tradition to Celebrate the Solemnity of St Joseph - Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

St Joseph Table -

St James Catholic Church

Tupelo, MS

March 2014

St Joseph's Table - Tradition to Celebrate the Solemnity of St Joseph - Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

St Richard Catholic Church in Jackson, Mississippi celebrated the Solemnity of St Joseph with the St Joseph Table on Wednesday, March 19, 2014.

St Joseph's Table - Tradition to Celebrate the Solemnity of St Joseph - Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Photos from the St Joseph Table celebration at St James Catholic Church - Tupelo Mississippi - on Friday - March 21, 2014 with the Happy Hearts group after mass and Stations of the Cross.  A very fun day.

Willie Morris Library - Northeast area of Jackson, Mississippi

For my first assignment as a priest, I served at St Richard parish in Jackson.  From there, I moved to St Mary in Yazoo City.  The public library I used to frequent was the Willie Morris brach library of the Jackson/Hinds County Public Library System.  Willie Morris is a actually one of the well-known writers who grew up in Yazoo City.  I recently stopped by the Willie Morris Public Library when I was in Jackson earlier in the week.  Here are a few photos from that visit.