PERSPECTIVES
REFLECTION
You're in or you're out
As a child, when autumn turned into winter and the heat was turned on, my parents scolded me for holding the front door open. They'd say, "The heat's on! You're either in or you're out!"
ECUMENISM
Promote Christian unity: Come to 2014 concert
I have had a particular interest in working for the reunification of Christians since I was a boy. In my hometown, there was an ecumenical service the night before Thanksgiving every year. Each of the churches would send their singers to form a single choir and would take turns hosting …
BISHOP'S COLUMN
Bishop's jubilee homily: Part II
In 1974, I was asked by my predecessor, Bishop Edwin Broderick - who did so much to implement the norms and reforms of the Second Vatican Council in our Diocese and who was such a positive influence on my own priestly ministry - to inaugurate the Office of Pastoral Planning …
REFLECTION
Giving thanks for ND-BG
Recently, I was having dinner with an old friend from college, and we both noted that Thanksgiving was approaching. My friend said, "Gary, what are you grateful for this year?"
THANKSGIVING HOMILY
Today's lepers, giving thanks
We listen to the one who came back to thank Jesus, realizing that he was cured. In the culture of the day in which Jesus lived, if contracted leprosy, your name was written in a book. A bell was attached to your ankle so that, when you walked down the …
REFLECTION
Have the talk of a lifetime
For my sister Mickie and me, it isn't Thanksgiving unless there is celery stuffed with cream cheese and sprinkled with paprika. This simple crudité was made each year by my grandmother and it has screamed "Granny" and "Thanksgiving" to us ever since.
SEMINARIAN'S DIARY
Trained to proclaim the Gospel
A friend recently asked me how the seminary trains men to become priests in today's world - a world that is becoming increasingly secular, driven by material things, sex, relativism and confusion over who and what God is.
REFLECTION
I finally 'get' Christmas
Years ago, anticipating the Christmas season, I purchased a magazine to get ideas for celebrating with our four little boys. The cover featured a beautiful young mom wearing festive clothing, holding an adorable baby in an elf outfit. The pages were filled with orderly, creatively-decorated homes and tips on how …
REFLECTION
Advent memories: Joel, Leo and me
On the last day of college classes before our exams began, a small group of friends and I would gather at a corner table in the cafeteria with coffee, tea or hot chocolate, and we would wait for our classmate Joel to arrive and settle himself.
REFLECTION
Mary and Joseph, happily married
I've noticed that a statue of Joseph, Mary and Jesus, placed in our Pastoral Center in Albany by Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, gets a lot of attention from passersby. There are no haloes around the heads of the figures, just Joseph looking tenderly and affectionately at his young bride and …
CHRISTMAS IN RAVENA
Broken baby Jesus
As very young sisters on our first mission in the late 1940s, Sisters Mary Luke, Catherine Ryan and myself were very excited about the upcoming celebration of Christmas at St. Patrick's parish in Ravena. Because we also taught on weekends in nearby towns, we knew the Christmas season would be …
SEMINARIAN'S DIARY
A seminarian/dad goes back to school
This fall, I had the oddest experience: My 19-year-old daughter (a college sophomore moving into her first apartment) and I (58 years old and about to move into a seminary dormitory room) went back-to-school shopping together.
BISHOP'S COLUMN
Advent advice: Listen to pope, keep food aid
Last weekend, we embarked upon the season of Advent - that time of preparation for the Christmas feast during which we seek to hear the call of the precursor of Christ, John the Baptist, "Prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight his paths" (Mark 2:3).
REFLECTION
The newborn face of God
In the Old Testament Book of Psalms, the inspired Hebrew poet expresses in deeply-felt words an ardent desire to see the face of God. He writes: "O God, be gracious and bless us and let your face shine upon us" (67:1).
REFLECTION
Prayer for my parish
God, our Father, I pray for my parish. Make it strong in faith, rooted in prayer and generous in service. Help us to be supportive of one another. May our parish inspire us to live our Catholic faith with integrity, enthusiasm and with the courage of saints and martyrs. Make …
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