We have repaired and restored much of St. Joseph parish in my past six and half years here. Many of you may remember the interior renovation, the exterior renovation, the new AC system, building the parish hall, etc. It was my hope that there would be no more major building projects on my watch! However, our boilers need to be replaced this summer. They heat the church building, the rectory, and the school building. Without new boilers we won’t have heat next winter, so this work is necessary. I’ve consulted with engineers and architects and the total cost is estimated to be $1.3 million. Therefore, we are about to begin a Boiler Fund campaign to raise the money to replace the boilers this summer. Please consider supporting this necessary expense so that St. Joseph’s can continue to thrive!

This Monday, 2/3, is the Memorial of St. Blaise. At the daily Mass for St. Blaise, at 12:10pm Monday, we’ll have the annual St. Blaise throat blessing.

Next Sunday is the Presentation of the Lord, which this year falls on a Sunday. This feast day is also called Candlemas because we celebrate the blessing of the candles. We’ll hold the candle blessing at the Vigil Mass, so next Saturday at 5:30pm. Bring any candles you’d like blessed to the Vigil Mass next Saturday. 

We’re now back in Ordinary Time. What is Ordinary Time? The other seasons of the Church year—Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter—zoom in on the central events of Christ’s work of salvation: his incarnation and birth; his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension; his sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Ordinary time focuses on the life of Christ outside of those events.

What happened when we were baptized? St. Paul says this: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). 

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

Merry Christmas! We’re still in the Octave of Christmas because the feast of Christmas is celebrated for eight days, making it one long celebration! Today we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Our salvation comes through a domestic setting—just as God created humanity in Adam and Eve, a family, so He enters our world at Christmas through a family. Families therefore play a central role in God’s plan.

As we celebrate the coming of Our Lord, God taking a human nature to Himself in order to save us, let us give thanks for the manifold gifts He gives us. His grace provides us with faith and hope that overcome the sufferings of this world, and his grace strengthens us to love again in this world grown cold. Let us take heart and live those great gifts of faith, hope, and love

Thank you for your support of St. Joseph’s—without your generosity our parish could not operate. Your gifts help us spread the Gospel to the West Village and beyond. Our attendance is up at our masses and ministries, in some cases dramatically up. Thank you for making all that possible!

This Monday, 12/9, is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. It’s a Holy Day of Obligation, so all Catholics are required to attend mass. We’ll have our normal 12:10pm daily mass, and a 7pm mass that day. 

Welcome to Advent and the beginning of the new liturgical year! In this season we await the coming of our Savior—the fulfillment of salvation history. We await the advent of joy and peace that come with our reunion with God, our being restored to communion with our Creator.

Happy Solemnity of Christ the King! This Sunday is the last one of this liturgical year, meaning next Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent. We end the year with Christ the King because He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. His Kingship is over His Kingdom, of which we are members as we follow His Gospel toward eternal life in heaven, the final point of all creation.

The friars stationed in the community at St. Joseph’s serve two key ministries. Obviously, we serve St. Joseph’s itself, and Fr. Jonah and I work fulltime as pastor and vicar to the parish. Br. Paul serves as sacristan and CCD teacher at the parish as well. But while Fr. Isaiah and Fr. Vincent celebrate weekend masses and hear confessions at St. Joseph’s, they also minister as chaplains to the Catholic Center at NYU, which now serves as the chaplaincy for all the colleges and universities in Manhattan, except for Columbia, which has its own chaplaincy.

Happy Veterans’ Day this Monday! The parish office will be closed in observance of Veterans’ Day.

We have just celebrated All Saints and All Souls Days and those both point to our deepest hope as Christians: that we will journey to our true homeland in heaven, enjoying eternal life with God who both created us and calls us back to Himself so that we may share in His perfect goodness and joy. We live in this world of time, but we do not live for it. Our eyes are set on God and His Kingdom. 

We have had a busy October at St. Joseph’s. We’ve hosted our three Fall Thomistic Institute talks, a Godsplaining retreat, and a Life-Giving Wounds retreat.

One important note: please do not flush wipes in the parish toilets (or any toilet). Flush nothing but toilet paper. The previous week we had a pipe burst because of a massive blockage of wipes. We had to remove all the toilets in the parish hall, tear through walls, replace piping, and then repair the walls and toilets, all because people are flushing wipes. It was very expensive, time consuming, and gross. Please help us to keep our parish in good shape.

Our Thomistic Institute Fall lecture series continues! For three consecutive Fridays we host professors sharing their insights and wisdom with us. The talks are at 7pm Friday in McGuire Hall. This Friday Dr. Snell will talk about the “Human Person, Community, and Communion,” a talk very relevant to our time.

This Monday is the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Rosary. This time is ideal to start praying the rosary if you are not doing so already. The rosary is a wonderful means to uniting ourselves to the life of Christ because the mysteries of the rosary are meditations on key moments in Christ’s salvific work in the Gospels.

Today is the Feast for the angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. It’s Sunday, so we celebrate the Sunday instead at Mass, but it’s still their feast day.