Happy Easter! Let us rejoice in Christ’s resurrection, His triumph over sin and death. His victory is our victory; His journey to life beyond death is ours too if we follow Him.

Just as today Jesus enters Jerusalem and His Passion begins, so we enter Holy Week, leading to Good Friday and Easter. This time is the holiest part of the year. Make certain to spend more time in prayer, joining ourselves to Christ as He wins our salvation. The best way to enter into this grace-filled season is to attend the Holy Week liturgies.

This Monday through Wednesday is our Parish Mission! Fr. James Sullivan, OP, will preach our parish mission, Monday through Wednesday night, at 7pm, in the church. He’s a great preacher and I encourage everyone to attend. This retreat is a great way to get ready for Holy Week and Easter.

This weekend is our Annual Friars’ Appeal, which supports the formation and training of Dominican friars. These are the friars who will one day serve at St. Joseph’s and the other ministries of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph (aka: Eastern Province).

Looking forward, our parish mission will again be the week before Holy Week, 4/6-9. Fr. James Sullivan, OP, will be our mission preacher. He’s very funny and a great preacher, so I encourage everyone to attend. The mission will be Monday through Wednesday evening that week.

This Sunday, the 16th, is the 191st anniversary of the dedication of St. Joseph Church (3/16/1834). Our parish was created in 1829 when Greenwich Village was incorporated into New York City (it was a real village then!), and construction on our church building began in the summer of 1833.

This Friday, 3/14, we’ll have Stations of the Cross at 7pm and we’ll have our next Night Fire from 8pm-11pm. It’s a great event open to everyone, with music, adoration, and confessions, all in the candlelit church. 

Now is the time to start determining your Lenten Penances, which traditionally include penance, fasting, and almsgiving. All Catholics are called to abstain from meat during Fridays of Lent and those between the ages of 18 and 59 are called to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (one full meal and up to two snacks that don’t equal a full meal). You should decide on what personal penances you should undertake this Lent, picking ones that will help you most in your spiritual life.

Tickets for our annual St. Joseph dinner are now on sale after every Sunday Mass so please grab yours before they sell out. The dinner will be on Saturday, March 15th, after the Vigil Mass (i.e.: 6:30pm). I hope to see everyone there—it’s always a fun night.

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.