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.

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.