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.

It’s great to be back at St. Joseph’s! The parish is now getting back up to speed after the summer as all our ministries are again up and running. It’s exciting because our parish attendance is up from this time last year and our ministries are much larger.

t’s been a great joy to see how consistently people are in the adoration chapel (now just over a year old). Most hours of the day (and many hours of the night) there is someone there adoring our Lord. At present, we have enough people committed to being in the chapel continuously to have exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every weekday.

Fr. Jonah here, filling in while Fr. Boniface is away. Today is the first class of the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA). We have a large class this year - over 40 people have reached out to us (maybe more by the time of this printing), and we give thanks to God for drawing more and more people to his Church. 

Fr. Jonah here, still filling in for Fr. Boniface while he’s away. We just celebrated the feast of St. Augustine on August 28. We Dominicans call him “Holy Father Augustine,” an honor reserved only to St. Dominic (our founder) and St. Francis (whose order, the Franciscans, was founded around the same time and has similar characteristics).

Fr. Jonah here, filling in while Fr. Boniface is away. On September 8, classes for OCIA (the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults, formerly RCIA) will begin. This is the period of instruction and preparation for adults seeking to become Catholic. It’s also for baptized Catholic adults who have yet to receive the sacrament of Confirmation.

This past Tuesday, August 13th, is my 6th year anniversary as pastor of St. Joseph’s! It’s been a great six years that I have greatly enjoyed. I never thought I was about to undertake so many construction projects!

This Thursday, August 15th, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, and it’s a holy day of obligation. We’ll have a vigil Mass on Wednesday at 7pm, and on the day itself we’ll have our regular 12:10pm and 7pm Masses. On the Assumption our current Dominican novices will take their initial vows as Dominicans and begin their training as student brothers. Please keep them in your prayers.

This Thursday, August 8th, is the Solemnity of Holy Father Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers (aka: the Dominicans). He’s, of course, the patron of the Dominican friars serving at St. Joseph’s, but also your patron too as parishioners of a Dominican parish. It’s good to have many patrons! Make sure to celebrate this important feast day.

I’m back in town and happy to return to St. Joseph’s! Fr. Jonah is now on tour for the next few weeks playing with the Hillbilly Thomists. Please keep them in your prayers as they spread the Gospel through music.

In the Christian life, we are pilgrims, that is to say: we are not yet where we want to be. Heaven is our home, and we have to keep going to get there. We can make our way there with hope, though, because of the grace of Jesus Christ, who said of himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Call on him in times of distress, and keep going.

Fr. Jonah here, filling in while Fr. Boniface is away. Let’s talk about incense. Why do we use incense at Mass? Psalm 141:2 has us say to God, “Let my prayer arise before you like incense.” Smoke moves upwards. So, seeing the smoke of burning incense emanate from the thurible (that metal thing on a chain that holds the coals and incense), we’re reminded of where our thoughts and prayers are supposed to move during Mass (and at other times, too).

I’ll be away the next two weeks on vacation with my dad. Fr. Jonah will be here running the parish and writing a ‘vicar’s letter’ for the bulletin. When I return, Fr. Jonah will be on tour for the Hillbilly Thomists, so we’ll be playing tag team the rest of the summer.

Happy Independence Day! We should celebrate all the freedoms safeguarded by our nation, especially religious liberty. Under British rule, when New York was a colony, England outlawed Catholicism and it was illegal for a priest to even enter New York. St. Peter’s, the first Catholic parish in New York City, was founded just as the last British soldiers were departing at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War.

Our new parish business manager has begun her new role here at St. Joseph’s. Her name is Marie Viola and she is taking over for Linda Jones, who will retire at the end of this month. Linda has been here for the last ten years and has played a pivotal role in the restoration of St. Joseph’s. If you have the chance, stop by the parish offices and welcome Marie and thank Linda.