Fr. Jim's Blog

The following is an excerpt from a homily given by Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron  to more than 160 priests and 800 members of the faithful gathered for the Chrism Mass on  Holy Thursday, April 2, 2015. These words are powerful and this servant of God hits the nail right  on the head for one of the major spiritual diseases of our time. And for that I’d like to begin with some phrases from the sequence in Pentecost, when in the liturgy we say to the Holy Spirit, “Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness, pour your dew. Melt the frozen, warm the chill.” Being dry, being frozen, being chill — that seems to me to be a condition which is very particular to our time. Has there ever been a time like ours when a people who once heard the Gospel, living in a culture that had over time been shaped according to the principals of the Gospel, has so willingly become asleep about the Gospel, and shed the Gospel, and become indifferent to the Gospel?  Are we ...

Greetings everyone!  I will be in the Chicago airport tomorrow for a little while and will work on a blog entry.  I am alive and very well...just really busy with a number of foreseen and unforeseen things to attend to.  Still, the Lord is very good to me...always!  in Christ, Fr. Jim

I hope that your Lent is off to a good start. As a kid it seemed like Lent was forever—especially when we decided to give up sweets! Now, Lent has become a very busy season but also with great opportunities for spiritual growth. I have always been impressed with the "feast" of Scripture the Church provides for us during this season. The Office of Readings has some challenging readings as well, especially for pastors with St. Augustine' comments about bad pastors who don't properly attend to the flock entrusted to their care.  We finished taping a Sacred Heart Radio Book Club yesterday afternoon. It was great to welcome another priest, Fr. James Johnson, the pastor of St. Jude parish in Redmond. We reviewed and excellent book on Lent, 40 Days 40 Ways —A New Look At Lent by Marcellino D'Ambrosio. It is one of the best Lenten resources I have seen in a long time and the appendix has a great preparation guide for Triduum. It was highly recommended by everyone on the...

I have been away for quite some time.....still alive and kicking (a lot) and working on a new entry.

A lot of time has passed since my last blog entry. This is usually an indication that life in the parish is pretty busy and I haven't had a lot of free time. That is the case with this recent gap in blog entries.  I had the opportunity to go home over Thanksgiving week and spend some time with my family which was great. I saw the third "Hunger Games" movie with my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephews. Although a lot of critics were pretty negative about the movie I enjoyed it but wish I didn't have to wait a whole year to see the final movie. The last segment of "The Hobbit—The Battle of the Five Armies" comes out today. I will try and find some time to fit in a viewing between Christmas and New Year's Day. When I was a kid I would listen to the Rankin/Bass storybook from the animated movie for hours. I thought the voice characterizations were very well done and even recognized John Huston's voice a couple of months ago when I was watching an...

I am getting ready to head out today for the Tri-Cities. It will be good to have some time with my family.  I will post the Pastor's Corner this evening.  Praying for safe travels for everyone who is traveling today. 

Pastor’s Corner Week of November 9, 2014 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am currently residing in a dormitory and cannot use the usual video or spoken format for The Pastor’s Corner. Still, I wanted to make a post with something for you to think about during this upcoming week.  One of the things I was taught at an early age was to read with a critical eye. Not everything in print can be taken at face value and while we expect modern day journalists to hold some form of integrity and desire to be objective, the truth is our modern day press is incredibly biased, and in the case of American media, entertainment driven.  Have you ever thought about who decides what is newsworthy? There can be thousands of people dying at the hands of evil tyrants, wars, starvation, etc. and our headlines are all about the latest tirade of Miley Cyrus or some other entertainer. Quite frankly I find this incredibly embarrassing and don’t believe it at all reflects the valu...