Bishop Kevin Farrell

Eucharist, the Paschal Mystery

How often have you heard a priest use the term Paschal Mystery and think “I’ve heard that term all my life, but I am not really sure what it means?” It’s like the Latin prayers we had to learn as altar servers before the Second Vatican Council. We knew they were important but didn’t understand them.

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Baptism in Scripture

“Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” (Rom 6:3-4)

Paul’s comments on jBaptism give us another insight into this sacrament of initiation. He introduces the symbolism of water. In the first passage of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, creation is described as emerging from water. (Gen 1:1-2) Death is sinking back into water. Thus water can represent both life and death.

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The war against religious freedom escalates.

The latest salvo in the attack on religious freedom was ironically fired by the Catholic Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sibelius. On Friday Secretary Sibelius announced the Administration’s decision to give Catholic institutions (and others) whose religious beliefs reject artificial contraception one year to violate their consciences.

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National Vocation Awareness Week

Henri David Thoreau’s observation that “most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them, ”  might well be applied to the unrealized vocations to the priesthood or religious life.

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Something old, something new in Roman Missal

Beginning the first Sunday of Advent the Church will begin using a new edition of the Roman Missal. You will notice some changes in the language used in the new Missal. Some of the changes will be completely new; »»