By: Fr. Chuck Wrobel

By the time you read this, New Year’s Day has come and gone and another couple of weeks will be history.  However, it is still a new year and, I believe, still time for some reflecting (especially on such a year as we have had). 

A lot has happened in this past year (not unlike most years of the past) much, if not most, of it unprecedented (again, not unlike most years of the past) and, I believe, we owe it to ourselves to take a moment to remember it.

Today (as I type) is Wednesday (9/16).  We celebrated the first Masses with the school kids at the St Mary Campus.  The first reading was from Corinthians (a favorite for wedding celebrations) and Paul speaks about LOVE.  You know the passages – “Love is patient, Love is kind…”  Within that chapter he speaks about how to love and the need to do so – “without love/loving I am nothing and the great things I might do are nothing.” 

The day of our baptism we were constituted priests, prophets and kings of God and of the Church. I would like to focus, based on the first reading and this Sunday's Gospel, on the gift of prophecy. Many think that being a prophet is to predict the future or to have supernatural powers and, although, it is true that some prophets have manifested supernatural realities granted by God to reinforce their messages; it is even more true that this is not the essential of being a prophet.

This time of CoVid has been a lot of things.  It’s been a time of trial, a time of refinement, a time of taking a step back to assess, a time to breath and a time to take a breath.  It’s been a time of condensation/concentration (like old time frozen orange juice).  It’s been a time of grieving for people who have died or just not able to be visited as well as old things and ways that we called “normal”.

Who’s got the keys? That may not be the best grammar, but I hear it a lot. This week’s scripture readings at Mass, prompt us to ask that question. Who ever has the keys has the authority! St. Peter has correctly identified Jesus as the “Christ,” the Messiah, as well as the “Son of God.” Jesus praises Peter for the correct answer and gives him the keys.

At the time of writing this article, I’ve been within the Catholic Community of Waukesha for just under a week. One of the first tasks when being new is to try and learn names. In my first week, I would have to say unofficially, that the name that seems to be the most common is…. Mary.

Al celebrar el Domingo XIX del Tiempo Ordinario, la liturgia nos presenta la importancia de la oración para fijar nuestra mirada en Jesús. Es muy interesante ver como en la primera lectura del Primer Libro de los Reyes, Elías, sube al monte para esperar la manifestación de Dios, no encuentra su presencia en el huracán, en el terremoto o en el fuego, pero la encuentra en la brisa suave, en el silencio y la quietud……….LEER MAS | READ ENGLISH