As I was preparing for this week’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, and the treasure God offered to us in our own Baptism, I found myself thinking more about those gifts the Magi brought to Jesus last week, which signified their recognition of Christ, but also, perhaps, something even more to you and me. I think those gifts spoke a word about how we should approach Jesus in prayer.

This meditation in verse is a play on my Christmas homily. You might recall I proposed that God allows the Jews, as a people, to exist in every generation in order to be a lasting sign to the world of how humanity remains, even after being mingled with Christ’s divinity.

I recently watched a presentation from a child psychologist about the results of an experiment she performed on children who were just 6 months old. The infants were shown a skit using three shapes: a circle, a square, and a triangle.

The emotional mourning that often accompanies the discovery of our parents' inability to fulfill us, easily masked by the excuse to rebel, is made all the more painful these days by a cultural storm clamoring for our attention at every turn. Growing in the Faith is treacherous.

Many Protestants object to the veneration of Our Lady, wrongly arguing, “Catholics worship Mary.”

In my opinion, mainline Protestant theological tradition fails to give sufficient attention to the problem faced by every Christian after Baptism, namely the tendency to fall away from Christ at times - to sin against Him.

God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to Himself. Jesus bridges the gap between God and man.

The commercials cry out, “But wait! There’s more!” And so there is. But material goods will never satisfy our longing for the infinite, no matter how impressive the product.

I couldn’t be more proud to be your pastor, or grateful to God for sending me here. I love our parish very much and have been happy to spend these years of my life with you and your families.