This week we rolled out our annual Charity and Development Appeal (CDA) which supports ministries and apostolates throughout the diocese. Of these, the one I am the most grateful for is that CDA supports the education and formation of our seminarians. This year, the Diocese of Phoenix reached 50 seminarians! Of these 50, one is from our parish (Dcn. Jacob Chavez) and will be ordained a priest this June. Jacob will be the third priest this parish has gifted to the diocese in our 23-year history along with Fr. Ian Wintering, and Fr. Gabriel Terrill!

Hello St. Mary Magdalene,

On the 11th of February we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. For me, this feast holds a special significance as it was through this apparition and studying it during my seminary formation that would lead me into a deeper Marian devotion. I’ve not yet been to Lourdes (but I will get there someday) but the story and background behind this apparition is amazing. Set in the backdrop of the French Revolution and a highly rationalistic environment where, if reason and/or science can’t explain something it’s not true, Mary appears to 14 year old Bernadette Soubirous, in 1858 under the name “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Hello St. Mary Magdalene,

Today we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord. This celebration is steeped in salvation history as the firstborn son was offered to God in the temple; harkening back to the firstborn son being offered in Egypt as the price of deliverance from slavery. Thus, the firstborn is “redeemed” ritually by this offering and that’s what brings Mary, Joseph, and Christ to the temple today. They are fulfilling the obligations of the religious ritual law (even though Mary and Christ have no sins, they still faithfully observe ritual law) as they bring the forty day old Jesus.