Death is one of the realities that all of us need to face at one point in our lives. At the very beginning of our history, people did not pay attention when someone died but continued their lives. People did not pray nor think about what is beyond death. However, when humans started to think about death and the meaning of life, they not only understood the existence of God, but also started to bury their death in sign of respect for the person. In fact, some archeologists believe the earliest human burial dates back 100,000 years. This tradition of burying our dead continues today. Death is one of the most painful experiences for the family, relatives, and friends of the person who passed away.

The Catholic Church teaches that death is not the end of our existence, but the beginning of something beautiful. Jesus is in heaven preparing a wonderful place for all of us. He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where [I] am going you know the way” (John 4:14). Jesus is in heaven preparing a place for us, and we need to take care of the body of the person who dies having a funeral and burial. One of the corporal works of mercy is to bury the dead. We bury the person in a cemetery because this is the appropriate place for the body or cremains.

Talking about cremains, we commonly hear people saying that they would like their cremains to be scattered in the ocean or between two places they love, just be kept at home with their beloved ones, or mix the cremains with other cremains. This could sound poetic and beautiful; however, it is not the way to honor and respect our beloved ones who are resting with the Lord.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) in the number 2300 says, “The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy; it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit.” Let us honor our beloved ones who are now enjoying the eternal life in company of God, the angels, and Saints.

For this reason, I invite all of you to join me this Sunday (September 17th) at 1:30 pm. to have a prayer and bless our Cemetery. Let us pray for our beloved ones, respecting their memory, and loving them with all our hearts. I am sharing with you an invitation for the blessing of the cemetery from our bulletin archives (September 15, 1963). Let us continue this tradition of blessing our cemetery and praying for our beloved ones.

God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you!

Fr. Jorge Ramirez

The Lord Jesus, during His public life, had disciples and apostles, who continued with the evangelizing task to preach the Gospel to all people. Since then, the Church throughout her history, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has ordained priests. They have the responsibility to bring the Eucharist, the real presence of the Lord. There is a special relationship between the priests and the Eucharist. Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. says about this relationship, “In the Catholic Church, the priest exists for one main purpose: to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass. So true is this that, without the priesthood, there would not only be no Sacrifice of the Mass. There would be no Catholic Church. This may sound strange, even exotic. But the fact of life is that God became man in order to sacrifice Himself on the Cross by dying for the salvation of the world. Having died once on Calvary, He continues offering Himself in every Mass so totally that He would be willing to die every time that Mass is offered” (taken from “The Eucharist and the Priesthood“).

Therefore, I invite each of you to pray for our priests and vocations to the priesthood. Let us pray for our seminarians, who are preparing themselves to become Holy Priests for our Diocese of Rochester, and of course, for our Roman Catholic Church.

Let us pray for all of them because all of us (priests, seminarians, deacons, religious people, and all laity) need to act in persona Christi, to act in the Person of Christ.

You will find an insert in the bulletin with a list of the Diocese of Rochester seminarians for this year.

God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you!

Fr. Jorge Ramirez

PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS

Heavenly Father, Lord of the harvest, call forth vacations to the priesthood and consecrated life from our parishes.
Inspire men to imitate Jesus Christ the Eternal High Priest in sacrificial service to Your Church.
Move the hearts of men and women to offer themselves wholly to You in poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Send them as laborers for Your harvest.
Inspire the faithful to support them with prayer and sacrifice.
Raise up holy families who foster openness to Your call.
We ask this through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Mary Immaculate, pray for us.
St. John Fisher, pray for us.
St. John Vianney, pray for us.

Diocese of Rochester Vocation Website: rocpriest.org

Did you know that the Roman Catholic Church chose September as the month of the Bible? Why? Simple… because we celebrate the feast of St. Jerome on September 30th. The Bible was written originally in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek, and St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, the famous Vulgate, which means “popular.”

We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and, for that reason, we venerate the Holy Scriptures. God is talking to us through the Holy Bible. All its stories, poems, and prayers are wonderful lessons that God gives us for our lives. The word Bible comes from the Greek word βιβλος (Biblós), which means collection of books or a small library. That means that the Bible is not only divided into two parts, the Old and New Testament, but it is also divided into books. How many books does the Bible have? The Catholic Bible has 73 books, 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. What can we say about the Bible? The Bible is not a scientific or historical book. This does not mean that what the Bible says is not true because its focus is to understand that God is the creator of the universe. For example, the Bible responds to the question WHO created the world, while the science responds to the question HOW the world was created. Two different questions, so two different answers. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says, “In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: ‘Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men’” (CCC 101). God uses human words to communicate to humankind, and these words are found in the Bible.

It is hard to express all the reality of the Bible in just this text; therefore, we need to understand and believe that God is always talking to us through the Holy Scriptures. If you have questions about the Holy Bible, please contact me, and I will be happy to help answer your questions. If I do not know the answer, we together, can work to find it. Or consider attending Bible Study here at Holy Trinity on Wednesday, September 6th from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Trinity Hall. Please see the church bulletin or our website for additional details.

September reminds us of the importance of the Holy Scriptures in our lives; hence, let us always pray to the Holy Spirit to give us knowledge and wisdom to comprehend the Word of God every time that we read the Bible. God has a wonderful message for each one of us. Do you read the Bible? When was the last time you read it?

God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!

Fr. Jorge Ramirez

I have always said that our faith, our religion, our belief in God is in some way a selfish one. Maybe you can wonder why, if Jesus talks about to love, share, and help one another. Well, one of the arguments that I can use in order to explain how our faith and religion is selfish, is explained in Mt 7:21-29. My faith is selfish because I need to think first of myself, in my relationship with God, and in my connection with Him before I can start to help others to help increase their faith, relationship, and love for God. Jesus said in Mt. 7:21-29, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” What is the will of God in heaven? It is to believe in Jesus, to follow Jesus, and to listen to Jesus. If we do not do so, we will be in trouble. How is it possible we are all Catholic Christians, if we do not follow the Lord and do not do the Father’s will? It is contradictory. So, I need to think first about my relationship with God. We cannot say to the Lord, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?” (Mt. 7:22) because there is no relationship with Jesus. Hence, how is my relationship with Jesus? This is one of the things that you and I need to wonder.

It does not matter if we come to Mass every day, if we participate in all the parish activities, if we contribute to the CMA or make donations to the church or if we help people, if my relationship with God is death. How often do I go to the sacrament of Reconciliation? How often do I pray? How often do I say to Jesus, “Lord, thank you for this wonderful day?” We need to increase our relationship of Love. In another Gospel Jesus says, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” (Mt. 7:3). I need to think first of myself and my relationship with God. Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment”. The second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37-39). Pay attention, “As yourself.” We need to love ourselves first. If I love myself, I want to increase this wonderful relationship with the Lord. In that way, I am in a selfish faith. If I can have a great relationship with Jesus, I can help the others. It is only through my relationship with Jesus that everything I do makes sense, e.g. help people, love others, feed the hungry, come to the church, celebrate the sacraments, celebrate the different activities of the parish, and so on. How is my relationship with Jesus? How can I increase my faith? I need to realize that if I want to enter into God’s Kingdom, I need to have a wonderful relationship with God.

God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!

Fr. Jorge Ramirez

When we get an invitation to go to a party, we usually pick a nice dress or suit appropriate for the occasion. We prepare ourselves to celebrate and have fun with our relatives or friends. We laugh, smile, tell jokes, drink, and, of course, eat. In Matthew 22:1
-14, Jesus describes the Kingdom of God as a wedding feast. The King summoned the guests for the feast, but they rejected his invitation. So, the King decided to invite everybody else in his kingdom. They accept- ed and went. One person was not appropriately dressed. Because this person was not prepared to celebrate the wedding feast, the King decided to expel him.

The Eucharist is commonly compared with a banquet in the New Testament, especially compared with a wedding banquet. Jesus used the image of the wedding banquet to describe what the Kingdom of God is. The Church compares the Eucharist also to a wedding banquet because it is an anticipation of how we are going to live in heaven.

So, Jesus compares heaven with a wedding banquet. God is the king who invited His people (Israel) but they did not listen to Him. So, the King, God Himself, decided to invite everyone (Gentiles) to this banquet. Personally, I love the song which says, “All are welcome in this place.” This is what God wants. Everybody is called to heaven, to the Church, and to the celebration of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist; however, Jesus is very clear to say that all of us need to wear “a proper dress for this banquet.”

How can we get this dress for this banquet, for the celebration of the Eucharist? The answer is very easy: through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Through this sacrament, we restore our spiritual dress that was given to us in the Sacrament of Baptism. We need to dress correctly: physically, but more importantly, spiritually for the celebration of the Eucharist. I am not asking people to come dressed with a tie and jacket or a very elegant dress, but to dress according to the celebration of the Eucharist.

So, God chooses us to go to His banquet. Nevertheless, Jesus is clear saying that we need “to dress” appropriately to go. Hopefully, God will not deny us from heaven because we are not rightly “dressed.” Jesus, at the end of this Gospel (Mt. 22:14), says, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” So, we need to think about our spiritual lives. What are we doing to get into heaven?

All of us are invited, and hopefully, we will be chosen to be there with God, the angels, and all the saints. God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!

Fr. George

It is true that almost all the churches that we visit or go to worship God have images. We can see the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. Patrick, St. Francis of Assisi, and so on. But these images are not our central reason to worship.

God said that we cannot worship other gods, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me” (Exodus 20:2–3). We do not worship statues or images, but we take them as a reference for our spiritual life. The images were created originally in the Catholic Church to help people in catechesis to better understand the life of God, Jesus, and saints. The stained-glass windows, for instance, helped people to know much better the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ because the Bible was read only by the clergy, monks, scholars, and very important people, such as kings.

Do we have images in our churches? Yes, but we do not adore them. Once again, we see the saints as reference for our lives. If these men and women were able to go to Heaven, following Christ and each one of His commands, we will also be able to go to the house of our Heavenly Father. God calls us to Holiness. There are many biblical texts in which we can find how God invites all of us to be holy. I am only going to talk about two of them. The first one is found in Leviticus 19:1-2, “The LORD said to Moses: Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: “Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.” The second one is in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In other translations we can read “Be holy, just as your heavenly Father is holy.” Both translations have the same meaning, to imitate the holiness and perfection of God, our Father.

Besides this, we have the images of the saints because we believe they are in heaven and can intercede for us. In the Apostles Creed we say, “I believe in… the communion of saints…” That communion means the saints are now with God in Heaven. For this reason, we have saints for each day, in which we celebrate the Eucharist in their honor. I want to highlight this: they can intercede for us, but they are not God; therefore, we do not adore images, but the images remind us that the saints are in heaven and intercede for each one of us.

Remember! Catholics do not adore images. The only one who is adored is God, who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!

Fr. George

First of all, as I told you last week, I have been in the parish for a month. I also explained that I am in the first step of the theological method: to see. I am watching the reality of Holy Trinity Church. Even though I am in the first step of this method, I have been making some small changes. I do not know if you are aware of them, but I would like to share with you some of them.

We now have a procession at the beginning, at the presentation of the gifts, and at the end of Sunday masses (Saturday evening as well) when I preside the Eucharist. We have Dc. Gary Terrana, who is a great help to our parish, is processing with the book of the Gospels at the beginning of the Mass and serving in his duties as a deacon. When the deacon is not present, the lector is processing with the Book of the Gospels. Part of my spiritual life is my devotion to our mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. I pray and consecrate to her at the end of the Mass. Also, I pray “Glory be to…” at the end of my homilies. These are not part of the liturgy. These are part of my faith and love for God, our mother, and the Roman Catholic Church.

Another change that you probably have seen is in the bulletin. We are now adding the current Sunday intention for the Mass until the following Sunday in the bulletin. The reason is because I think that it is very important that all of us know what is the intention of the Mass that we are participating in. In addition, we are highlighting the fact that liturgically Sunday starts on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. For this reason, even though the Vigil Mass (Saturday) is celebrated, we already read Sunday. This is not a typing mistake. Saturday evening is already Sunday in the Roman Catholic Church. For this reason, we have Saturday’s evening Mass because we are in the first vespers of Sunday already.

Secondly, as you heard this past Sunday, Fr. John Omboga is preaching about his home diocese, Diocese of Ngong in Kenya. I want to share something that Fr. Omboga wrote about his diocese.

My brothers and sisters… let us welcome Fr. Omboga and be generous with his mission.

Let us remember, “The Parish that we dream is the parish that I help to build.”

God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!

Fr. George

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

It has been a month since I arrived at Holy Trinity Church. Time flies, doesn’t it? As I said previously, thank
you for the welcome you gave me during these weeks. I am very happy to work for the Lord in this wonderful community. It is still early (I guess) to introduce you to the pastoral plan. The theological method talks about three steps to interpretate the reality: To see, judge, and act. Pope Francis, who wrote the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si, reflects on this method, which the Church in Latin America uses. I encourage you to read this wonderful encyclical from Pope Francis, and the rest of them written by different Popes throughout history. I am in the first step of this method: To see. I am watching the reality of Holy Trinity, learning from each one of the parishioners their history, stories, and traditions. Therefore, little by little I am introducing my pastoral plan, which consists basically to evangelize people to become truly disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, I will start to work on this wonderful family with the help of Pastoral and Finance Council, parish staff, all parishioners, and of course, the Holy Spirit.

The mission that Our Lord Jesus Christ gave to the Church is to Evangelize all people on Earth. This is the
mission of the Church, which is in the Gospel of Matthew 28:19, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” This is the mission of the Church… this is our mission. We need to work to bring more people to the Church. We need people who accept the Gospel and want to serve the Lord in every possible way. My dream, which is at the same time the dream of the Church, is to have in Holy Trinity Church truly disciples of the Lord. I will work on this, but I need your help.

It is gratifying to see how many people participate in the different pastoral activities of the parish. Seeing lectors, cantors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, ushers, greeters, altar servers (acolytes), sacristans, counters, and so on are expressions of the great love that all of us have for the Lord and for the Church. Even though we have many people working for the Lord through the different ministries at Holy Trinity, it is always good to see new and more volunteers.

Remember that any help is appreciated, regardless of its “importance.” Everything that we do in the parish is important. It is like the boy who offers the five loaves and two fish to Jesus. How much is this for feeding over 5000 people? Nevertheless, Jesus used this little help from this boy to do a wonderful miracle (Cf. John 6:1-15). If we help in our parochial family regardless of how big or how small it is, God will use our help to multiply it for the goodness of our parish. If you are a sacristan, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, lector, usher, acolyte, greeter, or another ministry in the parish, let me say to you “Thank you very much”. We really appreciate your help. Let us remember, “The Parish that we dream is the parish that I help to build.”

God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!

Fr. George

I would like to express all my gratitude to each one of the parishioners of Holy Trinity Church. You welcomed me with love and joy, even though it is a difficult time for all of us because our beloved friend and pastor, Fr. Tim, is not with us anymore. Let me tell you that each one of the manifestations and expressions of affection are very important to me to start this journey as your Pastor.

As I expressed before, my intention as the Pastor of the Most Holy Trinity Church is that each one of the members of this wonderful community feel like they are at home. We are one family walking together to rejoice in the presence of the Lord in each one of the activities that we do as a parochial family. All of us are disciples of Christ; therefore, each member of this community is very important. Each one of us contributes something important and valuable in the construction and development of our parish mission:

“We are a Catholic faith community blessed with the joy of God’s love. Together we share this love with all who hunger for God’s presence in their lives. We follow Christ who taught us to find God by giving our lives in service to others and gathering to celebrate a Eucharist that welcomes everyone. Join us on this journey!”

Personally, I have a slogan or phrase that you will hear from me many times. My slogan is, “The parish that we dream is the parish that I help to build.” We work as a family, a big family who dreams to be truly disciples of Christ. Each one of us has the responsibility to contribute something so that our mission becomes a reality. No matter how big or little our contribution is to our community (as a lector, usher, altar server, volunteer, sacristan, CMA, collection, donation, and so on), our contribution is very important for the life and future of our Holy Trinity Family.

This is not only my community, but it is the community of each one of us. This is our home. And because it is our home, I work so that my home becomes a welcoming place, not only for each one of the members of this wonderful family, but also for those who are visiting us. Remember… this is our parish; let us work together for our parish; let us love our parish; let us feel all the blessings by God through our parish.

I would like each member of Holy Trinity Church to learn this by heart: “The parish that we dream is the parish that I help to build.” Let us believe that everything we do in the parish is our grain of sand to help build this wonderful parish that all of us dream of.

Let us work together as a big family who is always doing God’s will. Remember… “The parish that we dream is the parish that I help to build.”

God bless you, and may the Virgin Mary be with you always!

Fr. George.

All of us received the sad news of the depart of our brother and pastor, Fr. Timothy Horan. Fr. Tim was an extraordinary man who always gave us wonderful teachings and example of his extraordinary love that he had for God and His holy Church. We had the opportunity to express our gratitude for everything that he did for us during his priestly ministry as our Pastor and friend. Moreover, we honored him with a wonderful funeral Mass presided by our Bishop Salvatore R. Matano and preached by Fr. Daniel McMullin. At the end of this funeral Mass, I expressed my gratitude to all present, and invited to remember him with a great smile. Let us remember all the wonderful teachings from Fr. Tim.

I would like to share one of the most important memories that I have of Fr. Tim.

I was assigned to Holy Trinity Church as a seminarian in 2011. It was my second year of the seminary, after having studied English at St. Bernard School of Theology & Ministry. I joined St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore, MD, to continue my English studies and to begin studying theology.studying theology is not easy… studying theology in English (for me as a Spanish speaker) was hard. I had to study more and more. Double work for me, I believe.

I had some difficulties in my studies at the beginning of my seminary formation. I came to Holy Trinity during one of my breaks to celebrate Holy Week. I was thinking seriously of leaving the semi- nary and going back to Colombia. I thought that the priestly life was not for me. I talked to Fr. Tim about it. He said to me something that I will never forget. He said, “George, you are now in purgatory, but you will be soon in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Those words were meaningful for me because they helped me to think again about my situation at the seminary and my priestly formation. I can say, without a doubt, that I am a priest because of Fr. Tim. He was a very important person in my priestly formation.

I believe all of you have wonderful memories of Fr. Tim, and how he touched your hearts. Also, I know how difficult it is for all of us because Fr. Tim is not with us anymore. However, we also have the hope that Fr. Tim is with Jesus, enjoying His presence in the company of all the angels and saints. Fr. Tim is living what he told us about many times during his homilies and conversations. Fr. Tim is hap- py right now because he is alive with the Lord in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let us continue to pray for the soul of Fr. Tim so that God takes him to His Holy place in heaven.

Fr. Tim, we love you. We will never forget you. Please, continue to pray for us from heaven.

God bless you and the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!
Fr. George