Community of St. Joseph Cathedral & Holy Cross Church

10/23/2026

SAVE THE DATE!
Bishop Earl K Fernandes will officially open the Nativity scene
with a twilight prayer service and the blessing of the Creche on
Friday, November 27, 2026 at 6p.m. The display and events,
including extraordinary performances by the Cathedral Choir
along with other beautiful, local music organizations and high
school choirs, are free and open to the public. Prayer service
with choirs will be on December 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 and the 19th.
More information will be coming soon.

10/22/2026

7 Lessons from Blessed Fulton Sheen’s Beatification
13 Oct 2026

My family and I were blessed to be in St. Louis for Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification on September 24th. It was a great grace to participate, even in some small way, in this historic moment for the Catholic Church in America.

Engaging in the Mass of Beatification, the press conference, and other surrounding events—and reflecting on those events for more than a week—has provided me with some important lessons about Sheen, the Catholic Faith, and its impact on America. Some, I had grasped intellectually, as the teaching of the Church. But, as I have ruminated on those days, these truths of the Catholic Faith are incarnate in a new way. So, I share seven prominent, palpable lessons (though I’m sure there are others, which I’d be glad to hear).

1. The Church in America is excited, vibrant, and growing.
The days and events in St. Louis provided an inspiring display of stateside Catholicism. Bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians, consecrated religious, popular evangelizers and teachers were common sights. People of all ages and myriad ethnic heritages revealed the universality of the Church in America. The number of families who brought their young children, even babies, was astonishing; and so was the number of children bearing the name Fulton. Clearly, this man—his teaching, his media reach, and, most importantly, his sanctity—has impacted Catholic life in America.

Such impact is felt particularly in the renaissance of evangelical and catechetical methods along with apostolates that provide great formation in knowing the Faith, living the Faith, and handing it on to others. On top of the extensive devotion to Sheen, the stateside Church has a growing devotion to other servants of God, venerables, and blesseds on the path to full canonization who exhibit the vibrance and grit of the Church in North and Central America. Based on what I saw, the future of the Faith is bright and solid.

2. There are so many other unique and transformative interactions with Bl. Fulton Sheen.
I have been tacitly acquainted with Bl. Fulton since I heard Scott Hahn quote him as I was journeying toward the Catholic Faith, and since I read his introduction to The Confessions of St. Augustine (Modern Library Edition, 1949) just after my reception into full communion. I became a bit more familiar as I taught American history, particularly Catholic history in America. Years later I wrote a book about his intellectual engagement with American culture. I have asked for his intercession almost daily for six years.

I feel that I have an intimate connection with this heavenly friend, yet every person who attended that Mass—and so many who were unable to attend—have unique stories of interaction with the blessed archbishop, both when he was alive and since he left this mortal coil. That’s why more than fifty thousand people chose to make pilgrimage to St. Louis. Therefore, it is most appropriate to thank God for my own encounter with Bl. Fulton, and thank God that he has impacted so many other lives. After all, the most important interaction—and action—Sheen would want is for all of us to have a transformative encounter with Jesus.

3. I have to rely on God’s providence rather than my own manufactured movement.
I was excited to encounter lots of people in St. Louis—parishioners from my diocese, old friends from the world of ministry and teaching, publishers, faculty, and administration from my alma mater, and so on. I got to see and converse with only a handful of those people, but those moments were packed with incredible blessings. Beyond that, I was privileged to make quite a few new acquaintances by whose stories and enthusiasm for Sheen I was blessed. All that is to say: the Lord arranged those encounters, and He may have reserved the others for later occasions, because He intended to provide a specific grace for me and those others. I have to learn to trust that the Holy Spirit will move, opening doors and highlighting connections I need to receive today’s grace, just today’s.

4. The eternity of heavenly worship will be…eternal.
The duration of the Beatification Mass was three and a half hours. That length was determined by a number of factors: the epic processional, speeches about Sheen’s holiness, and—especially—the logistics of Holy Communion. After I had received the Eucharist, I still had roughly twenty-five or thirty minutes to pray and meditate. During those moments, I realized that this will be the same dynamic in Heaven. Worship will not end. We will spend eternity contemplating what God, through Jesus Christ, has done for the whole Church and each of us in it. That elicits a change in perspective about how I can savor extended liturgies. If I want to be in Heaven, I should probably get used to it!

5. Bl. Fulton’s pattern of the Holy Hour is probably the right one.
In his Vespers homily, Bishop Barron highlighted the way Bl. Fulton typically spent his daily holy hour:

Though he [Sheen] said he often brought a writing pad to these sessions in case a good idea for a homily or article might come to him, these holy hours were not really times of achievement or accomplishment. They were an opportunity to bask in the presence of the Lord Jesus. Here’s how he puts it, and I am quoting, “Looking into a sunset, the face takes on a golden glow. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way, as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain.”

Indeed, I have noticed the same thing happening in my weekly (if God allows it) holy hour. Yes, I take a book of spiritual reading and my journal and a pen. In recent months and years, though, the Lord has led me to put those things aside because, even in front of Jesus, I cannot manufacture my own notoriety or success. Instead, I only bask in the radiating grace that emanates from the Blessed Sacrament. “I look at Him, and He looks at me,” as St. John Vianney’s humble parishioner said. I ask Him to shed His light into the darkest corners of my soul; to bear His strength into the areas of my life that are weakest. That is the only fruitful and effective way.

6. Evangelization, catechesis, and mission all proceed together, mutually reinforcing each other.
This point was always present in Sheen’s teaching. Thus, Bishop Robert Barron highlighted it in his homily at Sacred Vespers on the eve of the Beatification Mass; and Cardinal Tagle made it central to the message of his homily at the Mass. The latter quoted the only speech Blessed Fulton Sheen gave at the Second Vatican Council, noting that the theologian and professor, the great communicator, chose to exhort his brother bishops to remember their mission to the poor. Sheen preached:

Put your finger on the 30th parallel, and run it around a globe. What do you find? Practically all the prosperity is above the 30th parallel, and the greater part of the poverty is below. …As only a wounded Christ could convert a doubting Thomas, only a Church wounded by poverty can convert a doubting world.

This speech obviously left a deep and lasting impression on the prelates of the Church and their pastoral practice. This is evident in none other than St. John Paul the Great, who vociferously defended the dignity of the poor, and even Cardinal Tagle in our own day, who is particularly known for staunch calls, similar to Sheen’s, for evangelization by works of mercy.

7. There are still people—Catholics, even—who do not know about Sheen.
After he figured out where I was going, my Uber driver to the Mass venue remarked, “Oh, there’s something big going on there today,” but he clearly did not know exactly what. That does not prove, logically, that he had not heard of Sheen, but it might be easy to make that assumption. In any case, there are people who still have not heard of Sheen. So, we should introduce them to America’s newest blessed. That way, this “loyal son of the Church”—as St. John Paul the Great called him—can guide them toward a deeper encounter with Jesus. The saints are great intermediaries for the evangelical mission of the Church!

Since my family has returned from St. Louis, there have been many more graces emanating from this experience, which I do not have space to share. At the same time, life has given us a proverbial punch in the face. This, however, is an opportunity to connect even more deeply with Bl. Fulton who endured so much of life’s suffering with great verve and joy. He did so simply because he knew it was a path to connect more deeply with Jesus. With his intercession, hopefully I can see through that same lens…that life truly is worth living.

Image by Nheyob via Wikimedia Commons

This article is made available courtesy of The Catholic Exchange.

10/21/2026

10/18/2026

Can We Ever Repay God?
By Gayle Somers

Jesus’ enemies try to set a trap for Him. A coin buys Him freedom from it.

Gospel (Read Mt 22:15-21)
For the last several weeks, our Gospel readings have shown us that Jesus used parables to help the religious elites of Jerusalem hear a call to believe in Him as their Messiah. They fell on deaf ears.

We find in Sunday’s Gospel that “the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.” They were unable to recognize themselves in the many stories Jesus told them. Instead, they sent “their disciples” to put a question to Him that they were sure would force Him into trouble. A measure of their “malice” is that “the Herodians” went with them. The Pharisees and Herodians were as different and as opposed to each other as Republicans and Democrats are today. The Pharisees believed that the Jews needed to live as separately as possible from Gentiles in order to preserve their religious identity and power. The Herodians were Jews who believed that their nation was best served (and their own positions of influence best protected) by cooperating with their Roman governors. Theirs was a policy of assimilation, not separation. Why did the Pharisees want the Herodians to go along to the confrontation with Jesus, temporarily setting aside their radical differences? As much as they despised the Herodians, they were even more threatened by Jesus. They were ready to do anything to silence Him.

Reading through the extravagant and insincere flattery from this little entourage is uncomfortable, isn’t it? “Teacher, we know that You are a truthful man and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.” They didn’t believe this, of course, but they wanted to sound respectful, perhaps out of fear of angering those gathered around Jesus who did believe it. Then they pop their trick question: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” If Jesus said the tax should be paid, the Pharisees could have discredited Him in the eyes of the people, who resented Rome’s control. If He said it was unlawful, the Herodians would have been able to denounce Him to the Roman authorities.

Jesus saw through this sham: “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?” Why was Jesus so harsh with them? If their question had been an honest inquiry from people who truly cared about His opinion, surely His response would have been quite different. Wherever we see insincere religion in the Gospels, we see this anger in Jesus.

Then Jesus asks for a coin, and He turns the questioning back on His interrogators: “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” By His question, He requires them to identify the coin as Caesar’s. They could not possibly have imagined the trap would be sprung for them instead of Him! Once they identify the coin as belonging to Caesar, it was easy for Jesus to give them a reasonable, satisfying answer: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.” Where’s the controversy? Where’s the “gotcha” line? No one can question Caesar’s right to receive back what is actually his. Paying the government’s tax represents paying back what the government has, in fact, paid out in the way of services. It is a fair exchange and does not present a conflict for religious people.

However, Jesus then presses on, getting to the heart of what His questionnaires should actually be concerned about: “Repay…to God what belongs to God.” A coin stamped with its maker’s image clearly belongs to him; a human being, made in the image and likeness of God (see Gn 1:26), likewise belongs to God. The men who sought to trap Jesus out of malice, trying to hide it with insincere pious talk, had a much bigger debt to pay than their tax bills!

Possible response: Lord Jesus, I know You can see through insincere pious talk. Please keep my lips from speaking it.

First Reading (Read Isa 45:1, 4-6)
Our reading from Isaiah helps us understand better why Jesus saw no inherent contradiction between the Roman government and the national life of God’s people, the Jews. Isaiah, writing in about the 6th century B.C., foretells of Cyrus, the LORD’s “anointed.” Cyrus was the Gentile king of Persia who conquered Babylon, where the Jews had been held captive for seventy years. As we can see from the prophecy, Cyrus was allowed by God to become king and ruler over Babylon “for the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel, My chosen one.” We see that Cyrus, although he did not know the LORD, nevertheless did the LORD’s work. He was the one who allowed the Jews to return to the Promised Land. He even helped to fund the re-building of their beloved Temple in Jerusalem. This prophecy reveals the reality that kept Jesus from falling into the Pharisees’ trap. God is much greater than all earthly powers. In fact, He can use them to do His bidding, even though they know Him not. St. Paul wrote about this in his letter to the Romans: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Rom 13:1).

This truth explains why Jesus did not feel beholden to Pilate when He was being interrogated by him. When Jesus refused to answer Pilate’s question, he said to Him, “’You will not speak to me? Do You not know that I have power to release You, and power to crucify You?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no power over Me unless it had been given you from above’” (Jn 19:10-11a). The rulers of this world exercise only delegated authority. Because Jesus knew this, the Pharisees’ trap was doomed to fail before it ever began.

Possible Response: Heavenly Father, help me remember that You are greater than any power on earth; none can thwart Your plan of love and goodness for us.

Psalm (Read Ps 96:1, 3-5, 7-10)
When Jesus told the Pharisees and Herodians to “repay…to God what belongs to God,” He was urging them to do what the psalmist does here: “Give the LORD glory and honor.” The psalmist proclaims God’s exalted place of honor and authority “among all the nations, among all the peoples.” Here, not only are nations and their rulers subservient to Him, but He makes “all the gods of the nations…things of nought.” There are kings who rule by God’s favor, but all should know that “The LORD is king; He governs the people with equity.” To embrace this truth is to protect ourselves from anxiety that can threaten us when we look around the world today and see the abuse of earthly power. Our rejoinder to that temporal fear is to sing with the psalmist: “Great is the LORD and highly to be praised; awesome is He, beyond all gods.”

Possible response: The psalm is, itself, a response to our other readings. Read it again prayerfully to make it your own.

Second Reading (Read 1 Thess 1:1-5b)
When Jesus says in the Gospel, “repay…to God what belongs to God,” what is He asking of us? St. Paul answers this question in this epistle to the church of the Thessalonians. He had preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ there, and people had responded in their “work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope.” Our works of faith, hope, and love are our repayment to God for all He has done for us. In a concrete way, this helps us to make the right response to Him, to give Him what He is due. Yes, we pay taxes to the government, but to God we give ourselves.

Possible response: Lord Jesus, please help me today to offer simple works of faith, hope, and love to the Father, to Whom these are surely due.

✠

Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash
This article is made available courtesy of The Catholic Exchange.

10/16/2026

Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice…Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. (Lk. 1:41-42)

St. Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, introduces to us the words that would be recited around the world throughout all future generations: the words of the holy rosary. What makes this our “secret weapon”? Were there not plenty of devout Jews praying long before there was a rosary in existence? And are there not plenty of other ways to pray? While that is all true, there is something specifically unique to the rosary that sets it apart from all other forms of prayer. Without getting into the promises associated with the rosary itself as a devotional, and without getting into a scholarly discussion about how the rosary is a prayerful way to meditate upon the life of Christ outlined in the Scriptures, there is one particularly unique aspect to the rosary that cannot be found with any other prayer, and for this reason, it is our lifeline to the Spirit.

When my mother passed away several years ago, her death came as the result of several long-term medical issues she had endured and was, therefore, somewhat expected. But when any loved one dies, there is always a “shock” at the realization that one will never see that loved one again, at least not on this side of eternity. The sorrow one feels at such loss can make it difficult to eat, to sleep, to read—and even to pray.

I remember seeing my mother lying in the casket; there were no words to be said at that moment; just tears. And as I left her side to give others a turn to view her body, I sat down on one of the seats lined against the wall. There was nothing for me to do. It was not like I could ask Jesus to heal her now, or to bring her back to life as He did Jairus’ daughter. Even if I thought Jesus would be inclined to grant such a request, deep down I knew my mom was now exactly where she wanted to be; in that, I had peace.

So, with a mournful emptiness in my heart, I grabbed my rosary and started praying silently alone. After a few Hail Marys in, my aunt said to me, “Pray out loud so we can join you.” Pray out loud? I was crying so much I could barely speak. But I did as she requested and began to lead the whole room in a tearful rosary. One by one, everyone joined in, until we were all praying together, in unison, “with one accord” (Acts 1:14).

A sweet serenity began to seep into that room and into our hearts. In that moment, I knew my mom was praying with us too.

If we ever wonder whether the rosary is simply a mindless prayer of “vain repetition” (Mt. 6:7), let us realize that the way to pray “of one heart and mind” as the early believers did (Acts 4:32) is if we are all praying the same thing. That is how the Holy Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness, “for we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom. 8:26). He has given us the way to pray as we ought—on a silver platter—by filling Elizabeth with the words and inspiring her to proclaim them loudly, so as to ensure that we would not forget. Then, when we pray as we ought, it is the Spirit Himself who prays in us and through us, addressing our needs in the best possible way, and blanketing our souls with His sweet serenity, calming our nerves and restoring our peace.

By praying the rosary in humble obedience, though perhaps we do not understand how this can be, the Spirit gives us the ability to understand interiorly that in the end, everything is going to be okay. The mother of our Savior is interceding on our behalf, whispering in her Son’s ear: Take care of this. This is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as Elizabeth herself was on the day of Mary’s arrival. Suddenly, we are filled with a peace and understanding that we did not possess before, one which we have no other way of obtaining.

Elizabeth ends her proclamation to Mary with some of the most beautiful words we could possibly hear:

Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. (Lk. 1:45)

Let us not just go to Mary for her help and guidance. Let us strive to be like Mary too. In the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta, let us ask Mary to “lend us her heart,” and in return, let us give her ours. And then, let us believe that what the Lord speaks to our hearts will one day be fulfilled, just as it was for Mary.

Author’s Note: This article was adapted from a chapter in The Safe Haven: Scriptural Reflections for the Heart and Home (Advent/Christmas edition) and 26 Steps with the Mother of God: A Treatise on the Life of Mary.

Photo by Anna Hecker on Unsplash