http://www.corpuschristinh.org/

Corpus Christi Parish, 98 Summer Street, Portsmouth, NH (2026)

09/08/2026

Today, as we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Mary, I will renew the consecration of our parish to her, having done it for the first time on this day 15 years ago when I began my assignment here as pastor. Over these years, and day to day now, we strive to be rooted and responsive in prayer as we strive in all things to follow the advice Mary gave to the waiters at Cana - "Do whatever He tells you."
I renew that desire today as we move forward, embracing all the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead, as we have in the past. And, we have may reasons, as we "embrace a future full of hope" to echo her words, with grateful hearts, found in the Magnificat: "The Almight has done great things for us, holy is His name!" Join me today in giving thanks and entrusting ourselves to her guiding hand, leading us ever closer to her Son.

Blessings from a very grateful pastor!
Fr Gary

09/08/2026

On September 7, 2025, in the heart of St. Peter’s Square, the Church rejoiced as Pope Leo XIV canonized two remarkable young men together: Saint Carlo Acutis and Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati.

One year later, their canonization continues to proclaim a beautiful and powerful truth to the Church—holiness is possible at every age, in every generation, and in the ordinary circumstances of everyday life.

Carlo Acutis was only 15 years old when leukemia brought his earthly life to an end in 2006. Yet in those brief years, Carlo developed a profound love for Jesus Christ, especially Jesus truly present in the Most Holy Eucharist. He attended Mass frequently, spent time in Eucharistic Adoration, prayed the Rosary, and sought to use his gifts in technology to proclaim the Catholic faith.

Carlo understood something the modern world desperately needs to hear: technology can either distract us from God or become an instrument for leading souls toward Him. His life reminds young people that holiness does not require abandoning the modern world; rather, it requires bringing Christ into it.

His famous conviction was simple yet profound: “The Eucharist is my highway to Heaven.”

Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati offers another radiant witness to youthful holiness. Born in 1901 and taken from this world at only 24 years of age in 1925, Pier Giorgio was an athlete, mountaineer, student, friend, and passionate servant of the poor. His faith was not something confined to the walls of a church. It permeated every aspect of his life.

He climbed mountains, laughed with his friends, served those in poverty, prayed deeply, received the Sacraments, and sought to see Christ in every person he encountered.

His motto, “Verso l’alto” — “To the heights” — has become a spiritual battle cry for generations of young Catholics.

Pier Giorgio understood that we were not created to live small, comfortable, self-centered lives. We were created for something infinitely greater: to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ and to journey toward the heights of Heaven.

What makes the canonization of Carlo and Pier Giorgio so beautiful is that they demonstrate two different expressions of the same Gospel.

Carlo shows us holiness in the world of computers, technology, friendships, and modern communication.

Pier Giorgio shows us holiness through service, sacrifice, physical adventure, friendship, social charity, and love for the poor.

Yet beneath these differences was the same burning heart:

Jesus Christ came first.

Both young saints remind us that holiness is not reserved for priests and religious. It is not something postponed until retirement. It is not only for the elderly or for people who live extraordinary lives.

Holiness is the vocation of every baptized Christian.

Carlo and Pier Giorgio were young.
They had friends.
They laughed.
They enjoyed life.
They had dreams.
They faced struggles.
They experienced suffering.

And yet they refused to allow the things of this world to become greater than God.

Their lives challenge today’s young people—and all of us—to ask a fundamental question:

What am I living for?

Am I living merely for success, popularity, comfort, entertainment, possessions, or the approval of others?

Or am I living for Christ?

One year after their canonization, the witness of Saints Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati continues to renew lives and ignite hearts of young people - we see it powerfully in our parish!

Their message is especially urgent in an age when so many young people struggle with loneliness, anxiety, confusion, isolation, and the pressure to discover their worth through the opinions of others.

Carlo and Pier Giorgio point in a different direction.

The Church does not canonize saints merely so that we can admire them. The Church gives us saints so that we can imitate them.

Saint Carlo Acutis and Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati now stand before the throne of God as powerful intercessors and as living witnesses that a young person who gives everything to Christ will never have lived in vain.

Their lives proclaim that the world does not need young people who simply conform to it.

The world needs saints!

Blessings,
Fr Gary

09/07/2026

On this Labor Day let's embrace a spirit of gratitude for all we sometimes get used to or take for granted.

Thank you to those who work long hours so that others may live with dignity. Thank you to all who inspire, lift up, and inspire and guide souls. Thank you to those whose work is seen, and to those whose work is rarely noticed. Thank you to parents who sacrifice for their children. Thank you to teachers, healthcare workers, first responders, farmers, tradesmen and tradeswomen, business owners, public servants, laborers and professionals. Thank you to those who work with their hands and those who work with their minds. And thank you especially to those whose work involves caring for another human being, because such work reminds us that the human person can never be reduced to a task to be completed.

On Labor Day, let us recover something that our increasingly technological society desperately needs: the joy and dignity of doing something ourselves, of learning something through effort, of serving another person face to face, and of offering the work of our hands and hearts to God. Let us use artificial intelligence wisely, but let us never surrender our human intelligence, our conscience, our creativity, our responsibility, or our relationships to it. Let us welcome technology when it serves the human person, but let us have the courage to say no when efficiency comes at the expense of human dignity.

And let's remember that our ultimate worth does not come from how productive we are. Our human dignity comes from the fact that we have been created by God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, and called to eternal communion with the Holy Trinity.

May Saint Joseph the Worker, who knew the dignity of labor and who placed his work at the service of the Holy Family, intercede for all who work. And may the Blessed Virgin Mary, who offered her entire life in God's service, teach us to place both our work and our rest into the hands of Divine Providence.

On this Labor Day, may we give thanks for the gift of work, protect the dignity of every worker, and enter the future with confidence—not as servants of machines, but as men and women created in the image and likeness of God.

Blessings (and enjoy this day!)
Fr Gary

09/06/2026

Imagine if every Catholic who left Mass today consciously asked, “Where is Christ sending me?”

Maybe He is sending you home to apologize.
Maybe He is sending you to call someone who is lonely.
Maybe He is sending you to forgive someone.

Maybe He is sending you to be patient with your children.
Maybe He is sending you into a workplace where someone desperately needs encouragement.
Maybe He is sending you to serve someone who cannot repay you.

Our mission is not always dramatic. Most of the time, holiness happens in ordinary places through ordinary acts of extraordinary love.

And this is why the Eucharist matters so profoundly. We receive Christ so that Christ may live more deeply in us. We come hungry, and He feeds us. We come wounded, and He heals us. We come carrying burdens, and He strengthens us. Then He sends us forth.

The final hymn is not the end.
The dismissal is not the end.
The moment we walk through the doors is not the end.
It is the beginning of our mission.

So when the final song ends and the lights go out, do not leave Christ behind in the church.
Carry Him with you.

Carry Him into your home. Carry Him into your conversations. Carry Him into your workplace. Carry Him into your family conflicts. Carry Him into your suffering. Carry Him into the places where forgiveness is difficult and love is costly.

Let people encounter the heart of Jesus through the way you live.
Let's not let our faith end at the church doors.

Come to church to encounter Christ.
Receive Christ.
Be transformed by Christ.

And then go into the world and be Christ’s hands, Christ’s mercy, Christ’s compassion, and Christ’s love.

Because the Church is not merely the building we enter.
We are the Body of Christ that God sends back into the world.

And perhaps the greatest sermon we will ever preach will not be one we speak from a pulpit.
It will be the Gospel someone sees written in our lives.

Blessings,
Fr Gary

09/05/2026

"I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, He will not ask, 'How many good things have you done in your life?' rather He will ask, 'How much love did you put into what you did?'
-St Teresa of Calcutta

Blessings on this feast day of Mother Teresa as we strive to imitate what we celebrate!
Fr Gary

09/04/2026

As we honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus on first Fridays we are reminded of the victory over pain, death and sin in a direct way. The liturgy describes it powerfully: "...broken by man's cruelty, yet symbol of love's triumph!"

Pain may shout loudly in this life, but it is not eternal. As Revelation assures us: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). Pain has an expiration date. God’s goodness does not.

So what do we do now, in the middle of the ache? We do what faith has always done: we take the next step. We whisper prayers through our tears: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). We cling to the Eucharist, where Christ gives Himself fully—Body broken, Blood poured out—as the living proof that suffering can be transformed into life. We lift our eyes to Our Lady at the foot of the Cross, who teaches us to stay with Christ even when everything looks like defeat.

Faith does not mean denying pain. Faith means refusing to let pain write the end of the story. Faith means believing, against all appearances, that Christ is still victorious.

If the cross could not silence His goodness, neither can your suffering. The grave could not hold Him. Your pain cannot dethrone Him.

One day, perhaps sooner than we realize, we will see how His goodness carried us in ways unseen. Until then, we live holding both pain and promise—but we trust that the promise is weightier.

So when pain tries to tell you it has the final word, remember: it isn’t stronger than Christ. It never was.

His goodness is greater. Always.

Blessings,
Fr Gary

09/03/2026

'We make Idols of our concepts, but Wisdom is born of wonder."
-Pope St Gregory the Great

Certainly much to dwell on, act on, and take from the wisdom of the saint we celebrate today!

Blessings,
Fr Gary

09/02/2026

3 times a day the "Angelus bells" ring from our tower inviting us to prayer. The morning one is at 8, before Mass, so we can pray it together (for vocations), others follow at the traditional hours of 12n & 6pm.
Here's some insight into why:

In the midst of our busy lives, filled with responsibilities, distractions, and constant demands for our attention, the Church gives us simple and beautiful traditions that call us back to what matters most. One of those treasures is the Angelus, a prayer that has been prayed by Catholics for centuries and continues to draw hearts back to the mystery at the center of our faith: the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

The Angelus is not simply a prayer that repeats familiar words. It is a moment of remembrance, a pause in the day when we stop and reflect on the greatest act of love the world has ever known: God becoming man for our salvation. Traditionally prayed at 6:00 a.m., 12:00 noon, and 6:00 p.m., the Angelus invites us to turn away from the noise of the world and lift our hearts toward God.

The first purpose of the Angelus is to honor the mystery of the Incarnation. Through this prayer, we recall the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Blessed Virgin Mary and announced that she had been chosen to become the Mother of the Savior. The angel proclaimed that she would conceive and bear the Son of God, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the eternal Word took flesh within her womb.

This moment changed human history forever. The God who created the universe chose to enter His creation. The Almighty became a child. The invisible God became visible. The One who needed nothing chose to become dependent upon the love and care of a mother. The Incarnation reveals the depth of God’s love: He did not remain distant from our suffering, but came close to us in Jesus Christ.

The Angelus also honors the faith and obedience of Mary. The salvation of the world entered through her humble “yes” to God. When Mary responded, “Let it be done to me according to your word,” she demonstrated complete trust in the Lord’s plan. She did not have every answer. She did not know every detail of what the future would hold. But she trusted God.(This is why we pray this for those discerning or in formation here).

Mary teaches us what true discipleship looks like. Like her, we are called to surrender our own plans and allow God to work through us. Every day, we are invited to say our own “yes” to the Lord—to trust Him in moments of joy, uncertainty, suffering, and change.

The Angelus also helps us sanctify our daily lives. The Church understands that prayer is not meant to be separated from ordinary life. God is present not only inside the walls of our churches, but also in our homes, workplaces, and daily responsibilities. By stopping to pray the Angelus in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, we remember that every moment belongs to God.

The midday Angelus, in particular, provides a powerful reminder that even in the middle of our busiest hours, our souls need to be turned toward the Lord. The prayer becomes a spiritual anchor, reminding us that our work, our struggles, our relationships, and our entire lives should be offered to God.

The Angelus also deepens our love for Christ. Each time we pray it, we are brought back to the heart of the Gospel: God loved us so much that He sent His only Son into the world. It reminds us that Jesus was not simply a great teacher or moral example. He is Emmanuel—God with us. He came to save us, to forgive us, and to lead us into eternal life.

Through the Angelus, we also grow closer to Mary, who always leads us to her Son. True devotion to Mary never stops at Mary; it always brings us closer to Jesus. She points us toward Christ and teaches us how to welcome Him into our lives with humility and faith.

The Angelus is a simple prayer, but it carries a profound mystery. In just a few moments, we are reminded of the beginning of our salvation. We remember the humility of Mary, the love of God, and the incredible truth that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

In a world that often moves too quickly, the Angelus invites us to stop. In a world filled with uncertainty, it reminds us that God is near. In a world searching for hope, it proclaims that our Savior has come.

May we rediscover the beauty of this ancient prayer. May we allow the Angelus to become a daily reminder of God’s presence and Mary’s example of faithful obedience. And may every time we pray it, our hearts echo the words of the Blessed Mother:

“Let it be done to me according to your word.”

Whether here, at home, alone or with others, why not consider making it part of your prayerful pauses?

Blessings,
Fr Gary

09/01/2026

In a world that constantly measures success by numbers, popularity, and recognition, it is easy to begin measuring our own worth by the same standards. We may wonder if our efforts matter because no one notices them. We ask ourselves if we are making a difference when our acts of service go unrecognized or our sacrifices remain unseen. Yet the Gospel invites us to see life through a very different lens.

God has never called us to be famous. He has called us to be faithful.

Throughout Sacred Scripture, God consistently chooses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. The Blessed Virgin Mary lived a hidden life of humility before becoming the Mother of God. Saint Joseph quietly protected and provided for the Holy Family without seeking recognition. Most of the Apostles died without earthly honor or acclaim. Their greatness was not found in public applause but in their unwavering fidelity to God’s will.

Jesus Himself spent nearly thirty years in the hidden life of Nazareth before His public ministry began. Those years were not wasted or insignificant. They were years of faithful obedience, humble labor, and loving service. In God’s eyes, hidden faithfulness is never hidden. Every act of love offered for His glory has eternal value.

The world often applauds achievements that are visible and celebrated, but Heaven rejoices over the quiet acts of holiness that no one else may ever see. A sincere prayer offered for someone in need, a comforting word to a grieving friend, an unnoticed act of charity, forgiveness given instead of resentment, or a quiet “yes” to God’s call—these may never make headlines, but they delight the heart of God.

Jesus taught this lesson repeatedly. He praised the poor widow who quietly offered two small coins while others gave from their abundance. He commended those who prayed, fasted, and gave alms without seeking attention. He reminded His disciples that the Father, who sees what is done in secret, rewards what the world overlooks.

How often do we become discouraged because our efforts seem unnoticed? Parents who faithfully raise their children in the faith, caregivers who patiently tend to the sick, parish volunteers who serve behind the scenes, priests and religious who quietly dedicate their lives to Christ—all may wonder if anyone sees their sacrifices. The answer is simple: God sees. And His gaze is infinitely more important than the applause of the world.

Saint Paul reminds us in his Letter to the Colossians that whatever we do should be done wholeheartedly for the Lord. This transforms every ordinary task into an act of worship. Whether we are working, serving, praying, studying, or caring for our families, every action offered with love becomes a gift pleasing to God.

At the end of our earthly lives, we will not stand before a crowd seeking their approval. We will stand before Christ, the righteous Judge, whose opinion alone determines our eternal destiny. The question will not be, “How many people admired you?” but rather, “Were you faithful to the mission I entrusted to you?”

This truth frees us from the exhausting pursuit of human approval. We no longer need to compare ourselves with others or seek constant affirmation. Instead, we can find peace in knowing that our worth comes from being beloved sons and daughters of God. Our purpose is not to impress the world but to glorify the One who created us.

Never underestimate the power of quiet faithfulness. The smallest acts of love, performed with a sincere heart, become treasures in the Kingdom of God. Continue to pray, to serve, to forgive, to encourage, and to love—even when no one notices.

For one day, we will hear the only words that truly matter: “Well done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23).

May we live each day not for the applause of the world, but for the glory of God, trusting that every act of faithful love is seen, cherished, and rewarded by Him.

Blessings,
Fr Gary

08/31/2026

Many people hesitate to come to church because they believe they must first become better, stronger, or holier. They think they need to have all the answers, overcome every weakness, or leave every sin behind before approaching God. Yet nothing could be further from the truth of the Gospel.

The Church has never been a gathering of perfect people. It is the family of God, where sinners encounter the mercy of Christ, where wounded hearts are healed by His love, and where weary souls discover the hope that only He can give. The Church is not a museum for saints; it is a hospital for sinners, where the Divine Physician continually restores those who come to Him with humble and repentant hearts.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus never waited for people to become perfect before calling them. He called fishermen who doubted, a tax collector despised by society, a woman caught in sin, and Peter, who would later deny Him three times. He ate with sinners, touched lepers, forgave adulterers, and welcomed those whom others rejected. Again and again, Jesus showed that His mercy always comes before our perfection.

This does not mean that Christ leaves us as we are. His love accepts us where we are, but it loves us too much to leave us there! Every encounter with Jesus is an invitation to conversion. His grace transforms hearts, strengthens weak souls, and slowly shapes us into the people He created us to be. Holiness is not achieved in a single moment but through a lifetime of saying “yes” to God’s grace.

How often do we allow guilt or shame to keep us away from the Church? We convince ourselves that we are not worthy to pray, not worthy to receive God’s forgiveness, or not worthy to return after drifting away. Yet the very reason Christ established the Church and gave us the Sacraments was to heal what sin has wounded. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, He speaks words of forgiveness. In the Holy Eucharist, He nourishes us with His own Body and Blood. These are not rewards for the perfect; they are gifts for those who recognize their need for God’s mercy.

The greatest obstacle to holiness is not our weakness but our refusal to trust in God’s mercy. The saints were not people who never sinned; they were people who continually returned to Christ. They understood that God’s grace is always greater!

We all need to hear the words of Jesus once more: “Come to me.” He does not say, “Come when you have everything figured out.” He does not say, “Come after you have fixed your life.” He simply says, “Come.”

His invitation has always been for today! As our parish seeks to echo His invitation we are rejoicing in hope seeing many rediscovering their Catholic faith, going deeper in it than ever before, and many coming to discover it for the first time! Its a awesome grace at work!

May we never delay our response to His invitation. Let's come to Him with humble hearts, allowing His grace to heal us, His Word to guide us, and His Eucharistic presence to strengthen us. For in Christ we find the hope, mercy, and peace that our hearts have been seeking all along.

Blessings,
Fr Gary

Corpus Christi Parish

09/08/2026

09/08/2026

09/07/2026

09/06/2026

09/05/2026

09/04/2026

09/03/2026

09/02/2026

09/01/2026

08/31/2026

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