Nittany Catholic, 205C Pasquerilla Spiritual Center, State College, PA (2026)

04/16/2025

Holy Week & Easter Triduum Schedule

Holy Thursday / April 17

7pm
Mass of the Lord's Supper
[Worship Hall, Pasquerilla]

Good Friday / April 18

2:30pm
Celebration of the Passion of the Lord
[Worship Hall, Pasquerilla]

Holy Saturday / April 19

8:15pm
Easter Vigil Mass
[Worship Hall, Pasquerilla; begins outside by the Forum]

Easter Sunday / April 20

9:30am
*11:30am
Mass
[Worship Hall, Pasquerilla]

There is no 9pm Mass held on Easter

*Please note that the 11:30am is our most heavily-attended Mass of the year, so please consider attending the 9:30am if possible. In any case, please plan on arriving 10–15 minutes early to help us get everyone seated (allow at least 5 minutes to walk from the Nittany Parking Deck).

Complete schedule and parking information available here:
http://www.psucatholic.org/lent/

04/12/2025

April 13

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Fr. Edward Mazich, OSB:

The joy of “Hosanna!” in today’s first reading turns quickly to a harsher reality in the next reading from the Prophet Isaiah, where we hear the “Servant of the Lord” — a prefiguration of Christ — say: “I gave my back to those who beat me…my face I did not hide from insults and spitting.” Psalm 22 has a plaintive tone to it as well: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

As much as we want to place ourselves on the side of the righteous who would be among the crowd on that first Palm Sunday crying “Hosanna!” we must acknowledge that we are also marked by the same sinful rejection of Christ that led the very same crowd to demand his death just a few days later, as they shouted “Away with this man!…crucify him! Crucify him!”

The turning point between these radically different perspectives is found in our human struggle to do what is good while we are attracted by the apparent freedom to do otherwise. St. Paul struggled with this and spoke eloquently of his spiritual battle in his Letter to the Romans: “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate…For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.”

For Paul, the struggle was often against the temptation of spiritual pride and arrogance…we all have various patterns of sin in our personal lives that cause us to turn from the Lord and join the crowd shouting “Away with him!” Lent is the time given to us each year to humbly focus our gaze inward and to ask that God fill us with the grace to let go of whatever keeps us from praising the Lord with “Hosannas” rather than wounding him with our sins.

The good thief said to our Lord: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” let us imitate his compunction this Holy Week that we might rejoice in the fullness of Christ’s redemption on Easter and beyond.

—Join us for Mass—

Welcome to all our visitors here this weekend — join us on Saturday at 4pm, or on Sunday at 9:30 or 11:30am, or 9pm!

—Readings—

Lk 19:28-40
Is 50:4-7
Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Phil 2:6-11
Lk 22:14—23:56

03/16/2025

March 16

Second Sunday of Lent

Fr. Killian Loch, OSB:

Lent is the season for us to see how we are living as citizens of heaven, and how we are preparing for the privileges that come with that. We began Lent with the three-fold call from Christ to pray, fast, and give alms. During Lent we tend to be mindful of these and even to take on different practices to help us in our journey through Lent. Lent, however, is not just a preparation for Easter Sunday, it is a preparation for our Easter, whenever that might be. It is a preparation that should not be limited to forty days, but rather the rest of our lives. As citizens of Heaven we have the responsibility to live each day in faithfulness to our Baptismal promises. We each have our own struggles, temptations and sins: our responsibility is to face them, repent of our sins and strive to be more faithful. In this way we will be faithful citizens of Heaven.

—Join us for Mass—

Welcome to all our visitors here this weekend — join us on Saturday at 4pm, or on Sunday at 10:30am or 9pm!

—Readings—

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18
Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14
Philippians 3:17—4:1
Luke 9:28b-36

03/08/2025

— 👋 Follow us on Instagram () for even more posts during the week! —

March 9

First Sunday of Lent

Fr. Campion Gavaler, OSB:

The temptations of Jesus point back to the temptations of Israel in the past, and point forward to the trials that the Church in all its members will undergo in the future. It is now we who are in the wilderness, with no lasting city, on a journey to the Promised Land. Each trial that life brings even to our dying day is a crisis, but is also an opportunity to trust more completely that the Lord is with us, and that we do love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might. We are confident that we will triumph in our trials of faith, not because of our own strength, but because Jesus has given us his holy Spirit. Thus sharing the fidelity of his undivided heart, we can pray with confidence: Our Father, do not let us be defeated by temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

—Join us for Mass—

⏰Spring ahead this Sunday, March 9!

Welcome to all our visitors here this weekend — join us on Saturday at 4pm, or on Sunday at 10:30am!

—Readings—

Deuteronomy 26:4-10
Psalm 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
Romans 10:8-13
Luke 4:1-13

03/01/2025

March 2

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Demetrius Dumm, OSB:

The parables that Jesus offers in today’s gospel have one thing in common — the qualities required for authentic discipleship. What is really at issue here is one’s willingness to live in reality. The person who chooses to live in illusion cannot be helpful in leading others to reality, where alone salvation can be found.

In the real world, our freedom is for loving and caring, but this is often painful. Hence the almost irresistible temptation to create an illusory world where pride and control can dominate and where pain can be avoided, at least temporarily. Jesus urges us to choose instead the reality of a converted heart producing the rich fruit of kindness and gentleness and freedom.

All this can be seen more clearly when we consider a few of the classic illusions.

The illusion of self-sufficiency blinds us to the reality of our interdependence. We need others, and they need us. The illusion of low self-esteem focuses so exclusively on one’s shortcomings that one is paralyzed and gradually slips into the tragic situation of victim-hood. The illusion of indispensability leads us to believe that we are irreplaceable. A particularly dangerous illusion is that of thinking we are not prejudiced — everyone is prejudiced in some way and the worst prejudice of all is not to recognize personal bias. These deeply ingrained attitudes can easily distort our vision of life and will cause us to be narrow-minded and judgmental. The illusion of immortality prevents us from being realistic about health care and which leads to denial or rationalizations in regard to bad health habits. This illusion is especially dangerous among the young, who often take risks that are foolish and life-threatening.

—Join us for Mass—

Welcome to all our visitors here this weekend — join us on Saturday at 4pm, or on Sunday at 9:30am, 11:30am, or 9pm!

—Readings—

Sirach 27:4-7
Psalm 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16
1 Corinthians 15:54-58
Luke 6:39-45

02/10/2025

February 10

Saint Scholastica
Virgin

St. Scholastica lived in modern-day Italy from 480 to 543. She is the patron saint of Benedictine nuns, and the biological sister of St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine Order.

She and her brother Benedict would meet once a year in a house close to the Benedictine Abbey of Montecasino to converse about spiritual matters. During the last meeting of their lives, she begged her brother to stay longer. He declined her request saying the Benedictine Rule prohibited it. She began to pray, and a strong storm prevented her brother from leaving. Benedict accused her of causing the storm, to which she replied: “I asked a favor of you, and you refused. I asked a favor of God, and He has granted it.”

Read more:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/02/10/st--scolastica--virgin--sister-di-s--benedetto.html

Saint Scholastica, Virgin, pray for us!

02/05/2025

February 5

Saint Agatha
Virgin and Martyr

Franciscan Media:

As in the case of Agnes, another virgin-martyr of the early Church, almost nothing is historically certain about this saint except that she was martyred in Sicily during the persecution of Emperor Decius in 251.

Legend has it that Agatha, like Agnes, was arrested as a Christian, tortured, and sent to a house of prostitution to be mistreated. She was preserved from being violated, and was later put to death.

She is claimed as the patroness of both Palermo and Catania. The year after her death, the stilling of an eruption of Mt. Etna was attributed to her intercession. As a result, apparently, people continued to ask her prayers for protection against fire.

Read more:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/02/05/st--agata--virgin-and-martyr.html

Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr, pray for us!

01/28/2025

January 28

Saint Thomas Aquinas
Priest and Doctor of the Church

Franciscan Media:

By universal consent, Thomas Aquinas is the preeminent spokesman of the Catholic tradition of reason and of divine revelation, and one of the great teachers of the medieval Catholic Church.

His greatest contribution to the Catholic Church is his writings. The unity, harmony, and continuity of faith and reason, of revealed and natural human knowledge, pervades his writings. One might expect Thomas, as a man of the gospel, to be an ardent defender of revealed truth. But he was broad enough, deep enough, to see the whole natural order as coming from God the Creator, and to see reason as a divine gift to be highly cherished.

The Summa Theologiae, his last and, unfortunately, uncompleted work, deals with the whole of Catholic theology. He stopped work on it after celebrating Mass on December 6, 1273. When asked why he stopped writing, he replied, “I cannot go on…. All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.” He died March 7, 1274.

Read more:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-03/pope-francis-thomas-aquinas-750-years-relevant-social-sciences.html

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church, pray for us!

01/25/2025

January 26
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Killian Loch, OSB:

It is common that shortly after a man is ordained to the priesthood he returns to his home parish to celebrate his First Mass, or Mass of Thanksgiving; this event is very similar to what we hear in the Gospel for this weekend.

Jesus chose the sixty-first chapter of the Prophet Isaiah for his reading, and when he completes it he announces that this passage is fulfilled in their hearing. Jesus told them that he is anointed to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to prisoners, give sight to the blind, and set free those who are oppressed. Jesus leaves his home town and does just that.

Just as Jesus would send out his disciples to do great things in his name, he calls us to be instruments of his mission. Saint Paul tells us how we can do this — how we are the “Body of Christ” — and makes a beautiful and detailed analogy of the human body. The numerous members of the Church are blessed with particular gifts and he gives a list of the individuals present in the church at his time; apostles, prophets, teachers, of their call to do mighty deeds. All of these gifts, so different in many ways, serve one purpose to build up the Body of Christ.

The lesson in these readings is one that calls us to follow the example of Jesus and not to be afraid to minister at home and in our own parishes and communities. Sometimes this ministry to family and friends can be challenging and difficult, but part of our call is to live our faith at home. At the same time the reading from Saint Paul can give us the comfort at knowing that we are not alone, for we are united with all members of the Church as the Body of Christ. Christ is our head and is personally involved with each of us. Whether at home or away may we use the gifts we are blessed with to live and proclaim the Good News.

—Join us for Mass—

Welcome to all visiting this weekend — join us on Saturday at 4pm, or on Sunday at 9:30am, 11:30am, or 9pm!

—Readings—

Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 15
1 Corinthians 12:12-30
Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

01/25/2025

January 25

The Conversion of Paul

Franciscan Media:

Saint Paul’s entire life can be explained in terms of his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus. In an instant, he saw that all the zeal of his dynamic personality was being wasted. Perhaps he had never seen Jesus, who was only a few years older. But he had acquired a zealot’s hatred of all Jesus stood for, as he began to harass the Church: “…entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment” (Acts 8:3b). Now he himself was “entered,” possessed, all his energy harnessed to one goal—being a slave of Christ in the ministry of reconciliation, an instrument to help others experience the one Savior.

Paul’s great message to the world was: You are saved entirely by God, not by anything you can do. Saving faith is the gift of total, free, personal and loving commitment to Christ, a commitment that then bears fruit in more “works” than the Law could ever contemplate.

Read Pope Francis’s message for the Conversion of Saint Paul:

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2024/documents/20240125-vespri-unita-cristiani.html

01/24/2025

January 24

Saint Francis de Sales
Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Franciscan Media:

Francis was destined by his father to be a lawyer so that the young man could eventually take his elder’s place as a senator from the province of Savoy in France. For this reason Francis was sent to Padua to study law. After receiving his doctorate, he returned home and, in due time, told his parents he wished to enter the priesthood. His father strongly opposed Francis in this, and only after much patient persuasiveness on the part of the gentle Francis did his father finally consent. Francis was ordained and elected provost of the Diocese of Geneva, then a center for the Calvinists. Francis set out to convert them, especially in the district of Chablais. By preaching and distributing the little pamphlets he wrote to explain true Catholic doctrine, he had remarkable success.

At 35, he became bishop of Geneva. While administering his diocese he continued to preach, hear confessions, and catechize the children. His gentle character was a great asset in winning souls. He practiced his own axiom, “A spoonful of honey attracts more flies than a barrelful of vinegar.”

Besides his two well-known books, the Introduction to the Devout Life and A Treatise on the Love of God, he wrote many pamphlets and carried on a vast correspondence. For his writings, he has been named patron of the Catholic Press. His writings, filled with his characteristic gentle spirit, are addressed to lay people. He wants to make them understand that they too are called to be saints. As he wrote in The Introduction to the Devout Life: “It is an error, or rather a heresy, to say devotion is incompatible with the life of a soldier, a tradesman, a prince, or a married woman…. It has happened that many have lost perfection in the desert who had preserved it in the world.”

Read more:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2022-12/pope-st-francis-de-sales-great-reader-of-the-signs-of-times.html

Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, pray for us!

01/23/2025

January 23

Saint Vincent
Deacon and Martyr

Franciscan Media:

Most of what we know about this saint comes from the poet Prudentius. His Acts have been rather freely colored by the imagination of their compiler. But Saint Augustine, in one of his sermons on Saint Vincent, speaks of having the Acts of his martyrdom before him. We are at least sure of his name, his being a deacon, the place of his death and burial.

According to the story we have, the unusual devotion he inspired must have had a basis in a very heroic life. Vincent was ordained deacon by his friend Saint Valerius of Zaragossa in Spain. The Roman emperors had published their edicts against the clergy in 303, and the following year against the laity. Vincent and his bishop were imprisoned in Valencia. Hunger and torture failed to break them. Like the youths in the fiery furnace, they seemed to thrive on suffering.

Valerius was sent into exile, and Dacian, the Roman governor, now turned the full force of his fury on Vincent. Tortures that sound very modern were tried. But their main effect was the progressive disintegration of Dacian himself. He had the torturers beaten because they failed.

Finally he suggested a compromise: Would Vincent at least give up the sacred books to be burned according to the emperor’s edict? He would not. Torture on the gridiron continued, the prisoner remaining courageous, the torturer losing control of himself. Vincent was thrown into a filthy prison cell—and converted the jailer. Dacian wept with rage, but strangely enough, ordered the prisoner to be given some rest.

Friends among the faithful came to visit him, but he was to have no earthly rest. When they finally settled him on a comfortable bed, he went to his eternal rest.

Read more:

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-vincent-124

Saint Vincent, Deacon and Martyr, pray for us!

Nittany Catholic

04/16/2025

04/12/2025

03/16/2025

03/08/2025

03/01/2025

02/10/2025

02/05/2025

01/28/2025

01/25/2025

01/25/2025

01/24/2025

01/23/2025

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Place Of Worship

Shortcuts

Share

Category