Dear Friends in Christ, Several items for your attention: 1. We have a new parish website, and I encourage you to have a look and learn how you can more easily keep up with life at St. Mary’s. The new site is at our old web address, www.stmarysgvl.org, but everything else is new. For example,…

Dear Friends in Christ, If you regularly attend Mass here but are not registered, then you are not an active parishioner. If you are registered but do not attend Mass here each Sunday, then you are not an active parishioner. If you are registered and attending Mass but not supporting the parish according to your…

Dear Friends in Christ, 1. This Friday, 15 August, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation, and there will be three Masses: 7 am, 12 noon, and 7 pm. 2. A holy day of obligation is a day on which Catholics are obliged to attend Mass,…

Dear Friends in Christ, Evangelical Catholicism is the name we give here to the Church’s universal mission to preach the Gospel to all nations, but while fulfilling the Great Commission is a constant imperative for the Church, how that mission is accomplished has changed widely according to time and place. The Second Vatican Council, Pope…

Dear Friends in Christ, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, has declared the creation of a new Islamic Caliphate with himself as Caliph Ibrahim — Abraham. When this man first gained wide attention a few weeks ago, it was easy to dismiss him from a safe distance…