The following is Fr. Dennis’ Sunday homily for the Memorial of Sts. Anne & Joachim, given at the closing novena Mass at St. Anne Shrine in Fiskdale, MA, this past Sunday. The Assumptionists have ministered at the shrine and parish since 1955. In my encounters with students over the years… Read More »Some Thoughts on Piety
A while back, one of the priests here during the penitential rite at the beginning of Mass would ask forgiveness for our “limitations.” I don’t wish to personalize my reaction to this – this priest was not a native English speaker – but the substitution of limitations for sin is… Read More »Word Deflation
When I was a kid, without giving it a whole lot of thought, we used to speak of “going to communion.” It amounted to leaving one’s pew at “communion time” to get the wafer. If that sounds crude, how’s this: we were always interested when the Church gave out stuff: ashes… Read More »Going to communion: a homily for Corpus Christi
When we read in the Book of Genesis that God is demanding that Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac, we are rightly incredulous. Are you kidding me? This is Isaac, the late-born son of Abraham and Sarah, the child of the promise. The killing of Isaac can only mean going back… Read More »Gratitude and the precariousness of life
A few years back I decided to make life easier for my lady barbers in Worcester by having the last vestiges of hair removed from the top of my head. I was taking my cue from my prematurely bald nephew, Tim, who sang the praises of the look and feel of… Read More »Hair, hair
Fr. Peter in El Paso, Texas, concelebrating Mass with Bishop Mark Seitz Today’s post is written by Fr. Peter Precourt, A.A. He is currently living in El Paso, Texas, exploring apostolic possibilities for our new foundation, which will be established this year. Hello! Remember me? In early March I had… Read More »Guest post: letter from the desert
Fr. Denys Gonthier, esteemed professor of French at Assumption for many years, was fond of quoting Gabriel Marcel, twentieth century French existentialist, to the effect that absence is another form of presence. Fr. Denys was a lover of mystery and paradox, so the effect of this statement, upending our customary way… Read More »I will not leave you orphans
In the past month, two Assumptionist brothers passed on from this life – Fr. Camillus Thibault and Fr. Oliver Blanchette. Here, Fr. Dennis reflects on the joy and zeal they brought to our lives and their ministries. Their exchanges across the table at Old English Road were often feisty and… Read More »Cam and Ollie
Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes the observation toward the beginning of Life Together, written while the German pastor was in prison for resisting the Nazi regime, that someone joining a Christian community would do well to let die the ideal of a “perfect” community. He means dying in the sense of really… Read More »Life Together in Pandemic Time
Robert T Barrett, Three Women at the Tomb I’m sure we are not all control freaks, but the inclination to want to have control over things is alive and well in most of us. This is what makes a pandemic regime so difficult, where large swaths of our lives have fallen… Read More »…and have it abundantly.