Why some priests are addressed as Reverend, some as Very Reverend and others as Most Reverend? Clergy are addressed differently depending on their role. Pope – His Holiness – Pope (Name) Cardinals – His Eminence – Cardinal (Name) Archbishops – His Grace – The Most Reverend (Name) Bishops – His Excellency – The Most Reverend (Name) Abbots – Right Reverend – The Right Reverend (Name) Monsignors – Reverend Monsignor – The Reverend Monsignor (Name) Vicar General, judicial vicars, rectors of cathedrals and seminaries – The Very Reverend (Name) Priests – Reverend (Father) – Reverend (Name) – Father ..read more

Dear Children of God, Another Sacramental weekend. On Saturday (April 20), James Troendle and Claire Forget were married at St. Mary’s. Pray for them that they may have a strong life-long marriage. We are First Holy Communion at St. Mary’s. What a great gift the Eucharist is. It is the closest we get to God on this side of heaven. Jesus comes to us body, blood, soul, and divinity under the appearance of bread and wine. As Catholics, we believe in the Real Presence. Jesus is really present body, blood, soul, and divinity under the appearance of bread and wine. The Easter season continues. Peter ..read more

Why do we need Easter in the 21st century? The Enlightenment movement in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries made huge advancements in government, science, mathematics, and philosophy. So much so that some started to believe that through human effort we could conquer disease, poverty, lawlessness, and other ailments of society. Some people started to believe that if we just had the right government, the right laws, that the perfect society would emerge. Humanity had made so much progress in other areas, surely we could come up with a form of government that would allow everyone to thrive. Ou ..read more

Full Text: Homily for the Third Sunday of EasterDownload https://spotify.link/MSCe2nEBSIb ..read more

Do we believe only Catholics go to heaven? The short answer is no. Traditionally, the answer is yes. They are both right. Let me explain. First we need to state that all salvation comes through Jesus Christ and through his one Catholic Church. Christ is the head. The body of Christ is the Church. In paragraph 846 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), it quotes Lumen Gentium, (one of the documents of Vatican II), paragraph 14, saying, “He (Jesus) himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men e ..read more

Where does the Bible talk about Purgatory? To begin this question, we have to do a little truth and logic. Christians for the last two thousand years have held to the permanency of heaven and hell. This means that if you’re in heaven, you can’t (don’t want to) get out of heaven. If you are in hell, you can’t get out of hell. So if the Bible talks about praying for the dead, there has to be another spot other than heaven or hell. If there is only heaven and hell, our prayers would be wasted on the dead since they can’t change there state. Guess what? The Bible does talk about praying for the de ..read more

People of God, Again, happy Easter! Just like Christmas, Easter is not just a day, but a season. In fact the season of Easter is significantly longer than the season of Christmas. In fact it is longer than Advent and Lent. The season of Easter lasts until Pentecost, which this year, is Sunday, May 19. So continue to celebrate. Eat those chocolate bunnies. Better yet, spend some extra time in prayer thanking God for the gifts of our freedom from our sins and eternal life. So continue to celebrate Jesus’ rising from the dead. Have a blessed week, Father Vogel ..read more

Full Text: Homily for Easter SundayDownload ..read more

Full Text: Homily for the Fifth Sunday of LentDownload ..read more

Dear People of God, Just a reminder that John Reining’s (from St. Patrick’s) funeral is this Tuesday, March 26 at 11 AM at St. Patrick’s in Brownsville. The wake will be the night before at the church. We are now entering the most holy week of the year. I know there is a lot going on in the world: the Ukraine, conflict in the Gaza Strip, an election year, all the snow we are suppose to get this week, inflation, and other things more personal things. We are not called to put our head and the ground and pretend these things are not happening, but this week we are called to focus more on Christ a ..read more