vis-a-vis

Seven Leadership Lessons from Mary Magdalene by Teresa R. Albright, Pastoral Associate Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene . Mary the Magdalene is a person in the New Testament worth considering; especially since she spent the greater part of the last one-thousand-four-hundred years misrepresented in the western, Catholic imagination as a penitent sex-worker. However, modern Biblical scholarship gives us the chance to rediscover this important figure of early Christianity.  Mary the Magdalene is significant, in part, because she is so prominent in the Christian Testament: appearing many times and in all four gospels (Mt 27.55-56, 61; 28.1; Mk 15.40-41, 47; 16:1, 9; Lk  8.2; 24.10; Jn 19.25; 20.1, 11, 16, 18). She was a follower and close companion of Jesus, she stood by Jesus as he died on the cross, and she discovered his empty tomb on the third day. Named in all four Resurrection stories, Christians from the beginning not only recognized Mary Magdalene as an impo

God Calling… by Teresa R. Albright, Pastoral Associate Throughout the month of July, the church memorializes the lives of several saints who were either founders of or pioneers in their respective religious communities. On July 11, we remember St. Benedict , founder of the Benedictines and father of Western monasticism. On July 15, we remember St. Bonaventure , a pioneer and reconciler among the Franciscans. On July 16, we celebrate Our Lady of Mount Carmel , the patron of the Carmelite Order that brought us Doctors of the Church such as Saints John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and Therese of Lisieux. On July 23, we remember St. Bridget of Sweden who worked against corrupt papacies and founded the Order of the Most Holy Savior, known as the Bridgettines. And on July 31, we remember St. Ignatius Loyola , founder of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, who have taught and formed so many Visitation families. I remember being around thirteen years old when I told my moth

Hello Everyone,               This is my first appearance on “the blog.”   I think “the blog” was conceived as a way for the parish staff to electronically communicate with you.   The rest of the staff seemed sort of unsure about penning a Fourth of July message, so I said I would give it a shot (pun intended).   I am comparatively well fixed to do it because I just finished reading a 660 page book on the American Revolution.   It was among the better books I have read in recent months.   I decided to navigate it because my heart needs a diversion from its intensely melancholy habits and I should know more about the American Revolution.               They tell me “the blog” will not admit of long discourses, so let me leap to the point:   The peculiar thing about the 4 th of July is that it is not the day the Declaration of Independence was written.   It is certainly not the day our country’s independence was achieved.   The 4 th of July is merely the day the Declaration of Indep