Posted on May 30, 2026 View all news
“Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved.” — St. Philip Neri
The month of June is filled with some of the most beautiful feasts of the liturgical year, and in a particular way they touch deeply upon the spirit and life of the Oratory. On Monday, June 1, we celebrate the transferred solemnity of the Feast of St. Philip Neri, the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, with a Solemn Mass at 6:30 p.m. St. Philip is a joyful reminder that holiness is not cold, harsh, or distant. He drew souls to Christ not through severity, but through genuine charity, humor, patience, prayer, and personal holiness. In an age that was anxious, distracted, and fractured, St. Philip built a community rooted in prayer, friendship, reverence, and the love of God. We would do well to ask his intercession for our own age, which often suffers from many of the same spiritual illnesses.
On Thursday, June 4, we celebrate the great Feast of Corpus Christi with a Solemn Mass and Eucharistic Procession at 6:30 p.m. In the Blessed Sacrament, Our Lord remains truly present among us — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The procession is not simply ceremonial. It is a public act of faith, a witness that Christ is not hidden away from the world, but reigns over it. I strongly encourage everyone to attend and to make this feast a priority.
Later in the month, we will celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart on June 12 at Sacred Heart Church with a Solemn Mass at 6:30 p.m. followed by a social and fireworks, as well as the Feast of St. John the Baptist on June 24 with a Solemn Mass at 6:30 p.m. followed again by a social and fireworks. These feasts remind us that Catholic life is meant to be lived together. The Church gathers not only to pray together, but also to rejoice together.
This month, I also want to announce an important practical change regarding communication. Going forward, my public email communication will increasingly move through the parish office and our secretary rather than directly through me personally. My current email addresses will be phased out or transferred to the staff. The office will help manage scheduling, messages, meetings, requests, and communication, and will coordinate with me on responses and pastoral needs. There are several reasons for this change. Quite simply, the volume of emails has become overwhelming and, if unchecked, could easily consume hours of the day, which isn’t the best use of my time. Between parish responsibilities, Oratory life, and personal obligations, scheduling has also become increasingly complicated with the various means people wish to communicate. In addition, inappropriate emails have increasingly become an issue.
If you need to schedule a meeting, a sacrament, a house blessing, or another pastoral matter, please contact the parish office directly. If there is a genuine emergency requiring a priest, the correct way to reach us is always through the parish phone number — either during office hours or through the emergency prompt after hours. Emergencies should never be communicated via email or social media, as messages there can easily be missed.
I would also ask everyone to treat our office staff with patience, kindness, and respect. This is an issue that is brought to my attention from time to time. They are there to help both you and me, and they carry a great deal of responsibility behind the scenes.
More broadly, I believe this change is healthy not only for me, but perhaps for many of us. Modern technology is useful and often necessary, but there is also something deeply inhuman about living every moment attached to a screen and expecting constant, immediate communication. Technology can become addictive. It can weaken patience, charity, and genuine human interaction. It is easy to say terrible things from behind a screen or to take things without proper context. Studies have shown that even the most gentle individuals can surprisingly come across as quite harsh when they’re behind a screen. This is not good. Human beings were not made for perpetual digital noise and instant gratification. We were not made to constantly communicate with strangers across the country and the world about matters not related to our state in life. We were not made to move from crisis to crisis and live in a state of heightened anxiety that steals our inner peace and joy.
Perhaps one small spiritual exercise this summer is to honestly examine our own relationship with technology and to ask whether it is helping us grow in virtue — or quietly distracting us from God, from prayer, and from one another. Resist the urge to respond immediately to things or to read the latest gossip. Get outside, have a real conversation with another human being, and enjoy the creation that God gave to us. This will be helpful to both our temporal and spiritual lives.
May St. Philip Neri teach us joy, charity, and simplicity of heart, and may Our Lady always lead us closer to her Son in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
