Browsing the 2016 archive of FR. THOMAS’ COLUMN
March 27, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 3/24/16
Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all have a beautiful celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection! Alleluia! I will be traveling down to the Cities after the final Mass on Easter to spend a little time with my family. I will return on late Thursday evening March 31. During this time ... Read More »
March 20, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 3/17/16
It is HOLY WEEK!!!!! Okay, so why do we call it Holy, and why does it last a week? Well, it is a week of beautiful events that have shaken humanity to its core. This week changes everything!!! At least that is what we believe as Christians. This is ... Read More »
March 13, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 3/17/16
Lent is about over, and by now many of us have failed at part of our Lenten resolutions. So why do we fail? There can be many reasons for this, sometimes it is because our plan is unrealistic. For example: I know someone who gave up talking for Lent. ... Read More »
March 6, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 3/08/16
This weekend is my favorite Gospel parable, the Story of the Prodigal Son. Sometimes it is called the Story of the Prodigal Sons. But still, this is a great parable about the Mercy of God. It seems fitting that in the Year of Mercy we are reading from Cycle ... Read More »
February 28, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 2/25/16
This weekend we celebrate the Third Sunday in Lent. That means we are almost half way there. How are we doing? How is it going with pruning of things we don’t need to do? And how is it going with adding of things that will bring us closer to God?
Lent is a time for us to grow closer to God. But one of the bigger issues that we run into is that our desires are not focused on God. We have desires for people, things and opportunities, but our desires are not for the Lord. We want things that aren’t good for us. We live by this, ‘That I should be happy.’ What if my happiness allows for me to stomp all over you to make me feel happy, is that right? See, we live in a society of emotion. We live for emotion. As long as my emotion is good, at least in society standards, then I am doing okay. Still, we should be sad if someone dies, we should be angry sometimes. Emotions aren’t necessarily good or bad. But we can get too focused on them. Jesus is where our focus should be, not on emotions, not on fulfilling the desires that don’t bring us closer to Him. So we need to have purified desires in order for us to serve Him. God wants to help us to have purified desires. Ask Him for help in this, because so often this is what is holding us back from growing closer to the Father. The Father wants us to desire Him more, and He wants us to ask Him for our desires to be healed. It is Lent, this is a time to work on ... Read More »
February 21, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 2/17/16
Recently we had our parish mission with Kyle and Valerie Clement. It was wonderful, and out of the mission came a beautiful Sacred Heart Image with a very awesome prayer. Now I realize that the print on these is a little tiny so I am reproducing it in this ... Read More »
February 14, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 2/16/16
Lent is here. This great penitential season is here. This season is here to help us to grow ever more in love with God. Yes, that is correct, you have read correctly, this season is here to help us to be lovers of God. God is pure love and ... Read More »
February 7, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 2/16/16
The following is from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics. In addition, Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence.
For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from ... Read More »
January 31, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 1/28/16
This week we not only have our Parish Mission, which I am really, really excited for, we also have two great celebrations. The first is the Presentation of the Lord. This is when we celebrate Jesus being presented at the Temple. What a great celebration this is. And we ... Read More »
January 24, 2016
Posted by Father Thomas Galarneault on 1/20/16
In just over a week our Parish Mission begins. Have we wanted to grow in our relationship with God? If so, then it is important that we try to make it to all that we can of the Mission. The Mission is here to help us. That is why ... Read More »