The Christmas season is always a time to remind ourselves to be thankful for the blessings we have received in life. With the celebration of our Lord’s birth in a few days, we remember that our God became human so that we can share in His divinity.

I am personally grateful to almighty God for the gift of shepherding this parish of Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Our Lady for five years. This community has undergone many changes since 2015: most for the good and some accompanied by growing pains. Through it all, however, our parishioners have continued to support the parish and community in a manner reminiscent of our forebears, who built and maintained their houses of worship for the next generation. Since the early days of the “Waverly Church, c. 1853” and the building of “Our Lady of the Assumption Church, c. 1911,” we have grown into the most vibrant parish in all of southern Westchester.

Over the decades, thousands of families have committed themselves to our Catholic family with each era building upon the previous one and preparing for the next generation.

Recently, I was reviewing old files and some scheduling lists that are still in my computer. There were hundreds of names, perhaps a thousand. These lists contain scheduling information for the various apostolates in our parish as well as the tradesmen and professionals who have donated their time to maintain our buildings and projects. These lists encompass all manners of functions and ministries: PREP teachers, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, lectors, Altar Servers, ushers, Parish staff, teachers, musicians, Sodalities, Parish and Finance Councils, our Catholic School, gardeners, committees, and on and on.

Overall, I have been reminded of the good fortune we enjoy here in Tuckahoe and Eastchester. The people are so generous with their resources and talents. The success of our vibrant Catholic life will enable us to continue to grow through the New Evangelization and preserve our Catholic Family for the next generations to build upon what we leave them. (What is “the New Evangelization”? See my attached column.)

Thank you and may everyone have a blessed Christmas and graces and health in 2020.

The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, which is a way of life that leaves God out of man's thinking and organizes his life as if God did not exist. This was during the time of the rise of Communism – with no place for God.

Pope St. Paul VI moved the feast to the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year as a summary of the mystery of Salvation revealed to us by Jesus Christ. As Catholics, the goal of faith is to allow Christ to reign as King in our lives through faith, hope, and love. The Kingship of Jesus’ love, revealed in His Sacred Heart, not only extends to individuals and His Church but to every family, nation, race, and people of the world – despite our sins and our shortcomings.

Jesus is our King in the full sense of the word: He has created us, redeemed us, gave us His Divine life through grace, and nourishes us with His Flesh and Blood in the Eucharist. He governs us with love, and by love, He draws us to Him. On the cross, Christ our King invites all to come to Him – showing us the wound in His side, which pierced His Sacred Heart, as the symbol of His love and the source of grace and mercy. Every time we fall into the slavery of sin, Jesus continues to offer Himself to us in the Sacraments: to liberate and bring us back into the freedom and saving reign of His Love.

The feast is intended to proclaim, in a striking and effective manner, that Jesus is the King of the Universe. This is the end of the Church’s Liturgical Year and is a fitting way to think about all that has happened – all the graces and blessings we have received and all of the crosses we have had to bear. Place them all at the feet of Christ the King.

May Jesus Christ, Our King and Lord, continue to strengthen, heal, guide, and bless us, our individual families, and our parish as we move into a new Liturgical Year with the start of the Advent season.

A Prayer for Christ the King

Let us pray:
Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race,
look down upon us humbly prostrate before Your altar.
We are Yours, and Yours we wish to be;
but, to be more surely united with You,
behold each one of us
who freely consecrates himself today
to Your Most Sacred Heart.

Many indeed have never known You;
many too, despising Your precepts, have rejected You.
Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus,
and draw them to Your Sacred Heart.

You are King, O Lord,
not only of the faithful who have never forsaken You,
but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned You;
grant that they may quickly return to their Father's house
lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.

You are King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions,
or whom discord keeps aloof;
call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith,
so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd.

Grant, O Lord, to Your Church
assurance of freedom and immunity from harm;
give peace and order to all nations,
and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry:
Praise to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation;
to It be glory and Honor forever.
Amen.

(The Church also imparts a special blessing called a Plenary Indulgence to all the faithful who publicly pray this prayer in a Church on the Feast of Christ the King.)

It is my fifth year as your Pastor in our Parish and, as its Shepherd, I assumed the responsibility for its administrative welfare. Annually, I have given you a report of our fiscal health and challenges. This Fall, Cardinal Dolan and the Archdiocese of New York have asked me to also run an Increased Offertory Project.

With your help, we have completed many projects and continued to improve the condition of all our buildings and grounds. We have also built or restored many treasures; I don’t have room to list them all but please see the complete list on our website. We’ve also added ministries, apostolates and activities -- all in a fiscally responsible way.

Challenges we now face:

• Costs have risen significantly but, unfortunately, parish income has not.
• There have been increases in property insurance, salaries, Archdiocesan and Immaculate Conception School taxes.
• For the past few years, we have depended on the Christmas and Easter collections to pay past-due bills which doesn’t give us the chance to save for any last minute repairs. For the financial wellbeing of the parish, this cannot continue.
• We have done some beautiful restorations and now have to maintain them.

Assumption Church

On the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, August 15, 2019, the Parish welcomed Timothy Cardinal Dolan, our Archbishop, to Assumption Church to dedicate the Altar and celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving for the restoration of the Church. More than 500 people filled the church and overflowed into the Prayer Garden, where chairs and sound were provided. As you see in the photos, the celebration was inspiring, instructive, joyous and delicious. A word of thanks to everyone who worked on this memorable and historic evening.

Renew & Rebuild Campaign Success

The interior restoration of our beloved Assumption Church is thanks to the 404 parish families who pledged funds in the Renew & Rebuild Campaign in 2016-2017. Their donations, along with those which memorialized items specifically for the Church, allowed us to restore Assumption and complete 27 other projects. Some projects, like the Church, were large and expensive while some were small and practical, like the handrails replaced for safety and aesthetic reasons.

Most projects done

I am going to post on our website the full list of projects that were promised when we first came to you about the Renew & Rebuild Campaign. Of the 28 projects, 22 have been completed and paid for in two years.

What’s left to do?

A couple of much anticipated projects still have to be completed. Most notable and complex is our new Parish Center on the first floor of the school on Immaculate’s campus. The Parish Center will house the offices for the priests, deacons and staff, four meeting rooms, the Chapel of the Divine Mercy, a proper archive for Holy Mount Cemetery, etc.

Also, we are changing the HVAC in Immaculate Conception Church. Lastly, there are parking lots to be repaved and a Grand Entrance to be planned.

Pope Francis has written a letter to the more than 400,000 Catholic priests worldwide, encouraging them during the sexual abuse crisis. The 5,000-word letter focuses on four themes: pain, gratitude, encouragement and praise.

The letter is meant to give priests hope, many of whom feel disheartened because of the horrendous crimes of abuse committed by a small percentage of their fellow priests. In these times of tribulation, they are often blamed or treated with suspicion, distrust, contempt or ridicule.

This letter speaks directly to all priests because Francis is deeply concerned that in many countries, including the United States, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany and Chile, the morale of priests has suffered greatly because of the abuse scandal. He wrote this letter in Spanish in July, without help from anyone in the Roman Curia.

Francis addresses his letter to all those priests who have given their lives to Jesus and “are working in the trenches” exposed to countless difficulties. He expresses his desire to be close to them. Writing “as an older brother and a father,” he says he wants “to thank you in the name of the holy and faithful People of God for all that you do for them” and “to encourage you never to forget the words that the Lord spoke to us with great love on our ordination day: ‘I no longer call you servants…I call you friends.’”

If you’d like to read the letter, please click here to go to the Vatican website.