Blog - November 2020 RSS Feed

In our Catholic wisdom, we talk about three different comings of Christ that we wait for during this Advent season. I’ll discuss each one over the next three days, so check back in tomorrow.

​Today is the first Sunday of Advent – the opening of the new Church year. Advent is the time we concentrate on waiting. Come, Lord Jesus, and help us be patient in our waiting.

​​Tomorrow is the feast of Thanksgiving and we praise God. God doesn’t need our gratitude, but does love when we thank Him, so He can give us more.

On today’s Conversation with Cardinal Dolan, Father Dave Dwyer and I discussed the end of the Church year as well as Thanksgiving. We also spoke to the Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of New York about their recent victory requiring the DOE to provide Covid-19 testing for our students as law mandates.

The most grateful we are for what God has given us, the more charitable we become. Charity flows from thanksgiving.

​What’s beautiful about gratitude is that even in thanking God, we admit there are things we don’t have. There is an emptiness and need in our hearts and souls that only God can fill. One of the things we most need is salvation — we can’t save ourselves.

​Happy Sunday! Today is the last Sunday of the Church year, the feast of Christ the King. Did you know the word Eucharist comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, one of the best ways we can thank God is through Mass.

​​What is most important about Thanksgiving is not what we’re eating or where we are. It’s gratitude. Gratitude encourages us to fight entitlement. Anything we have comes from God and we should be grateful for it.

​​When we thank God, we admit that we need and depend on Him. I think it’s a good example of the virtue of humility. The Little Flower said humility is the beginning of all virtue. We acknowledge that we can do nothing without God and with Him, nothing is impossible.

A week from today is Thanksgiving. It’s going to be different this year, isn’t it? I wanted to talk about gratitude – that’s what Thanksgiving is all about. Saint Augustine tells us gratitude is the beginning of all virtues.

On today’s Conversation with Cardinal Dolan , I talked about this year’s USCCB virtual conference. I discussed my recent election to the chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty. Freedom of religion is a fundamental right and there are threats to it.

We have a simple lesson about the meaning of the Church in this morning’s Gospel. ​There’s a great crowd around Jesus — that’s the Church. They are telling others about Jesus — that’s evangelization.

Today I want to talk to you about the persecution of Christians throughout the world. I’m especially worried about the problems in Nigeria that have intensified. We cannot let them suffer in silence.

Today is the feast of Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini. She was the first American citizen to be canonized a saint and the patron saint of immigrants. We sure love her here in New York​.

Our thoughts and gratitude go to our esteemed veterans today on Veterans Day. Today is also the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours, a soldier. It strikes me the number of soldiers that become priests and even saints – I can see how they’d be open to the grace and mercy of Jesus.

On today’s Conversation with Cardinal Dolan show, I talked about the release of the McCarrick report. The Church doesn’t have any fear of the truth — it may shock or embarrass us, but we’re not afraid of it.

Dear Member of the Family of the Archdiocese: Last Thursday, I told you that we were awaiting the release of the McCarrick Report by the Holy See, and that time has come. I’d like to share with you my statement on the report, as well as the statement of Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

We can’t forget our past. If we lose our memory, we’ve lost a lot. We’re rooted in the past and November reminds us of that as we reverently remember and pray for the souls of the faithfully departed.

​Thanks again for joining me on my walk today. As I’ve said before, the fall season is a time when we think of nature dying. We in the Catholic faith also think of our death and our eternal destiny and union with God.