Category: Uncategorized

Another Homily by Deacon James Parrilli

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Catholic, Uncategorized
A flock of sheep gathered in a pasture at sunset, with a farmer tending to them and a rustic farm structure in the background.
Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

Good morning sisters and brothers

Beloved children of God

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my sheep, and mine know me.

Today is Vocations Sunday or more properly, World Day of Prayer for Vocations a tradition that was started 63 years ago by Pope Saint John the XXIII.

One of the earliest discovered Christian paintings on the walls of the catacombs is of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. He is depicted carrying a yew in his arms. God chose the image of the Shepherd to teach us and inform us, to remind us and guide us as shepherds do for their flock and most importantly a shepherd will lay down his life to protect the flock from wolves and such. It is the perfect choice.

Do other professions convey what God does for his children…

A baker beats, kneads, folds, and twists his creations, then throws his creations in the oven almost to the point of burning then quickly removes them from the heat and as they cool to room temperature, he sells them to the highest bidder.

God the baker would have been a less than perfect choice. God’s a shepherd!

The first reading is from Acts.

Acts tells us how the earthly church started to develop. As we heard Peter is still boisterous. He gets the crowds attention by reminding them that they killed both Lord and Christ when they crucified Jesus.

But they are still redeemable in God’s eyes through the sacrament of baptism… and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.”

The second reading for the 1st letter of Peter…

He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

We do stray, have error, but we have a just judge and a merciful God that keeps his promises.

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my sheep, and mine know me.

This mornings Gospel by John. Jesus is again speaking with the Pharisees and again or still the Pharisees hardened their hearts and refused to listen to His life-giving message.

“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

We have 2 men this weekend that gave their live to be good shepherds, And the Church desperately needs men like them to strongly consider the call that they may have received to become Priests of God.

Vocation Sunday is a time for all of us to consider the depth of each of our vocations.

All of us here are Children of God. Many of you are generous donors and that is critical to maintain the church/parish.

Faithful Christian communities can only grow and thrive when every parishioner makes his or her commitment to the well-being of the whole. Full stop

When all are giving, time talent and treasure, all will be receiving in abundance, the abundance that Jesus speaks about in today’s Gospel.

Today we are asked to “pray” for vocations. There is a built-in deflection in that, although many will pray fervently, Thank You!

But Tommy and Tammy Teflon will be praying for other people’s vocations and not their own.

St Paul reminds us in scripture from 1st Corinthians…When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.

Pope Leo in his message for vocations states…Maturity and Knowledge lead to confidence, a mindset that arises from faith and is essential both for welcoming one’s vocation and for persevering in it. Indeed, life reveals itself as a continual act of trusting in the Lord and abandoning ourselves to him, even when his plans unsettle our own.

So, to pray with sincerity involves our reflecting on The Big Question…

How is God asking me to move closer to him by serving the other and make a meaningful commitment of self, to the building up of our community, our parish.

In other words, … You and I, by Seeking, Knowing, following and loving Him… will open The GATE for all that are here, to have life more abundantly, through living as a community centered on Christ! How? by deepening our dependence on Him.

In a moment, we come up for the Eucharist.

Let us acknowledge and grateful for the many gifts He has given us

and ask Him how we can use them to serve Him and His people more fervently.

Amen

About: Deacon James Parrilli was ordained 15 years ago. We went through formation together and we were ordained together. He works in ministry full time.

Prior homily by Jimmy: https://deacongerrypalermo.blog/2022/09/26/a-homily-by-deacon-james-parrilli/

http://www.stchrishs.com/

What my Prison Chapel Taught me about the Lenten Desert

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Uncategorized

Journal Entry: March 6, 2026 As part of my Lenten switch, I am bringing my reflections into this Journal. On Wednesday, we were in the heat of a Caribbean battle. Today, we find ourselves in the quiet heat of a different kind of desert: the prison chapel. Lenten Reflection: The Pause in the Desert “If […]

What my Prison Chapel Taught me about the Lenten Desert

A shared repost from an amazing author.

Amor Vincit Omnia

by Gerry Palermo, posted in Uncategorized
The national flag of Armenia featuring three horizontal stripes of red, blue, and orange, with a coat of arms in the center.

2026

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, … It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock (1 Cor 13:4, 7; Mt 7:24).

2015

Saint Gregory of Narek- Little else is known about Saint Gregory of Narek’s, other than he died in the early 11th century and was buried within the walls of the Narek monastery where he had spent his life. In 2015 as the world observed the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Pope Francis concelebrated a Mass at the Vatican with Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni and declared the monk, poet, and saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Gregory of Narek, a Doctor of the Church. His liturgical feast is celebrated on February 27.

1996

COMMON DECLARATION OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
AND HIS HOLINESS KAREKIM I SARKISSIAN,
SUPREME PATRIARCH AND CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS

Friday, 13 December 1996

As they bring to a close their solemn meeting which they are deeply convinced has been of particular significance for the ongoing relations between the Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church, His Holiness John Paul II, Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Catholic Church, and His Holiness Karekin I, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians, give humble thanks to the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who has enabled them to meet in His love for prayer together, for a fruitful discussion of their common desire to search out a more perfect unity in the Holy Spirit, and for an exchange of views about how their Churches may give a more effective  witness to the Gospel in a world approaching a new millennium in the history of salvation.

Pope John Paul II and Catholicos Karekin I recognize the deep spiritual communion which already unites them and the Bishops, clergy and lay faithful of their Churches. It is a communion which finds its roots in the common faith in the Holy and life-giving Trinity proclaimed by the Apostles and transmitted down the centuries by the many Fathers and Doctors of the Church and the Bishops, priests, and martyrs who have followed them. They rejoice in the fact that recent developments of ecumenical relations and theological discussions carried out in the spirit of Christian love and fellowship have dispelled many misunderstandings inherited from the controversies and dissensions of the past. Such dialogues and encounters have prepared a healthy situation of mutual understanding and recovery of the deeper spiritual communion based on the common faith in the Holy Trinity that they have been given through the Gospel of Christ and in the Holy Tradition of the Church.

They particularly welcome the great advance that their Churches have registered in their common search for unity in Christ, the Word of God made flesh. Perfect God as to His divinity, perfect man as to His humanity, His divinity is united to His humanity in the Person of the Only-begotten Son of God, in a union which is real, perfect, without confusion, without alteration, without division, without any form of separation.

The reality of this common faith in Jesus Christ and in the same succession of apostolic ministry has at times been obscured or ignored. Linguistic, cultural and political factors have immensely contributed towards the theological divergences that have found expression in their terminology of formulating their doctrines. His Holiness John Paul II and His Holiness Karekin I have expressed their determined conviction that because of the fundamental common faith in God and in Jesus Christ, the controversies and unhappy divisions which sometimes have followed upon the divergent ways in expressing it, as a result of the present declaration, should not continue to influence the life and witness of the Church today. They humbly declare before God their sorrow for these controversies and dissensions and their determination to remove from the mind and memory of their Churches the bitterness, mutual recriminations and even hatred which have sometimes manifested themselves in the past, and may even today cast a shadow over the truly fraternal and genuinely Christian relations between leaders and the faithful of both Churches, especially as these have developed in recent times.

The communion already existing between the two Churches and the hope for and commitment to recovery of full communion between them should become factors of motivation for further contact, more regular and substantial dialogue, leading to a greater degree of mutual understanding and recovery of the communality of their faith and service.

Pope John Paul II and Catholicos Karekin I give their blessing and pastoral support to the further development of existing contacts and to new manifestations of that dialogue of charity between their respective pastors and faithful which will bear fruit in the fields of common action on the pastoral, catechetical, social and intellectual levels.

Such a dialogue is particularly imperative in these present times when the Churches are faced with new challenges to their witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ arising out of the rapidly changing situations in the modern world so deeply affected by an extreme secularistic and secularizing pace of life and culture. It requires closer collaboration, mutual confidence and a greater degree of concern for common action. It presumes and requires an attitude of service which is not self-seeking and which is characterized by a mutual respect for the fidelity of the faithful to their own Churches and Christian traditions.

They appeal to their clergy and laity to carry out more actively and effectively their full co-operation in all fields of diaconia, and to become agents of reconciliation, peace and justice, struggling for the true recognition of human rights and dedicating themselves to the support of all those who are suffering and are in spiritual and material need throughout the world.

John Paul II and Karekin I express a particular pastoral concern for the Armenian people, both those living in their historic motherland where freedom and independence were once more recovered and re-established recently through the creation of the new Independent State of Armenia, those living in Nagorno Karabagh in need of permanent peace, and those who live in a state of world -wide diaspora. Amid upheavels and tragedies, especially during this century, these people have remained faithful to the apostolic faith, the faith of martyrs and confessors, the faith of millions of unnamed believers for whom Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate and Saviour of the world, has been the foundation of their hope, and whose Spirit has guided them across the centuries. As they approach the 17th centenary of the official establishment of the Church in Armenia, may they receive the special blessings of the Triune God for peace with justice and for a renewed dedication to witnessing faithfully to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rome, 13 December 1996.