Behold the Infant Lamb - January 9, 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,       

A few months ago, we hung our new painting of the infants John the Baptist and Jesus. We had this commissioned because we did not have any art in our church with John the Baptist and he is a key figure to linking the Old and New Covenants and you heard a lot about him during the Advent readings at Mass. 

The painting done by Neilson Carlin is the same artist who painted Our Lady Protector of Life in our narthex is entitled Behold the Infant Lamb. The style is a Renaissance revival influenced by Luini’s Virgin and Child with Infant John the Baptist and Christ Child with Infant St. John the Baptist by Peter Paul Rubens. 

The boys are about two years old. John the Baptist has a camel skin hair tunic with a sea shell in his hand as symbols of his asceticism and mission to baptize. John the Baptist gives us a model as he gazes upon Jesus. And the loving gaze of Jesus looks out to you with childlike wonder. Jesus has a red loin cloth and small cross in his right hand as symbols of our salvation. The lamb is also a central focal point because it was the mission of John the Baptist to point out the Jesus is the lamb of God. The setting is on a sand bar of the Platte River in Nebraska with three sandhills cranes flying overhead.

The importance of Renaissance art emphasizes Emmanuel, God is with us. God does not just come two thousand years ago but enters into our setting today and meets us where we are at but loves us too much to leave us there. 

As we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus this weekend, may we be mindful of the gift of our eternal life at baptism. And who wouldn’t rejoice about receiving this greatest gift from God? Through our baptism, God is near us. He is part of our story, and we are part of his. We are given new life. May we always rejoice in it!

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

PS Please join us tomorrow night for our country hoedown

Epiphany - January 2, 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,     

A few years ago, someone asked me about the “graffiti” above my door. Maybe you have also wondered who has been writing in chalk above the doors to our church or homes of parishioners. 

This is actually the Epiphany blessing which is done at the beginning of the year. This Christian custom of chalking the door has a biblical root as the Israelites in the Old Testament marked their doors with the lamb’s blood on the night of the Passover. “And they shall take of the blood thereof, and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.” (Exodus 12:7)

Using blessed chalk, the head of the household or a priest will mark the main door of the house with the initials of the Magi, the legendary names of the three kings: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, and a code of the current year (2026) connected with crosses: 20 ✞ C ✞ M ✞ B ✞ 26.  Another explanation of the initials (C ✞ M ✞ B) are the first letters of the blessing: “Christus Mansionem Benedicat” (Latin: “May Christ Bless this house”). The crosses (✞) represent the protection of the Christ. This short liturgy is a way of marking our homes with sacred signs and symbols as we ask God’s blessing upon those who live, work, or visit throughout the coming year.

The final prayer of the blessing is, “Lord God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only-begotten Son to every nation by the guidance of a star.  Bless this house and all who inhabit it. Fill us with the light of Christ, that their our concern for others may reflect your love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.” (USCCB).

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

PS – please feel free to take some blessed chalk home with you after Mass this weekend. The Epiphany blessing can be found in the bulletin and on our website. 

Pointsettias - December 26, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

Merry Christmas!  Yes, it is still Christmas and I hope that you still have that tree up.

One of the Christmas decorations that I love the most is poinsettias. These lush red flowers originally come from Mexico and Central America. Actually, botanist label these plants as bushes and not flowers. They were introduced to the United States by Joel Poinsett (and named after), the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in 1828. 

The Aztecs named these bushes cuetlaxochitl, which means a flower that withers. The Aztecs used the red and white for dyes and the sap from the stem as medicine. The Franciscan friars who brought Christianity to Mexico renamed them to Holy Night flowers because they would bloom at Christmas time and the leaves are shaped like a star which signifies the star that led the Magi to find the Lord in a manger. 

A Mexican legend tells the story of the use of poinsettias at Christmas. One little poor girl named Maria could not afford to purchase a gift for Christmas. As she was distraught by this, an angel of the Lord appeared to her and instructed her to go into the valley and gather weeds as gifts to the Lord and bring them to the Nativity scene at her parish church. When Maria placed the plants down, they transformed into bright red poinsettias. Since then, these plants have been associated with Christmas. 

Like the Star of Bethlehem, may these beautiful red bushes lead you to place your life at the crib of Christ this weekend.  O come, let us adore Him!

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

Dilemmas in Life - December 19, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

You probably have heard the figure of speech, “take the bull by the horns.” This adage comes from the Greek word, lemma, which means horn and two horns is a dilemma. 

In the Gospel this weekend, Joseph has a dilemma. He learns his betrothed, Mary, is with child.  Betrothal meant they were legally married but had not lived together. 

What was St. Joseph to do? He said, “Let me sleep on it” and took a nap. This was not the sleep of laziness or of indifference. It was the sleep of contemplation, resting with the Lord that comes on sweetly as a result of faithful, arduous labor. It was in this contemplation that the Archangel Gabriel gave him the answer to not only his dilemma but the dilemma of humanity. 

Why does St. Joseph’s dilemma matter to you and me? If he carried out the Law of Moses, Mary and Jesus would have died by being stoned. If he divorced her quietly, Mary and Jesus would have no protection, both physical and social, from the world and no one would believe Jesus is Messiah. Since Joseph was a righteous man, God became one with us and Joseph had the privilege of naming Him Jesus. 

What can we learn from St. Joseph? As Winston Churchill did each day, take a nap. But on a serious note, often we fail to invite God into the dilemmas of our life. When we have a dilemma, we need to seek wisdom through prayer. I invite you to “take the bull by the horns” and spend an hour in adoration this week.

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

Our Lady of Guadalupe - December 12, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

Did you ever see the 2006 movie Apocalypto? It is not for the faint of heart nor children but it accurately depicts the horrors of an indigenous family in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico being hunted by the Mayans who wanted to capture their child and offer the innocent baby up to be sacrificed to their gods. 

In his book, “Our Lady of Guadalupe and Conquest of Darkness,” historian Warren Carroll pointed out the apparition of Mary to an indigenous peasant named St. Juan Diego sparked a revolution from darkness to light, from death to life. Prior to the Blessed Mother Mary appearing in Mexico in 1531 there were about 50,000 human sacrifices a year to the Aztec god Huitzilophtili. A conservative estimate is that one out of every five children in Mexico was sacrificed. 

December 12^th is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. After the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, nine million Native Americans converted to Christianity and the human sacrifices stopped. Instead of sacrificing their babies, they began to worship the author of life and sacrificing the Lamb of God at the true altar of sacrifice.   

In 2007, Jesus showed us that He is the light of the world again. On April 24 of that year, Mexico City legalized abortion. At Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine, an intense light emanated from Our Lady’s abdomen, forming a brilliant halo in the shape of an embryo. Jesus is indeed the light of the world!

May the light of Christ, through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe shine through the darkness of our culture of death so that not a single more innocent baby has to be sacrificed on the altar of convenience.

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

St. Nicholas - December 5, 2025

There is a King- November 28, 2025

There is a King- November 21, 2025

Never Give Up- November 14, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

You have probably seen that famous painting of a stork swallowing a frog and the frog has its hands around the stork’s neck with the headline, “Never Give Up.” This well-known sketch, whose author is unknown, has been used to motive people who are going through hard times. In difficult moments of life, we feel as though the world is swallowing us but we should never give up. 

In the Gospel this weekend, Jesus warns us that our lives won’t be easy. The Lord encourages us to persevere in our journey with Him. He says: “By your perseverance, you will secure your lives.”

Why does perseverance matter to us? There can be no greatness; no holiness; no sainthood… without perseverance. We all have storms to face. Sometimes they can be external. We could lose our jobs, we could fail epically in a relationship, someone we love could get cancer. Sometimes these storms will be internal. We could be tormented by anxiety or self-doubt. Maybe there’s an intense loneliness. Christ wants us to recognize that these weaknesses aren’t an obstacle to our holiness, as long as we keep trying to walk with Him. God is walking with us, and He asks us not to run from Him.

We’re all called to holiness. And God, through our readings this weekend, reminds us that our part is to keep trying to love. A saint, after all, is simply a sinner who keeps on trying and never gives up. 

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

PS – click here to sign up for our fall retreat this Sunday at 3PM. 

Reverence for the Dead- November 7, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

One of my favorite places to pray while studying at Mount St. Mary Seminary was St. Joseph Catholic Church in Emmitsburg, MD. The reason why was this beautiful neoclassical church is surrounded by graves in a traditional graveyard setting. As I would go up to God’s house, I was reminded to pray for those who have gone before me and to remember my own mortality. 

Until the last sixty years, people were more accustom with death. They would lay their loved ones out in their own home as people came to pay their respects. They would bury the dead in a location close to the church or in the church to remind them that death does not separate us but as the funeral liturgy says, “Lord for your faithful, like is changed, not ended.” 

Today, as a society, we shy away from death. Since COVID, many funerals have abandoned the funeral vigil liturgy (aka – wake, rosary). We have ‘celebrations of life’ and not Christians funerals.  We have fallen into the ancient pagan practice of cremation as a way to forget about the body as soon as possible. As a side note, cremation is permissible in the Church now for those who believe in the resurrection but it is not the preferred method of burial since the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. As Scott Hahn wrote, “We destroy the flesh in fire…destroying all evidence that this holy body in which God’s spirt dwelt – never existed.” 

This weekend we celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, which is the cathedral for Rome and has the chair (cathedra) of authority for Pope Leo XIV. The second reading of this weekends Mass we hear St. Paul exhort the early church of Corinth to treat our bodies as temples of God (1 Corinthians 3).  

Our body’s which receive the flesh of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion are temples of His grandeur. May we pray and have hope in the resurrection of the body when the Lord comes again in glory.

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

PS: click here to learn about funeral planning.

Relics - October 31, 2025

Law of Humility - October 24, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

In the Gospel this weekend, we hear Jesus tell us the contrasting story of the proud Pharisee and the humble tax collector. He teaches, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

The Law of Humility is written not only in the Gospel, but even in nature. Consider the tallest and most fruitful trees. How can they stand firm in spite of storms, wind, and earthquakes? What gives them the vitality to bear fruit year after year, spreading their own goodness to all living things around them? Their roots. Without deep, strong roots, the tree would crash to the ground in the first summer storm. Without wide, expansive roots, they couldn't absorb the nourishment and moisture necessary for putting out leaves, buds, flowers, and fruit. But these all-important roots are completely hidden. They really are in the "lowest place", where no one pays any attention to them.

Consider also the mountains and the valleys. The majestic mountaintops pierce the brilliant sky with their jagged peaks. Impressive, visible from a distance, awe-inspiring - but also barren. The higher up you go on the mountain, the less life you find. The valleys beneath the mountaintops are hidden. You can't see them from far away. They draw no attention to themselves. In this lowest place they receive the fresh water that flows down the mountainside from the melting ice on top, water full of nutrients from the eroding soil. So, the valleys overflow with life - flowers, grasses, trees, animals, streams, birds, and fish.

Without the root of humility, our lives cannot bear the fruit of authentic happiness for ourselves and those around us. When we exalt ourselves, we become impressive to others but barren of life, like mountaintops. When we humble ourselves, as Christ did, our lives become fruitful and vibrant, both here on earth and for all eternity in heaven.

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

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Battle of Life and Death - October 17, 2025

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Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed - October 3, 2025

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Modern Day Martyrs - September 26, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

“The blood of Your blessed martyrs poured out to bestow strength on the feeble” states the prayer of the Preface of Holy Martyrs at Mass. It is the example of the martyrs that gives us strength to persevere in the faith. As the Church Father Tertullian once wrote, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

Today the Church remembers the martyrs of Saints Cosmos and Damien. They were twin brothers who served the sick of the Church and were persecuted in the 3^rd century under the anticatholic Roman emperor, Diocletian.

A martyr literally means one who gives witness to the faith. It is estimated that two–thirds of all the martyrs in Christian history died in the twentieth century. As in its first centuries, “the Church has once again become a Church of martyrs” as St. John Paul II wrote. 

The Chinese Boxer Rebellion of 1900 tried to wipe out Christian influence on Chinese society. During the Rebellion, some members of the Rebel party surrounded a Christian mission school and barricaded all gates and doors except one. Across this threshold they placed a cross. Whoever trampled on that cross, implicitly denying their Christian faith, would go free; whoever stepped around it would be shot.

The first seven students chose to trample on the cross. They went free. Next came a teen-age girl. She stopped, knelt before the cross, rose, and stepped around it. A shot rang out. She was dead. But the other ninety-two students in the school, inspired by her example and her courage, likewise stepped around the cross and accepted death rather than trample upon the symbol of their faith.

Last month, we heard about two innocent martyrs in our land. Eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski were killed while worshiping God at Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in south Minneapolis. My heart broke for their families, friends, school and parish community. May the witness of the blood of these little lambs be untied to the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, so that the seed of faith may grow in our hearts and in our land.

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

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The Hill of Crosses - September 12, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

They killed him. They killed him because he asked questions and dialogued in the open forum with young people who may have had different views. They killed him because to them, he was too influential to the young minds in their ‘sophisticated’ society. They killed him because he would not give in or back down to the moral laxity of culture. They killed him because he would not bend his knees to their gods. They killed him because he was searching for the absolute, universal and objective realities. They killed him so they could pursue their own relativistic rhetoric for whatever they wanted. In the end, they killed him because he pursued the eternal truth. 

This man they killed in Athens 400 years before Christ was Socrates. Socrates is known as the founder of modern western philosophy, which is the pursuit of wisdom. He debated in the public forum with the Sophists who believed “Man is the measure of all things.” For the Sophists, they could do whatever they felt, which was then and to this day, an enticing but empty neopagan philosophy. As many people say today - ‘you do you’. 

Socrates used dialectical questioning and dialogue to lead people to search for wisdom and truth to focus on ethics, the good of life and the good of society. He said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” 

The life and death of Socrates sounds familiar to the recent events in our country. May God help us in our pursuit of truth so that the “truth will set us free” (John 8:32).

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

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The Hill of Crosses - September 12, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

Sometimes our expectations are off-kilter because we lack confidence in God's ability to bring good out of evil. But if he can bring the Resurrection out of the Crucifixion, victory out of the Cross, surely, he is worthy of our total confidence. 

This Sunday we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It is the traditional day in which St. Helena discovered the true cross of Christ in the third century. The cross is the instrument of our salvation, the proof of God’s sacrificial love for us. 

There is a powerful image of this on a hill in Lithuania, near the small industrial city of Siauliai. It is known as the Hill of Crosses, because it is adorned with literally hundreds of thousands of crosses.  I had the privilege of visiting this place in 2006 when I was doing missionary work in Lithuania.

The city of Siauliai was founded in 1236, and soon thereafter it was taken over by the Teutonic Knights. That's when the tradition of putting crosses on the hill began - each cross was a prayer to God for freedom. In 1795 it was absorbed and occupied by Russia, and the number of crosses increased over the next hundred years. Captured by Germany at the start of World War II, the city was then taken again by Russia, and forcibly absorbed into the Soviet Union. During those difficult decades a steady flow of Catholic pilgrims made their way to the Hill of Crosses, to pray and to plant more crosses. Three times, during 1961, 1973 and 1975, the atheistic communist authorities bulldozed the hill. The thousands of crosses were burned or turned into scrap metal, and the area was covered with waste and sewage. But every time, pilgrims kept coming back and raising more crosses. In 1985, the Hill of Crosses was finally left in peace.

When we feel oppressed and hemmed in by life's trials, and our expectations of what God's grace can do in our lives are low, we need to be like the Lithuanian pilgrims, exercising our confidence in God by planting cross after cross on the inner hill of our hearts.

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

PS – Please join us for the Fall Festival on September 21^st   Click here for details.

Commitment Weekend - August 22, 2025

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The Assumption - August 15, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. In 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed infallibly, “The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.”

In the darkness and storms of life, her example and prayers will never fail to show us the way to follow Christ. And so, from very early times, the Church began to call Mary the "Star of the Sea", "Stella Maris" in Latin.

Pope Benedict called this ancient tradition to mind in his second encyclical. "With a hymn composed in the eighth or ninth century, thus for over a thousand years, the Church has greeted Mary, the Mother of God, as "Star of the Sea": Ave maris stella. Human life is a journey. Towards what destination? How do we find the way? Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by - people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way. Who more than Mary could be a star of hope for us?”

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

PS – please join us for Mass times today 6:30AM; 8:15AM and 5:30PM 

Greed & Generosity - August 8, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

In a little village near Brussels, called Anderlech, St Guido was born about the middle of the tenth century. His parents were very poor, and Guido grew up in the midst of poverty, so that he used to be called "the poor boy of Anderlech."

His father, however, was rich in faith, and taught him to love Christ and trust in God no matter what. "My dear son," he used to say, "we are very poor, it is true. But we shall be rich in heaven for ever, if we live in the love of God and strive with God’s help to love our neighbors."

St. Guido kept these words in his heart and used them as a shield against temptation and discouragement. When he was tempted to fall into self-pity and complain about his difficult situation in life, he would console himself by saying: "Yes, I am poor, but why should I complain? Am I not the heir of a great and eternal Kingdom? God is my Father; he has promised to give me his own Kingdom, and that is enough.

In the Gospel last weekend, Jesus warns us to guard against greed. So, how do we? First, we must know that the material world is passing away. “All things are vanity” says Qoheleth (Ecc. 1:2).

Secondly, we are called to live the Beatitude of Poor in Spirit. Spiritual poverty is about recognizing our deep need for God. It’s about standing before the Lord empty-handed, acknowledging that all we have and all we are is a gift.  

Finally, we are called to be generous with our finances and give God back at least 10% of our income known as biblical tithing. Money is a tool to be used wisely to pursue life’s true purpose: building the Kingdom of Christ. And so, when we use our resources to support the work of the Church, we are making sure that we don’t get seduced, that we keep pursuing our true purpose. There is no better investment for whatever wealth we may have than to give it to the building up of God’s Kingdom.

In His Mercy,

Fr. Eric Clark, Pastor

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