clergy changes

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

As many now know, several changes in clergy personnel will take place at the Cathedral.

We are pleased to welcome to the Cathedral Parish two new deacons. They were both ordained this past May 18^th and they will begin their ministry among us this coming week. Deacon Kevin Lonergan, a transitional deacon, is 24 years old and is originally from Pottsville, PA. Deacon Rob Synder, a permanent deacon, is 62 years old, who with his wife of 42 years Karen, live in Breinigsville, PA. He will serve along side Deacon Bill Hassler.

Fr. Eric Tolentino will now be a resident priest at the Cathedral with full time ministry dedicated to being Catholic chaplain of hospitals and nursing homes in the Allentown area. He will no longer have duties as an assistant pastor but will help with some Masses and confession.

Fr. Brian Miller has been transferred to St. Patrick's Church in Pottsville. He will be replaced by Fr. Bernard Ezaki. The changes of the priests take effect on June 11. 

Changes are difficult for all of us. However, as priests we know we have to be ready to serve and obey the will of the Bishop as an expression of God’s will for us. I humbly ask you to pray for Fr. Tolentino and Fr. Miller as they begin their new assignments. We will say farewell to Fr. Miller after all Masses on June 8 and 9. Finally, please pray for more vocations to the priesthood and encourage enthusiastically young men to think about becoming a priest.

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker

Trinity Sunday

Dear Parishioners and Friends, 

Trinity Sunday can sometimes be a very difficult Sunday for preaching. The Holy Trinity is the most fundamental dogma of our faith yet is it the most mysterious. To know of the Trinity is to probe the very heart of who God is and to touch upon His interior life. 

When we say that we believe in the Holy Trinity we are professing the belief that God is one in three. We are saying that there is one Lord and one God in three Divine Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are not three lords but one Lord. There are not three gods but one God. The divine unity is such that it is actually a perfect communion of persons in which each person is “consubstantial” with the other. “The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire” (CCC, 253). 

We can try to understand the Trinity in terms of love. The Father eternally and perfectly loves the Son. The Son returns that love in the same eternal and perfect way. The Holy Spirit IS their eternal, perfect love in Person. 

If all this boggles your mind, do not worry. If we would ever think we understood the very heart of who God is, we can be sure that we have not even begun to understand Him. After all, He is God and we are not. 

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker

Pastor's Corner, May 19, 2013

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

Today is Pentecost Sunday. We commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Our Lady in the Upper Room and also celebrate the birthday of the Church. It was the day that the Church was manifested to the world by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

Each of us, as members of the Church, needs the Holy Spirit in order to live as a Christian. The gifts that He shares with us are dispositions in our soul that make us docile in following His promptings. When He moves us and inspires us to act in a certain way, the gifts of the Holy Spirit give us the ability to do just as He is directing us. 

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (1831). These divine dispositions perfect the virtues and make it possible for us to act in a divine way and attain holiness. It seems to me that one of the best ways to describe a saint is to say that he or she is a person who is filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker

Pastor's Corner, May 12, 2013

Dear Parishioners and Friends, 

On Mother’s Day we give thanks to God for our mothers, for the divine gift of life given to us by way of our mothers, and for the gift of women. 

Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote a beautiful Apostolic Letter entitled Mulieris Dignitatem in which he observed, “As we scan the pages of the Gospel, many women, of different ages and conditions, pass before our eyes” (MD, 13). They heard the word of God, sometimes were healed of infirmities and forgiven of sins, many responded to Christ’s call to discipleship, and women were the first witnesses of the resurrection. Women and men are equal in God’s eyes with regard to their dignity as children of God and the vocation to holiness. 

According to Pope John Paul, women have “two particular dimensions of the fulfillment of the female personality;” (MD, 17) namely, virginity and motherhood. As the Pope writes so beautifully, “a woman is ‘married’ either through the sacrament of marriage or spiritually through marriage to Christ. In both cases marriage signifies the ‘sincere gift of the person’ of the bride to the groom. In this way, one can say that the profile of marriage is found spiritually in virginity” (MD, 21). 

We praise God for the gift of motherhood, both physical and spiritual, and asked God’s continued blessings on all mothers.

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker

Pastor's Corner, May 5, 2013

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

Last week we considered how the truth of the Resurrection is seen in the transformation of the apostles from men of great fear to courageous preachers.

Another proof of the Resurrection comes from the conversion of St. Paul. The Acts of the Apostles clearly says that Paul breathed “threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts. 9: 1). He was a pious Jew of the Pharisees party and he was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians.

On the road to Damascus something happened. He encounters the one he was persecuting. Paul hears the Risen Lord say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” This encounter changes him completely. From the road to Damascus Paul begins a journey to become Christianity’s most determined missionaries. He endured being shipwrecked, floggings, stoning, and ridicule. Finally, Paul accepts imprisonment and martyrdom. What could make a person willingly accept—even welcome—such hardships? Christians believe the conversion of Paul came about because he encountered Jesus Christ who had risen from the dead.

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker

First Holy Communion

Saturday, May 4, 2013: Today we celebrate First Holy Communion and children from our parish - filled with great joy, enthusiasm and purity - will receive the Lord Jesus for the first time. What a great moment in their lives! In 2011 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI spoke to a group of first communicants and said, "The day of my First Holy Communion was one of the most beautiful days of my life. It is the same for you, isn’t it? And why is that? It’s not only because of our nice clothes or the gifts we receive, nor even because of the parties! It is above all because, that day, we receive Jesus Christ for the first time! When I receive Communion, Jesus comes to live in me."

To receive Holy Communion always makes our day beautiful.