Dear Parishioners,
A parishioner recently gave me the 2023 book, The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man by David Von Drehle (thank you, Jane). The author tells the life story of Charlie White, a doctor from Kansas City who died at the age of 109 in 2014. Charlie lived through the century that experienced the greatest amount of change in human history, everything from the airplane to penicillin to the computer.
Dear Parishioners,
I jotted down these words from our patron, St. Paul of the Cross, when I read them in his Pentecost letter dated May 22, 1730:
“Then rejoice, and let us be inflamed the whole day with love and become all aflame. May the flames penetrate the marrow of our bones! O dear flames, O sweet fire, Oh! when shall we be so afire that we inflame one another!”
Dear Parishioners,
I thought of the Feast of the Ascension, which we celebrate this weekend, when I watched the Kentucky Derby with some parishioners a few weeks ago. To me, the Ascension is like the horses entering the stall before the race. The pop going off and the gate opening to start the race would be Pentecost. Christ goes to Heaven so he can send us the Holy Spirit, and with the Holy Spirit, received at Pentecost, we run the amazing race of life. So, make the sign of the cross when the Preakness starts this Saturday…not to win your bet, but to praise God for his gift of the Holy Spirit.
Father James Wallace grew up in Winnetka, Illinois and attended Sts. Faith Hope and Charity grammar school, New Trier High School, and then The George Washington University in Washington DC, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science in 2007. He attended seminary at The Pontifical North American College in Rome and was ordained a priest in 2012 for the Archdiocese of Chicago. In addition to being the pastor of Saint Paul of the Cross Parish, he serves as a canon lawyer for the Archdiocese, a dean in Vicariate II, and a professor of canon law and spiritual director at Mundelein Seminary. He is also one of the featured Mercy Home Sunday Mass celebrants, airing Sundays at 9:30am on WGN.
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