Sunday, January 13, 2019

On this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, today’s Scriptures invite us to be confident in and mindful of the presence of the divine in our midst. In the First Reading, the prophet urges personified Jerusalem to shout out from its place on the mountaintop, “Here is your God,” because its people’s long exile in Babylon is about to come to an end. Note that God is depicted as a shepherd carrying the Lambs in the fold of his garment, close to his hear and carefully leading the nursing ewes as they make their way to God’s holy city. Today’s Gospel juxtaposes John the Baptist with Jesus in a most remarkable scene. The crowds were listening to John, who was preaching a baptism of repentance, and were eager to learn whether he might be the messiah. Yet John tells them that he is only the messenger. Someone greater was coming, he said, one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire. The scene quickly shifts to the crowd, who participated in John’s ritual of repentance and to one in their midst who is manifest to the world through a heavenly voice and a descending Holy Spirit as God’s beloved Son. At Home With The Word.

In His love and mine, Fr. Ken

In the Spring of 1988, Bishop William D. Keeler formed a new parish to accommodate the rapid growth in Silver Spring Township and named Reverend James R. O’Brien as the founding pastor. That same year, Mother Katharine Drexel was beatified by Pope John Paul, II. At Bishop Keeler’s request, the Holy Father gave his permission to name the Parish in Silver Spring Township as the first parish in the world to be named in her honor. Eighteen years later, on October 1, 2000, Blessed Katharine Drexel was canonized and the church’s name changed to Saint Katharine Drexel.

The Saint Katharine Drexel Parish Family, guided by the Holy Spirit, commits itself to reaching out and sharing with all people the love and service modeled by our patroness, with the Eucharist as our source of strength. Through prayer and action, we will serve God, our Lord and Savior, and our community, exhibiting a special concern for the poor, oppressed and marginalized of our society, especially those among the African-American & Native-American peoples.