Pastor's Weekly Message
fourth sunday in ordinary time, 1 Feb 2026
My Beloved Fellow Saints-in-the-Making,
Greetings in Jesus Christ, Who is Beatitude!
As we turn the calendar page for the first time in this new year, we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time and hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where He preaches the Beatitudes. Eight times, He says that a particular group is blessed and then follows that proclamation with a promise: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God; Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Jesus highlights a virtue and then reveals the fruit of that virtue.
While He is not specifically mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount, we can nevertheless see the Holy Spirit at work in bringing to fruition what Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes. We cannot be clean of heart nor peacemakers nor any of the other virtues of the Beatitudes without the Grace of the Holy Spirit, nor can we bear the fruit of the Beatitudes without the Grace of the Holy Spirit. It is, therefore, imperative that we intensify our relationship with and our love for God the Holy Spirit.
Truth be told, we have an easier time connecting with God the Father, since we all of us have a father. It is equally easy for us to connect with God the Son, because He has become Incarnate, one of us in all things but sin. And yet, we have a seemingly greater difficulty connecting with God the Holy Spirit, because like the wind, He is difficult to comprehend. This is why He is often considered the “Unknown God;” so few, therefore, seem to have a devotion to God the Holy Spirit.
We might have an easier time if we remember that the Holy Spirit is the Love that the Father and the Son share, a Love Which God Himself invites us, you and me, to enter into: Divine Intimacy. Beseech the Holy Spirit, then, to animate within you an actively greater love of God, and you will feel the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life.
Please pray, too, that the Holy Spirit will animate the hearts of Bishop Koenig and his Priests in the Diocese of Wilmington, all of whom will gather this week for retreat. Since Priests from the parishes throughout the Diocese will all of us together be on retreat, there will be no daily Masses at any church throughout the Diocese from Tuesday February 3 through Friday February 6. We invite you to spend time before our Eucharistic Lord in our Adoration Chapel at some point each day.
Through the Grace of the Holy Spirit, may we all become women and men of Beatitude.
God love you! I do.
Fr. Lewis