St. Francis of Assisi and St. Julia These are the two other images that will adorn our sanctuary soon. St. Francis of Assisi, the man of God and of th...
Peace To speak on behalf of peace and to condemn war is what decent people do. To stand up for peace and to put the authors of war in their place is.....
Jesus Has Risen! He Will Always Rise. For He is Alive And He is Our Salvation. May the joy and the hope of our risen Christ be yours always so that yo...
The Holiest of Weeks I think that the best spiritual guidance I can share with you, my dear sisters and brothers, is to try to be attentive as much as...
A Spiritual Practice for Holy Week As we approach Holy Week we prepare ourselves to remember our Lord’s suffering and crucifixion. It is a time of l...
Here We Go Again! War again. More suffering again. More innocent people and children slaughtered again. Will it ever end!? It doesn’t matter what si...
Beautifying Our Church With Love and Devotion It is my hope that you like how our church remodel is coming along. Many have asked if it will be comple...
💜Ashes On Our Hearts💜 Let your heart lead you into Lent. Follow the way of your heart. Let your heart speak to you. Give your heart the freedom ...
Lent: How Can We Make it Meaningful We all know that Lent is a time of spiritual preparation and spiritual discipline. The sacrifices and the acts of ...
We Are Blessed The Bishop’s Annual Appeal is about to begin again and we, at St. Julia, have already surpassed our goal! How did we do that? How did...
Read This Face? / ¿Lees esta cara? I can’t help but see so much frustration and despair in the face of this woman. I don’t know if her closed fis...
A Simple Desire for Peace that has Moved the Hearts of Thousands Un simple deseo de paz que ha conmovido los corazones de miles de personas. Lea en es...
So, here we are at the beginning of 2026.When we look back at 2025, what do we see? When we look forward to 2026, what do we hope for? Go ahead and......
We Shall Not Ignore the Holy Families. We Will Not Forget You. This picture captures the many families throughout the world who find themselves homele...
Willingly, We Will Awaken to God. Willingly, We Will Respond Lovingly to God’s Invitations. In Acts 17:28 we hear: “For in Him we live, and move, ...
A letter from the Bishop of Raleigh • Una Carta del Obispo de Raleigh Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Immigration is not merely a matter of pub...
Have you seen Jesus lately? Keep looking. Keep searching. Keep longing. Keep yearning. Happy Thanksgiving! You are in my prayers and in my heart. Peac...
“Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” She came to the people as a young girl with cinnamon color skin, dressed with the stars of the heavens, ill...
Does Anyone Else Feel Like This, or Am I the Only One? I have to be honest, I don’t like what’s going on in this country of ours. There is much th...
Help Me to Hang On! My good people, our beautiful parish family continues to grow and so do your spiritual and social needs. There is only one bit of ...
To Our English-Speaking People that Worship in English Hi! I try not to use the terms “English-speaking community and Spanish-speaking community” ...
A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That There’s a lot going on at our parish. Let me share with you what is going on: Our faith formation clas...
Christian Maturity I was a middle school teacher for quite a few years. It’s by a miracle that I still have any hair left on my head. The principal ...
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!! Dear Good People of St. Julia, I want to thank everyone who worked and contributed to making our Parish Festival a g...
Young People Are Awesome Christians On Sunday, September 7th, Pope Leo will declare that two young men, Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati are sai...
When the Well Runs Dry That is the title of a book that was published many years ago. It speaks about those times when we feel spiritually dry without...
Pondering It is recorded in the Gospels that Our Blessed Mother pondered many things in her heart. Being the mother of Jesus the adult must have been ...
Are We Truly In Touch With One Another? Are We Truly Aware of Each Other? Are We Present to the Other? When we are young time passes slowly. The older...
God the Artist Don’t ever stand behind or next to an artist while he or she is creating something. Artists need room, space, and not so much convers...
A Little Rest on the Horizon / Un Poco de Descanso en el Horizonte My vacation time begins on July 1st but I will meet with the Dean of our Deaner...
An Ordinary Way to Heaven God only knows how many times we have said and felt that life is just too hectic…too fast. How many times have we felt lik...
Beautifying our Church for the Glory of God / Embelleciendo nuestra Iglesia para la Gloria de Dios Dear Good People of God, It is my hope to have th...
Fifty Treasures for the Lord On this Sunday, fifty of our children, fifty treasures, will make their First Communion. They will approach the table of ...
Sometimes There is Truth in Jest Have you ever felt like you have nothing to say for the moment? Have you ever been in a situation where you were expe...
A Reflection on Communal Contemplative Prayer Practice at St. Julia As you know, an opportunity for communal contemplative prayer is offered at St. Ju...
A New Beginning for the Church? Oh, Please, Lord, Don’t Let it be So! I do understand that, seen from a spiritual or even from a psychological persp...
Thank you, Pope Francis Gracias, Papa Francisco. Every pope brings his own charism, spirituality, experiences, and perspectives to the papacy, togethe...
“Resurrection” Here I am sitting in our living room watching the movie “Mission” with my brother friars. It’s a very difficult movie to watc...
Let Christ’s Humility and Peace Enter Your Heart What a wonderful way to begin Holy Week with a couple of our parishioners sharing something of thei...
Good Challenges Are Sometimes Hard to Swallow I recently read an article in which there appeared a picture of a church sign that read: “Kind Atheist...
Our parish community represents the heart of God in this world. All of us, no matter how many times we come here, draw near in the hope of feeling the presence of God. Whether the presence of God becomes a reality in our parish depends a lot on all of us. We cannot escape this reality. God is present in this world through each one of us.
May God bless us and protect us as we go forward in the midst of the pandemic. Let us never let our guard down as we strive to return to a more normal state.
Right now, on social media there are some people that are communicating some really strange misinformation about the reception of the Eucharist at Mass. There are some that state that receiving Communion on the hand is a sin, even a mortal sin.
I can hear Jesus laughing as he says: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off!” How have you read this story over the years? I bet you have only pictured him saying this with a strict look on his face.
Aquí voy de nuevo. Me siento como un disco rayado. ¡Que así sea! Supongo que es parte de mis responsabilidades hoy en día: sonar como un disco rayado hasta que esto termine. Mientras continúas leyendo, te agradecería mucho que no introdujeras la política en esto, porque si lo haces ... bueno, no entendería por qué harías tal cosa. A menudo me pregunto: “¿Qué se necesita para que entendamos que deshacernos de la pandemia de la faz de la tierra depende de todos y cada uno de nosotros? También me pregunto: “¿Cuándo perdimos de vista nuestra responsabilidad individual con el bien común? ¿Cuándo perdimos de vista el bien común? " Cuando miro alrededor del mundo y considero los países que carecen de la vacuna y están pidiendo por ella, y luego considero a tantos en este país que todavía se resisten a vacunarse mientras la vacuna es gratuita y está disponible, me quedo en total frustración y con una sensación de derrota por esta plaga que afecta a toda la humanidad. ¿Qué sucede? Nos acercamos a los cinco millones de muertes en todo el mundo por el virus. Vamos hacia setecientos mil muertos en este país. Ahora asistimos a otra ola grave de infecciones y muertes entre los no vacunados con una nueva variante que es aún más contagiosa. Y aun así, hay muchos que se oponen a vacunarse mientras se aferran a teorías de conspiración y desinformación de todo tipo. Yo, simplemente, ¡no lo entiendo! ¿No nos damos cuenta del sufrimiento por el que van a pasar nuestros seres queridos si nos contagiamos y enfermamos? ¿No nos damos cuenta de la agonía y el dolor que atravesarán si terminamos intubados y, Dios ampare, morimos? ¿Seguimos pensando en "no me va a pasar a mí"? ¿En serio? ¿Por qué estamos todavía jugando con el sufrimiento y la muerte? ¡No lo entiendo! Entonces, por favor dígame qué es lo que no entiendo mientras contemplo el sufrimiento y la muerte que nos rodea. Dime exactamente lo que no entiendo de por qué hay tantos que corren un riesgo tan innecesario. Dime lo que no entiendo acerca de cómo muchos no consideran el bien común. Explícame por qué no te vacunas cuando se descubren nuevas variantes. Dime exactamente lo que no entiendo cuando te veo protestando por los esfuerzos de vacunación que pueden salvarte la vida. ¡Explíquemelo, por favor, porque no lo entiendo! Están en mis oraciones y en mi corazón. Fray Julio