Responding to the pastoral need, Most Rev. Claude Hamelin, Bishop of St. Jean – Longueuil, assigned Fr. Michael Nguyen Dinh VINH, CSSp, a Vietnamese and religious priest of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans) as full time pastor of our parish. His appointment is effective Oct 1, 2023 and will remain until September 30, 2025.

Today will mark Fr. Vinh's last Sunday mass. Thank you, Fr Vinh, for your time with us and for your accomplishments during your brief time with us! God bless you and St Kateri be with you on your next mission.

Message from Fr. Vinh Michael Nguyen

September 28, 2025

Give Me a Charitable Heart, O Lord!

If last Sunday, Jesus advised his disciples to know how to use money and material possessions effectively, today, in the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, he uses the image of the rich man and the beggar named Lazarus to warn us that money and material possessions can become obstacles for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Of course, earning and using money and possessions are important in our lives, but they can turn into disasters for us if we do not know how to use them.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus described in today's Gospel is a contrasting picture between two people: one lives in abundance and full of comfort, while the other is ragged, hungry and has to beg for food. Two people, with two separate lives, two opposite circumstances. They face each other every day, but there is a huge distance between them at the gate of the rich man's house, revealing two different worlds. This gate is always closed, as a symbol of the rich man's isolation, and of his soul lacking sensitivity and compassion for the miserable people who are living a miserable life on the other side of the gate.

Through today's Gospel parable, Jesus wants to teach us that we live in this life not alone, not in an oasis, but we always live with others. Of course, we live in this life with differences, no one is the same: there are rich people, there must be poorer people; or there are lucky people, there are also less lucky people. If we are better than others in something, it does not mean we forget the grace God gives us, every day. Therefore, our responsibility as Christians is to live in solidarity with each other, care for each other, and share with those who need our help both spiritually and materially.

May we, as Christians, always open our compassionate and loving eyes to see the lives of the poor right next to us; open our ears to listen to the cries of the sorrowful; open our charitable hands to be ready to help materially those in difficulty and distress. Through our acts of love and charity, may God bless us too!