Father Hathaway’s Column — June 1, 2025
THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD
Today, June 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord into heaven, traditionally observed 40 days after Easter (which would have been Thursday, May 29, 2025). To encourage greater participation, some individual ecclesiastical provinces within the United States, with the approval of the Holy See, began moving the feast from Ascension Thursday to the Seventh Sunday of Easter, starting in the late 1990s. Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha and Philadelphia provinces continue to celebrate the Ascension on Thursday; all other U.S. provinces, including our own Baltimore province, have transferred the solemnity to the Seventh Sunday in Easter, or Ascension Sunday
The weekdays after the Ascension, through the Saturday before Pentecost (next Sunday, June 8), are a time of preparation for the outpouring of the Holy Spirt on us. In our Gospel reading today from Acts1:1-11, Jesus tells His Apostles: “… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses…to the ends of the earth.” Sometimes called the “Great Commission,” this verse sets the stage for the global spread of the Gospel. It emphasizes the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in enabling all believers — you and me! — to be witnesses of Jesus, sharing what we believe with those we meet on our earthly journeys.
SCHOOL GRADUATIONS
Friday, June 6, is graduation day for 71 wonderful eighth-grade students at our Basilica School of Saint Mary. My congratulations to each of them and their parents! Congratulations also to our parish CCD students and the many other young parishioners who are graduating from junior high, high school and college this time of year. What a wonderful milestone for each of them!
A Prayer for Our Graduates
O Lord May Your hand of protection be about them, and may Your Word continue to be a light unto their path. Help them to make wise decisions and to always keep You first in everything they do. Amen.
ORDINATION OF 12 NEW PRIESTS – June 7
Witness the beauty and power of the Sacrament of Holy Orders as Bishop Michael Burbidge ordains 12 men – TWELVE! (the “new” apostles?) – to the priesthood this coming Saturday, June 7, at 11 a.m., at the Cathedral of Saint Thomas More in Arlington. All are invited to attend, although seating will be very limited. A good alternative is to watch the livestreamed Mass at bit.ly/CDA-Priesthood-Ordination-2025. That way you can actually see their faces and avoid parking woes! One of the twelve to be ordained, soon-to-be Father John Meyerhofer, will be our new parochial vicar here at the Basilica beginning June 26. Please keep him and all of these men in your prayers as they embark on their priestly ministry.
Thour Art a Priest Forever
To live in the midst of the world with no desire for its pleasures; to be a member of every family, yet belonging to none; to share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets; to heal all wounds; to daily go from men to God to offer Him their homage and petitions; to return from God to men to bring them His pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to bless and to be blest forever. O God, what a life, and it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ! Amen. (By Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, OP, 1802-1861)