Cathedral of The Sacred Heart

Information may not be reliable

The "Old Reliable Run" may have an effect on 12:00 noon and 2:00pm Masses this weekend.

Mailing and Office Address: 219 West Edenton St., Raleigh, NC 27603Phone:(919) 832-6030

Sat: Vigil Mass: 5:00pm
Sun: 7:30am, 9:00am, 10:30am, 12noon,Las Misa en espaol
a las 2 de la tarde

Adoration for Vocations
Adoration & Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from
10:00am until 11:30am

I attended an event at Memorial Auditorium last weekend and found myself a bit caught off guard by the presence of decorated Christmas trees in the lobby. We have all heard the many laments about how quickly Christmas comes upon us. Commercial interests bring the season into play far sooner than we are prepared for. Perhaps we can take our cue from the retailers schedule not in preparing for Christmas, but in preparing for what Christmas reminds us of as Christians: the Coming of Christ not as a child but in the Second Coming.
Todays scriptures provide us with a sobering invitation to an honest look at how we live our lives as we rapidly approach the end of the liturgical year, the end of the year, the end of this decade. Endings are endings precisely because they had a beginning. We end so that we may begin again. A new year, a new life, a new outlook, a new commitment to God perhaps. The word of the day comes from St. Lukes Gospel. By patient endurance you will save your lives. Patient endurance? in what? Patient endurance in God! What does that mean for us then? Recall the destruction the people have seen, wars, plagues, natural disasters, destroying lives, property, temples. The Old Testament Jews were faced with great challenges in endurance. What better example than Jesus do we have of patient endurance? As followers of Christ we are to carry our crosses with patient endurance, all the way to Calvary as Jesus did. We do so with the same trust as Jesus placed in the Father, that we too will be saved not by our fear or our efforts but by our desire to love God with all our hearts and all our souls and all our minds. We do this knowing that he first loved us and in so loving us provided the only sign we should ever seek of that love, the cross. The reference in todays gospel to no hair on ones head ever being harmed is a graphic statement of the ultimate spiritual protection to all who endure persecution in this life for the sake of Jesus. Death came for us but life came to overcome death once and for all. Jesus is the only sign we ought to seek in this day and age. Thus we must ask ourselves, whether or not we would do things any differently if we knew when the end-times were to be? Would we seek to grow closer to God? Would we be more honest in the way we live our lives. Would we be kinder in how we talk about others? Would we respect one another, not lusting or degrading the other with our thoughts or words? Would we try to understand better the Word of God by reading the bible? Would we seek to live righteous lives by receiving the sacraments God has given our church? Would we go out of our way to help another, especially someone who causes us difficulty? Would we truly look upon our marriages, our state of life as single or religious and praise God for calling us to our vocation in life?
Signs of the coming Christmas are invitations not to begin shopping and decorating, but rather an invitation to reflect upon how you are living your life in the present in anticipation of what is to come. How drastically our lives would changed if the reminder wasnt just 43 days left to shop, but 43 days left to prepare to meet your Savior.
Pax et bonum,

Registration forms are available from the Ushers at Mass or at the Parish Office.

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