Many Catholics in virtually every liturgical context prefer to sit in the back of the church. People have many reasons for doing so. Some are devotional: it can be a sign of humility, or sometimes people sit near an image or statue to which they are particularly devoted. Sometimes its practical – people who have mobility issues, or who want to avoid the direct air conditioning, or think it’s too loud in front or simply arrive late to Mass.

Communal prayer is one of the hallmarks of the Catholic Church. We don’t just pray as individuals, we consciously elect to gather together for prayer. And we not only gather together on Sunday for the celebration of the Eucharist, but many people gather together to pray the Rosary, or the Divine Mercy chaplet, or the Stations of the Cross.

This letter is to let you know that I have received permission from my Jesuit provincial to retire in the next couple of months. The majority of my priestly ministry has been here in Phoenix, either at Brophy College Prep for nine years in the 1970s or Saint Francis Xavier Parish for 18 years, and 12th of those years I served as pastor. So I have deep roots here.

In the Ten Commandments, it says “You shall not make for yourself an idol” (Ex 20:2) and the battle against idolatry was one of the central issues in Hebrew history. In Jewish theology, God is beyond all human comprehension and can not and should not be confined or limited by worshiping an idol, in the way that the Egyptians worshiped a golden calf, or the Philistines or Baby- lonians worshiped images of clay. Therefore, the use of images is strictly forbidden in the Jewish faith, and likewise in the Muslim faith as well.

Since our very beginnings, the Eucharist has been an essential part of what it means to be Church. After all, at the Last Supper, Jesus gave us his body and blood and said “Do this in remembrance of me.” But almost from the very beginning, there have questions about what “this” exactly is. As the Church grew and expanded, different local churches, in Jerusalem, Antioch, Damascus, Alexandria, Constantinople, Rome, and elsewhere had different variations on how to memorialize the Eucharist. These local practices evolved into rites, which most often took on the name of their geographic origin – the Byzantine Rite, the Antiochene Rite, the Roman Rite. For the first eight centuries of the Church, there was no perceived need to create a single, uniform rite.

In the Ten Commandments, it says “You shall not make for yourself an idol” (Ex 20:2) and the battle against idolatry was one of the central issues in Hebrew history. In Jewish theology, God is beyond all human comprehension and can not and should not be confined or limited by worshiping an idol, in the way that the Egyptians worshiped a golden calf, or the Philistines or Babylonians worshiped images of clay. Therefore, the use of images is strictly forbidden in the Jewish faith, and likewise in the Muslim faith as well.

For millions of kids in the Northern Hemisphere, September marks the beginning of school. Little ones bid a teary farewell at the kindergarten door, and college students embark on their first steps towards adulthood. For everyone in between, it’s a time when the lazy days of summer are transformed into a season of routines, schedules and commitments.

The Lord’s Prayer comes to us from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. In the most ancient versions of these texts, the prayer ends with “deliver us from evil.” Within a couple of centuries, however, later versions of the Gospels, along with other ancient liturgical documents record the addition of the Doxology (“For the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory are yours, now and forever”). For almost 1900 years, then, there has been a debate about whether those additional words belong in the Our Father prayer.

Since our very beginnings, the Eucharist has been an essential part of what it means to be Church. After all, at the Last Supper, Jesus gave us his body and blood and said “Do this in remembrance of me.” But almost from the very beginning, there have questions about what “this” exactly is. As the Church grew and expanded, different local churches, in Jerusalem, Antioch, Damascus, Alexandria, Constantinople, Rome, and elsewhere had different variations on how to memorialize the Eucharist. These local practices evolved into rites, which most often took on the name of their geographic origin – the Byzantine Rite, the Antiochene Rite, the Roman Rite. For the first eight centuries of the Church, there was no perceived need to create a single, uniform rite.

In the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass, the people had two spoken or sung responses in the Eucharistic Prayer – the Sanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy”) and the Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God). Notably, there was no Mysterium Fidei (“Mystery of Faith”) for the people to proclaim. So why did it get added to the post-Vatican II liturgy? It is the solution to a liturgical puzzle.

One of the oldest debates in Christianity regards the perpetual virginity of Mary. All Christians agree that Mary was a virgin when she conceived by the Holy Spirit and became the mother of Jesus. What is unstated in scripture, however, is whether or not she remained a virgin after the birth of Christ, or whether she had normal marital relations with her husband, Joseph. As early as the 2nd century, theologians were debating this topic, and by the 6th century, the Second Council of Constantinople, declared the perpetual virginity of Mary to be dogma, and this teaching has been upheld by the Catholic Church ever since.

The Lord’s Prayer, the most ancient prayer of the Church, is how we conclude the Eucharistic Prayer. It symbolizes our unity as one Christian people, gathered around the one table of the Lord, sharing in the one, true presence of our Lord present in the Eucharist. To further emphasize this, after the Lord’s Prayer we have the Kiss of Peace, which deepens the bonds of communion among the people.