The return of activities after the summer lull reminds one of St. Augustine’s description of the Christian life as "ever ancient, ever new," for the unchanging truths of God are refreshed with every renewal of the calendar. The city has its own attractions in the summer, and visitors from quieter places sometimes are surprised when I call New York a ghost town in August. While I spent this summer in Manhattan, I was able to accept an invitation to London last week, where I marked my ordination anniversary in Westminster Cathedral at a High Mass for the organization Aid to the Church in Need, with His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was a reminder of the universal personality of the Catholic Church, encompassing time as well as geography, for the Patriarch can trace his diocese back to the Apostle James the Less.

While ancient pious cartographers placed Jerusalem at the epicenter of the world, there are those today who put New York there, and there are even those who more specifically locate the center in Murray Hill. The fact is, our location is important, as the many special gatherings of diverse organizations, especially in this season, indicate. For instance, we have just hosted a special Mass for a national association for the blind, and for several days a group of Irish bishops on the board of Maynooth College have said Mass here. This Thursday Archbishop Dolan will say the Red Mass here for the Catholic judges and attorneys of the archdiocese and at the same time the president of Guatemala will attend a reception in our Undercroft. The next day we will host a Vigil for various bishops and knights and dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and there will be various baptisms and weddings as well. We are accountable for taking advantage of this to promote the Gospel.

Cardinal Spellman had his critics when he erected our parish, for they thought the neighborhood did not need another church, and that its prospects were not promising. The vicissitudes of subsequent years and the practical difficulties in building and maintaining our church have not overwhelmed the wonderful fruition of the gifts of the Holy Spirit here. As Pope Benedict XVI has declared this the Year of Priests, so might we locally call this the Year of the Parish as we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the solemn blessing of our church building. In recent years, with the mortgage debt paid, the church was solemnly dedicated and the bulk of our restoration work was completed. This year should be a time to rededicate ourselves to the great work entrusted to us. May our simple but fervent celebration of our first fifty years on October 8 inspire all of us to heights higher than the hill on which our church stands.

                                                                                  Fr. George W. Rutler