Masses and Special Intentions

Stephen Sheehan

Sandy Pittman

Moira Feely

Kristin O’Shea O’Keefe

Jaxson Rivera

Ronald Grubert

Josephine Arkwright

Anna Forte

Masses for the Week

Monday, July 17th

Ex 1:8-14, 22, Mt 10:34-11:1

9:00 AM | Chuck Swedish

Tuesday, July 18th

St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest

Ex 2:1-15a, Mt 11:20-24

Theresa Fallon

Christine Marchese

Thomas Hyland

Nina Marie

Maria DeAngelis

James McCabe

Chuck Sockett

Marguerite Barone

Vincent Nicky

O’Donnell

Laarni Melliza

Donna Chesney

Erica Klock

Jacob Rivera

Dr. Michael O’Grady

Gladys Jean

Douglas Martocci, Sr.

Angela Napolitano

Names will remain on the list for three months. Please email bulletin@stmary.ws if you would like to continue with the listing

9:00 AM | Richard Masterson

Wednesday, July 19th

Ex 3:1-6, 9-12, Mt 11:25-27

9:00 AM | Vincent & Mimi de Venoge

Thursday, July 20th

St. Apollinaris, Bishop & Martyr

Ex 3:13-20, Mt 11:28-30

9:00 AM | Michael J. Leninger

Friday, July 21st

St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Priest & Doctor of the Church

Bl. Francis Jordan, Priest & Religious Founder

Ex 11:10-12:14, Mt 12:1-8

9:00 AM | Edna & Benedict Schilling

Hussey, James M., GySgt, USMC Jones, Scott B., LT, USN

Jones, Katherine L., LTJG, USN

LaManna, Vincent S., Jr., PVT, USA

Landolphi, Michael, ENS, USN

Lanza, Anthony E., LtCol, USMC

Saturday, July 22nd

St. Mary Magdalene

Sg 3:1-4b, Jn 20:1-2, 11-18

9:00 AM | Megan Anderson

5:00 PM | Robert W. Symmons, Sr.

Thomas J. Flynn, Sr.

125th Brigade Support Battalion

23rd Marine Regiment

25th Marine Regiment

2-4 GSAB Task Force Mustang

2-211th GSAB Task Force

War Horse

51st Security Force Squadron

75th Ranger Regiment

82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron

Alacqua, Alexander, 1LT, USA

Amerson, Jason, CPT, USA

Anderson, Michael, 1LT, USA

Arnold, James, LCpl, USMC

Avasthi, David, Capt, USAF

Baber, Joseph, Maj, USAF

Broderick, Evan, SGT, USA

Broderick, Steven, SN, USN

Brodie, Virgina H., 2ndLt, USMC

Brown, Jason, SGT, USA

Fontanetta, Joseph, Maj, USMC

Hayes, Andrew, Capt, USMC

Hernandez, Steven, SSgt, USAF

Higgins, James, GySgt, USMC

Hilton, Justin, SGT, USA

Hilton, Nathaniel, SGT, USA

Horner, Brian G., 1stLt, USMC

Howard, Edward, PV2, USA

Madden, Michael E., Major, USAF

Major, A. Edward, III, MAJ, USA

Marine Medium Tilt Rotor Squadron 161

Marine Transport Squadron 352 McGorry, Patrick F., HM2, USN

McKievear, Gary, LT, USA

Millau, Jeffrey, PFC, USMC

Morris, Jr., Brian J., MAC, USN

O’Leary, Jason, SSgt, USAF

Petracca, Evan L., LTJG, USN

Quinn, Anthony, Jr., SGT, USA

Richardson, Timothy, PV2, USA

Radman, Paul Cpl, USMC

Rodi, Caroline G., CAPT, USN

Sharkey, John J., LtCol, USMC

Spivak III, Edmund, Capt, USAF

Sweeney, Timothy, CPT, USA

Swersky, Roberto, Capt, USMC

Tafone, Samantha, SGT, USA

Ullrich, Kenneth C., HN, USN

Unger, Matthew J., SPC, USA

Vachris, Madison LTJG, USN

Wood, Kelly, BMSR, USN

Michael Leninger

Tadeusz Bedkowski

Jane O’Leary

Sunday, July 23rd

The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly Wis 12:13, 16-19, Rom 8:26-27, Mt 13:24-43

7:30 AM | People of the Parish

9:00 AM | Dawn Marie Parrella

10:30 AM | Hope Della Ratta

12:00 Noon | Mary Simone

Joseph C. Giuliano

Angela Sanelli

Robert W. Symmons, Sr.

Janica Suslovic

Thomas Milone (living)

If you have a service member that you would like to add to this list please e-mail bulletin@stmary.ws. Please include name, rank and branch of service.

Cover: Jesus Preaching on a Boat.

Artist: James Tissot (1836-1902).

Inferno Canto I: Dante’s Midlife Crisis

“When I had journeyed half of our life’s way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray” (Inferno, Canto I). There is no greater way to begin our reflection than with Dante’s own words. In the beginning, Dante places himself as being lost in the dark woods. He is already referencing the Prophet Isaiah, “In the noontime of life I said, I must depart to the gates of Sheol” (Isaiah 38:10). It is with this reference that we find Dante in the noontime of his own life at the age of 35. In contemporary lingo, he is having a midlife crisis. He is physically lost, but symbolically he has lost his way from God. This distance from God for Dante is like being in darkness, lost, and afraid.

It is interesting that Dante chooses to begin his spiritual journey at the age of 35. It already implies that he has had life experience, he knows the world, and has some sense of self-knowledge that we do not have in our youth. So why here? Why at this point? I think it is because, in this stage of life, we begin to see the emptiness of life. We have been there and done that and like most who have gone through this crisis in their forties, one of the questions we ask is this: what is the meaning of it all? In our youth, we are often obsessed with trying to fulfill our ambitions and we rarely find time to ask what the true meaning of those ambitions are. The question of meaning is not a mathematical question with a straight answer. Rather, it begins with the darkness of ignorance which is why we find our pilgrim Dante lost.

Dante has “lost the path that does not stray,” he has lost his spiritual path of faith. Like most people today, we are catechized as children, receive confirmation, maybe attended Mass on Sundays in high school. But by the time many people reach college or enter the workforce, faith and religion are often forgotten. It is the same experience for Dante. He was a man of the world more obsessed with politics, poetry, and philosophy than with faith. Yet, his exile from Florence was a curse transformed into a blessing. The experience of exile leads Dante to see that what really matters is not which political party controls the government, but rather who controls your heart? Sin or grace?

From here, Dante encounters three terrifying beasts, a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. It is difficult to know the precise meaning of these beasts, but literary critics have suggested them to represent the sins of lust (leopard), pride (lion), and greed (she-wolf). They might even represent Dante’s own personal sins. These beasts block Dante’s own path and there seems to be no escape, but by an intervention from heaven, Dante meets the Roman poet, Virgil, author of the Aeneid. He helps Dante escape the beasts and guides him through this journey.

What I love about Virgil is the importance of having a guide. For Dante, the spiritual journey is not a journey in isolation. It is a pilgrimage walked with others. In fact, the only time Dante is ever alone in the whole poem is here in Canto I. For the rest of the epic, he will always be walking with someone along the way. Our American understanding of faith is so privatized and, in some ways, so personal that we have forgotten the role of the community in our faith journey. Today, everyone wants to walk their own faith life in isolation, but Dante teaches us that this method is a recipe for disaster. We need guides, but it cannot be just anyone, it needs to be someone like Virgil, a man of wisdom. He represents reason, antiquity, and virtue. If we try to guide ourselves, we will remain hopelessly lost. Virgil will be the man to help guide Dante through the depths of Hell.

But why Hell first? I think it is because the only way of finding the way up, we first have to go down. Professor Ralph Wood brilliantly states, “Dante must discover that life is damned before he can come up out of the cage.”1 He continues, “We will not truly know truth, goodness, and beauty until we know we have lost it.”2 The soldier has a better understanding of peace because he has experienced war. You learn the true value of light only when you know what real darkness is. Dante, in order to find his way to God, first has to see and understand what life is

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