CATHEDRAL OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament Parish in Altoona, PA is a welcoming and compassionate community of believers striving to grow as God’s people.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we offer lifelong faith formation for children, youth, and adults; and we live out Christ’s invitation to serve our sisters and brothers.
We gather to worship in prayer and song and invite all to joyfully participate in word and sacrament, especially the Eucharist.
SERVING THE PEOPLE OF GOD IN THE CITY OF ALTOONA, PA SINCE 1851.
SUPPORTING THE MINISTRIES OF CATHEDRAL PARISH
By clicking on the Get Involved link, you will find valuable information on how to make a financial donation to the Cathedral. The weekly offertory, the annual Catholic Ministries Drive, Bequests, and contributions to our Endowments are ways by which the blessings God has given to you become a blessing to the parish.
PRAYER FOR POPE LEO XIV
O God, who in your providential design willed that your Church be built upon blessed Peter, whom you set over the other Apostles, look with favor, we pray, on Leo XIV our Pope and grant that he, whom you have made Peter’s successor, may be for your people a visible source and foundation of unity in faith and of communion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. Excerpt from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2010 International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.
SISTERS OF CHARITY
The Sisters of Charity arrived in Altoona on August 20, 1870. The Sisters have had a profoundly significant influence in our diocese, especially at Cathedral parish. We were pleased to have a delegation of Sisters from their Korean province, who were accompanied by Sisters from Greensburg, present at our 10 A.M. Mass on Sunday, June 15. Gratitude is extended to Jean Koury and Steph Kilcoyne who provided refreshments and acted as tour guides.
DAILY MASSES
Monday-Saturday-Noon
WEEKEND MASSES
Vigil, Saturday at 5:00 P.M.
Sunday Masses at 8:00 A.M., 10:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M.
SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION
Wednesday at 7:00 P.M.
Saturday: at 12:30 P.M.
By appointment: by calling or texting 814-937-8240
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 3, 2025
GOSPEL MEDITATION
Recent studies suggest that millennia’s will be the first generation in America to be worse off than their parents in terms of financial earnings and job status. Many lament this. I propose that this week’s Gospel provides a hopeful way to see the trend as good news.
The Lord Jesus says, “Take care to guard against greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist in possessions” (Luke 12:15). Greed damages us with the deception that we are what we possess. But to Jesus, this is simply not true. What makes us happy is who we are, who we become.
Does not the expectation that every generation should do better than their parents subtly mask the poison of greed? A similar attitude is mirrored in the man who demands that Jesus justly arrange his share of the family inheritance. Despite the injustice, Jesus will not play that game. In fact, he seems to prefer that the man have less than his parents. What good would having more be to this man if he becomes enslaved and miserable by greed? What good would it be for us to have more if it means we become much less?
In allowing the man to have less, Jesus opens a space for him to become more: a man free to love. In that much more meaningful sense, perhaps he was better off than his parents. Maybe the millennia’s will be, too.
–Father John Muir
EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP
Today’s readings come as a pat on the back from Heaven for all of us striving to live a stewardship way of life. They remind us why we live the way we do, make the choices we make, and leave other things aside. Let’s face it, if we truly embrace this way of life, there will be people who find our choices downright foolish.
To many people in our materialistic world, setting priorities that are not focused on earthly goals like wealth, status and power is foolish and naïve. But look at what Jesus has to say about priorities in today’s Gospel pas-sage from Luke. He makes it clear that life is not about ‘stuff’. “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Don’t be ashamed of living differently from the people around you. Be confident as you set priorities based on what is above. You are wise in God’s eyes, Christian steward. And you will be rich in what matters most.
2025 Catholic Stewardship Consultants
PRACTICING CATHOLIC – RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS
The Barn
It’s 9:08 on a Saturday morning, and I am too darn busy for confession.
I’ve probably written before about how hard I find it to get to confession — I say ‘probably’ because I really can’t remember. I whine about it so frequently that it’s hard to tell if I’ve made it the subject of a written piece or if it is simply an oft-recited refrain from the Litany of Colleen’s Perpetual Complaints.
During the week, it’s tough to get to confession because I have little kids who are attached to me like Velcro, and I don’t need them listening in on (and eventually repeating to everyone) my sins. On the weekend it’s a little easier, but our parish doesn’t offer it before or after Sunday Mass, just on Saturdays. Saturday is when I get most of my work done, so getting absolution usually comes at the expense of productivity.
And that, friends, right here, is my barn. Productivity. That’s the proverbial storehouse of my earthly harvest. For the rich man in the parable, it’s a literal barn, filled to bursting with sellable crops. For you it might be money or your job title or what your life looks like to other people on social media. For me, it’s Getting Things Done. That’s my barn, the repository that holds the whole of my worldly preoccupations.
And it’s so full I want to tear it down and build a new one. A bigger one. One that can hold more worry, more time for work, more focus on output and crossing things off a to-do list. Vanity of vanities, indeed.
If I die tonight, the deadlines will go unmet, and no one will even notice. But God, when He meets me in the world to come, will surely ask me why I couldn’t take 45 minutes to accept a gift He tried again and again to give me.
I have to burn the barn, friends. I don’t want to, but I have to. I’m closing my laptop and going to church.
– Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman