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 THE NEW POPE
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.
Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Fatima Church at 11:30 A.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
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 13, 2025
GOSPEL MEDITATION
I used to be a bad neighbor. I’d get wrapped up in my life and ignore those around me. Then I found sage advice from Benjamin Franklin to this effect: to be a better neighbor, ask someone to do a favor for you. It’s counterintuitive, isn’t it? Tell strangers that I need their help? Yuck. I’ll risk looking needy. Worse, I’ll be indebted to them. But I tried it, and it works like a charm. Recently I asked my neighbor Alan for a hacksaw, and Inga for an egg. They kindly obliged, and our friendship is growing.
This week we hear a scribe of the law cynically ask Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). Like him, we prefer to keep the list of our “neighbors” as short as possible. It requires less interruption and inconvenience. But when Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, he exposes the lonely, cold-heartedness tendency of the scribe’s (and our) heart. My “neighbor” is anyone I encounter who manifests a concrete need. There isn’t time to require any other credential because human need opens us to the happy reciprocity which is love.
Jesus’ words challenge us this week to ask a neighbor for help in some small way. How marvelous that God himself shows us how. He moves into our world and asks us to love Him with small deeds of love. Maybe that’s where Ben Franklin got the idea.
–Father John Muir
EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP
Today’s readings show us that to live as good stewards means to follow God’s commands and to live our lives as a gift in service to others. In today’s Gospel passage, from Luke, we read the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan. Here, Jesus himself teaches us in rich detail what stewardship in action looks like. The hospitality and generosity in serving others, shown through this parable, are essential to a stewardship way of life.
Do we have this same hospitable openness to others around us? What can we do to become more aware of the needs of others, and more open to setting aside our own plans to care for those in need?
That is how we live out God’s commandments. That is true hospitality and service. That is how a good steward springs into action when he comes upon a neighbor in need. And Jesus says to each of us personally, just as He did in today’s Gospel, “Go and do likewise.”
2025 Catholic Stewardship Consultants
PRACTICING CATHOLIC – RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS
Mini reflection: As Christians we know that everyone is our neighbor. It’s drilled into us from the first time we hear this reading. But do we approach the victims that we see? Or do we draw away from the suffering of others in fear and confusion, thinking: “That’s not my problem”?
Crossing the Street
It takes a cold, hard, godless heart to step over a wounded man on the street.
But in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite didn’t step over the half-dead traveler. I think we picture them doing so, in our collective imagining of this well-known story, but the words of the Gospel are quite clear. “When he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side,” Jesus says of both.
So they saw him. They saw his need. It made them uncomfortable; it confused them — many scholars have said that Judaic law concerning the touching of dead bodies might have made them reluctant to approach — and so they decided the simplest way to file this situation in the Not My Problem category was to cross the street.
But that still leaves a half-dead guy on the road. And we all, 2,000 years later, still think of the priest and the Levite as cold and hard and godless — even if they didn’t want to be, even if they didn’t think of themselves that way — because the bottom line is, they didn’t see the half-dead guy as their problem.
As Christians we know that everyone is our neighbor. It’s drilled into us from the first time we hear this reading.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I find myself crossing the street a lot more than I should.
There is so much pain and suffering in the world. We certainly can’t begin to alleviate it all. But we have to start with the pain and the suffering that we see, that’s right in front of us — even if it’s something we really, really want to ignore. Even if we find it inconvenient or confusing or scary or weird.
The heroism of the Good Samaritan wasn’t in his selfless actions, although those were certainly commendable. It was in his courage. “He approached the victim,” Jesus said.
Can we approach the victims we see? Do we have that courage?
– Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS