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.
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
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.
PILGRIMAGE TO ROME AND THE SHRINES OF ITALY
You are invited to join Monsignor Stan Carson on a pilgrimage to Rome and the shrines of Italy from October 12-22 in 2026. Brochures are available at the entrances to the cathedral. Click this link for additional Information.
The Most Holy Trinity
May 31, 2026
GOSPEL MEDITATION
I was 16 years old on a youth group retreat in the mountains. One night, I opened my heart to the message being proclaimed: that God so loved the world that He sent His Son for us. Later, I lay under the pine trees and looked up at the countless stars. They seemed different. No longer cold, distant balls of chemical reactions, they appeared as an expression of God’s love, as if He were giving those stars directly to me. The truth of God sending His Son changed how I saw the whole universe.
That is what today’s Gospel reveals: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” (John 3:16) The universe is not just a whirl of impersonal forces or empty space. At its
heart is a gift: the Father eternally giving the Son, not to condemn, but to bring life.
This is not abstract doctrine but deeply personal. God gives His Son for you and me. Each human life is precious enough to be caught up in that eternal gift.
It is in the Mass where we encounter this most directly. In the Word proclaimed, in the assembly gathered, in the priest, and above all in the Eucharist, the Father once again gives His Son. What looks like bread and wine is the drama of the Trinity, laboring to love us here and now.
The Trinity is not a puzzle to solve but the blazing Truth at the center of everything: the Father gives the Son for you and me. Lord, help us to see this more clearly.
EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP
Today we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the Holy Trinity is the ‘central mystery of the Christian faith’ (261). The concept of the Triune God – Three Persons in one God – is truly a mystery, almost too lofty for us ordinary people to even begin to grasp. Can the truth of the Holy Trinity teach us anything as everyday Christian stewards? Of course it can! St John Paul II described the Holy Trinity as a ‘Divine Family’, a community of Persons Who give themselves completely to each other and Who wishes to share Itself, Its life, with us. These concepts are at the very heart of the stewardship way of life. As stewards, we too are called to share ourselves and our lives with others. As a stewardship parish, we are called to invite others into our community through the gift of hospitality.
Amazingly, the more we give of ourselves to God in love, the more we will find the ‘grace of the Lord, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit within us.’ The God of the universe – this mysterious, Triune God – invites us to an ever-deepening intimacy with Him when we make our lives a loving gift to Him and to others through the stewardship way of life.
2026 Catholic Stewardship Consultants
REFLECTION
I once listened to Bishop Daniel Flores — a renowned scholar and prelate — give a 70-minute talk on the Trinitarian nature of God. In those 70 minutes, Bishop Flores said a lot of eloquent things. But what that really landed with me was not any group of words, but a single gesture.
Defining hypostasis, the term we use for the “the reciprocal dynamic relations that constitute distinct identities within the Godhead” (yes, I am using his words because I could never, in a million years, trust my own) Bishop Flores said “the Father and the Son are true God, but the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. How not? Different hypostasis.”
And here his eyes grew wide; he turned his head and opened his hands, drawing back as if from a spooked horse. The implication was clear: Any further than this, I dare not go.
I’ve never felt so seen.
Sometimes, I make the mistake of thinking that I am unique in my inability to understand the great mysteries. Sometimes, I despair that I am not a “better Catholic” — one who will rush headfirst into the crosshairs of a hard question, confident in the words that come immediately to my lips.
But when I saw Bishop Flores flinch at the thought of defining how, exactly, the Son is not the Father, and vice versa, I remembered that only fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
This Sunday, friends, take heart: our failure to understand is not a poverty. It is a gift. It propels us constantly back to the wellspring of our glorious Faith — to Scripture, to Tradition, to the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit which sustains each and every one of us who dare to believe.