This year, 2022, the Marians of the Immaculate Conception are celebrating our 25-year anniversary in Steubenville, Ohio! From humble beginnings. In August 1997, Father Joe Roesch, then Brothers Donald Calloway and John Larson, and postulant Pat Norris were truly pioneers as they were the first members of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception to open a Marian house in Steubenville, Ohio. Father Joe is now the Vicar General of the Marian Congregation and lives in Rome, Italy.

All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God,and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is,and from studying the works did not discern the artisan;But either fire, or wind, or the swift air,or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water,or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods.Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods,let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these;for the original source of beauty fashioned them.

The Scripture readings for this homily: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120525.cfm To encounter Christ is to encounter the One who heals—physically, spiritually, supernaturally. Today’s Gospel reminds us that miracles are not mythology but reality. Two blind men cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us.” Their plea becomes the seed of what the Church would later cherish as the Jesus Prayer—“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”