A Catholic Clergy Perspective: Special Holy Days of Eucharist by Bishop Vann

Friday, June 27, 2025

Special Holy Days of Eucharist by Bishop Vann

This letter on the solemn holidays of Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart of Jesus from Bishop Kevin W. Vann of the Diocese of Orange, California, remind and teach us once again that the Risen Lord is truly present in Eucharist! May they be emblazoned on our hearts as we process through the Liturgical Calendar of Ordinary Time of blessing and peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

June 23, 2025

Dear Friends,

I am currently on an overnight trip to Tehachapi, California, to visit the Norbertine “Canonesses,”* a religious community of cloistered nuns whose history goes back all the way to St. Norbert and who share their heritage with the Norbertines at St. Michael’s Abbey in our Diocese of Orange, California.

These days in our Liturgical Calendar have some major feast days before we settle into the routine of “Ordinary Time.” And here the term Ordinary does not mean ordinary as different from Extraordinary, but rather that the days of the Liturgical Calendar are now counted or “ordered” as we now move through these days toward the end of this Liturgical Calendar toward the New Church and Advent!

These important days are Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart of Jesus!

This past Sunday Pope Leo carried the Blessed Sacrament (in the Corpus Christi Procession) down a busy street in Rome entitled the “Via Merulana” which joins the Basilicas of Saint John Lateran (the Cathedral of Rome) and Saint Mary Major which is the oldest Church in the West dedicated to the Mother of God and is where Pope Francis is buried. He had a great devotion to Mary under this title.

This procession, and the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, have their origins in the communities of Orvieto and Bolsena Italy, and ultimately in the words of Christ Himself at the Last Supper.

These days and these processions clearly remind us and teach once again that the Risen Lord is truly present in Eucharist!

Seeing Pope Leo in this feast day procession (with its especially beautiful hymns and Chant), reminded me of when I had the chance to participate in this same procession with Saint John Paul II years ago!

I pray that these upcoming extended days of Ordinary Time will be days of blessings of the Lord and peace.

Just as in the Corpus Christi processions, the Lord Himself walks with us.

I am also grateful to my good friend Deacon Jim Merle for this opportunity!

Blessed Days to all!

+Kevin W. Vann

*Founded in 1997 by the Norbertine Canons of St. Michael’s Abbey (Orange, California), the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph is a Roman Catholic community of cloistered religious nuns, the first community of Norbertine Canonesses in the United States. As Canonesses, they are especially dedicated to the solemn and reverential celebration of the Church’s Sacred Liturgy, which they celebrate in keeping with the traditions of the Praemonstratensian rite of their Order, with pride of place given to the Latin language and Gregorian chant. Following the Rule of St. Augustine, they joyfully live out their canonical vocation within the monastic rhythms of liturgical prayer and contemplation, of community life and work, of silence, study and penance. Their Monastery is situated away from the hustle and bustle of the world in a quiet valley in the Tehachapi Mountains outside the City of Tehachapi, in the Diocese of Fresno, California. It is here, amidst the natural beauty of God’s creation, that they seek to continue the 900-year-old canonical tradition began by their Holy Father St. Norbert, one of the great reformers of the 12^th century.

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Bishop Kevin W. Vann, JCD, DD, D MIN

He was ordained on May 30, 1981, and was assigned to graduate studies in canon law at the Angelicum in Rome, with residence at the graduate house of the North American College, the Casa Santa Maria dell’ Umilta. Pope Leo XIV, when a priest, also attended these classes at the same time. Upon returning to the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, Father Vann participated in the work of the Diocesan Tribunal and the Tribunal of Second Instance in Chicago. He served as pastor of parishes ranging in size from 35 to 1,300 families, two which had large schools. He taught canon law at Kenrick Seminary. Before he was named bishop, he was pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Springfield, Vicar for Priests and the Diocesan contact for Hispanic Ministry. Bishop Vann was ordained and installed as the third bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Forth Worth, Texas, on July 13, 2005, at Texas Christian University’s Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. In Texas, he collaborated closely with other bishops through the Texas Catholic Conference and Region X, which includes dioceses of States of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. He is the former Texas Bishops’ Liaison to the Texas Mission Council and Texas Catholic hospitals. And, through the U.S. Conference of Bishops, Bishop Vann was a leader in the Texas Conference of Bishops, providing leadership for various initiatives at the national level, including service on ad hoc committee which assisted the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to guide the incorporation of Anglican groups into the Catholic Church of the United States. On September 21, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI announced Bishop Vann’s appointment as the fourth bishop of Orange, the 11th largest diocese in the country and the second-largest west of the Mississippi with 1.3 million multicultural Catholics. He continues to lead the historic effort to transform the former Crystal Cathedral from a world-renowned center of Protestant worship into the West Coast’s most visible center of Catholicism.

Father Glenn Baaten

A priest of the ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a community with the Catholic Church made up of former Anglicans and Episcopalians. He Currently serves as Parish Administrator of St. John Henry Newman Catholic Church in Irvine and as Chaplain of Santiago Retreat Center in Silverado. His ministry within the Diocese of Orange, California, is a collaborative appointment by Bishop Steven Lopes and Bishop Kevin Vann. Fr. Glenn was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on June 24, 2016, the Feast of St. John the Baptist. His journey to the Catholic Church followed years of faithful ministry in Protestant communities. He was ordained a Presbyterian pastor in 1998 and served a PCUSA parish in Cincinnati, Ohio. After returning to California in 2010, he discerned a call to Anglican ministry and was ordained in the Church of England tradition in 2013. He relinquished his Anglican holy orders and, after catechesis, was received into the Church on Christmas eve of that year. Fr. Glenn has been married to Cathy for 42 years. They are the blessed parents of two adult children and grandparents of three. His ministry is marked by a strong commitment to evangelization, Christian unity and sacred beauty of the liturgy. As a follower of Christ these many past decades – most especially as a priest – Fr. Glenn is committed to sharing the grace and love of Jesus to all and living the depth of that faith in the fulness of the Catholic Church.

Deacon Jim Merle

Deacon Jim was ordained 20 years ago on April 30, 2005, and lives in Southern California where he has served the Catholic Church on parish, diocesan and national levels. He periodically writes Pastoral Letters for church bulletins, as well as articles for the Diaconate community’s “Bowl & Towel” and the diocesan newspaper in addition to “A Catholic Deacon’s Perspective,” recently renamed “A Catholic Clergy’s Perspective” with the addition of Bishop Kevin W. Vann and Fr. Glenn Baaten as periodic writers. On the parish level he has served at three parishes involved in helping with Sacramental training, Faith Formation and annulments. His diocesan involvements include a six-year term on the Diaconate Personnel Board, a founding committee member of the God’s Servants Committee (an educational component of quarterly meetings for active deacons), as a Master of Ceremonies at Confirmations, ordinations, installations and other ceremonies, an Advanced Master Catechist Certification to teach theological and certification classes and recently was selected to head up a Deanery Council of Deacons and their wives to support their ordination faculties and activities in each of the seven deaneries. On a local and national level, he coordinated the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) diocesan board for 14 years. CCHD is the domestic social justice arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) which distribute parishioner’s donations for non-profit organizations to empower the impoverished, marginalized and disenfranchised who have social justice needs. In his early career he was a writer/reporter for a well-known Chicago newspaper, as well as owning a public relations/advertising firm. He is now semi-retired and works parttime in two professional practices he owns. On a personal note, he is married 57 years, helped rear four children with his wife, a grandfather to 10 grandchildren and a great grandfather to six great grandchildren.

BLOG INTRODUCTION

Scripture is like the eyes into God’s soul. Whether from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) or the New Testament, we can garner, as best we can, who God is (what He feels and how He thinks in human terms). The original and current purpose of this blog, which began in 2019, is to take a three-year cycle of A, B and C Gospels and readings from each Sunday and provide a perspective as it pertains to our current lives as seen through the eyes of a Catholic clergy who serve Catholics in words and deeds per their ordination. Since completing the three-year cycles, it has been expanded to investigate the areas of Commentaries, Scripture and Theology. It is because of that the blog will now have writings from Bishop Kevin Vann, Ordinary of the Diocese of Orange, California, Father Glenn Baaten, a former Anglican priest, ordained into the Roman Catholic Church as a priest, and Deacon Jim Merle, who recently celebrated his 20th year ordination and started this blog. Bishop Vann and Father Glenn will author articles on a periodic basis based upon the time they have to devote to the blog. Deacon Jim will continue to offer weekly articles, still based on the three-year cycle along with various current events that challenge us to balance our humanity with our spiritual lives. The hope is that you, our subscribers, will see this as something of value to help you grow closer to the Lord.