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
The Most Holy Trinity
June 15, 2025
GOSPEL MEDITATION
I am amazed at how my four siblings teach their many kids in age-appropriate ways. For example, now that my nephew Brandon is 24 years of age, they give him insights and freedoms that would have been positively confounding or even dangerous when he was a toddler. Imagine if they had taught him at age four how to drive a car, use a credit card online, or handle power tools. But eventually, they did, and he is a high functioning young man, I’m proud to say. They are good teachers.
This week we learn that Jesus teaches us in a similar way. He says to his Apostles, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now” (John 16:12). How disappointing for them. But imagine at that moment, before his resurrection and ascension, if the Lord had started telling them about synods and sacraments, popes and parishes, martyrs and monasteries, rosaries and relics, catechisms and crucifixes? They would have been absolutely overwhelmed, confused, and discouraged.
He tells them what they need to know, when it is time for them to know it.
So he does for us. Jesus has unceasingly taught the Church as she matures through the centuries, just as he teaches you and me through our lives in ways we can understand. Our task should be to learn what he is teaching us now, knowing that (although revelation per se is complete in him and his Apostles), he never ceases to teach us as we spiritually mature. Be confident: he knows what you are ready to learn now.
–Father John Muir
EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP
Today we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. This feast is rather unique in that it honors a doctrine rather than an event. What we are commemorating today is a central reality of our Christian faith, that God is Trinitarian in nature – three distinct persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – in one God.
The Church calls this truth a mystery, as indeed it is. It is not a mystery in the sense that it is a question that must be answered but rather in the sense that the depths of this truth are far beyond our human comprehension. Some have said that “mystery” in this context is “not a wall to run up against but an ocean in which to swim.”
What then should be our response to this sublime mystery? All we can do is worship. And offer our lives back to God in total gratitude for calling us to live in the richness of such unfathomable love. This week let’s re-invite God into the midst of our lives and make sure the way we spend our time and energy each day shows Him our profound gratitude for His many gifts to us – but above all the gift of Himself in the Trinity– Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2025 Catholic Stewardship Consultants
PRACTICING CATHOLIC – RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS
Mini Reflection: Why do we love mysteries so much? Because God is a mystery. And that’s never as clear as it is today, on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the mystery that boondoggles us all. Four relations. Three persons. One God.
The Best Kind of Mystery
“Do you have a mystery for me to solve?”
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a hundred times. My daughter is obsessed with mysteries. It’s not enough for her to read about them in the pages of every Nancy Drew book she can get her hands on. She wants more than that. She wants a real-life mystery. A puzzle that resists being solved. A question that eludes an answer. Something that isn’t easy to wrap her head around.
And not surprisingly, she’s not satisfied with the “mysteries” I can offer her. The Mystery of Mom’s Missing Hair Tie (spoiler alert: it was in my purse). The Mystery of the Missing Lunch Ham (oops, Mom finished it). Simple answers are so boring. “Will I ever have a real mystery?” she moans.
I get it. We’re all this way, really. We are drawn to the mysterious, to the inscrutable. It’s because we know that the answers to the really big questions are ones that can’t be explained in a neat and tidy way. We know that the reality of life and love and the human condition is something we can’t quite fit our heads around. We know that there is so much in this world, in this universe, that we can’t…understand. So, in a way, mysteries are the only things that really make sense to us.
Why do we love mysteries so much? Because God is a mystery. And that’s never as clear as it is today, on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the mystery that boondoggles us all. Four relations. Three persons. One God.
Don’t ask me to explain it. I could, but I don’t have the word space, and frankly, it might not even make sense then. It’s a mystery, you see. A real one. The best kind.
– Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman