About the Pastor

Father Anthony was born and raised in the UK. He spent seven years with the Carmelites in the UK and then, after working with the homeless in London for 7 years, rejoined the Carmelites here in the United States in 2011.

After living in Washington DC and Los Angeles he made his lifelong vows in January 2016, and was ordained a priest in New Jersey on November 1, 2019. He was named Associate Pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Tenafly, NJ on that same day. Fr. Anthony Accepted the call to become a Pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Osprey in July of 2022 and remains here to date.

In our first reading from Acts, Philip goes to Samaria and proclaims Christ. The people listen “with one accord,” and soon after, Peter and John arrive, pray, and lay hands on the newly baptized so they may receive the Holy Spirit. The pattern is clear: the Gospel is announced, faith is awakened, and the Spirit is given—so Christian life becomes more than good intentions. It becomes communion with God and a new power for daily living through the Spirit that they have received.

Many of us know what it is to live “in between”: baptized and practicing, yet still relying mostly on ourselves. Old resentments, family tension, financial pressure, or a lingering fear about the future. These readings reassure us that God does not merely give instructions from a distance. He comes to dwell within us, steadying our hearts and renewing the joy that first drew us to Him.

In John, Jesus links love and obedience: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Love takes flesh in concrete choices—truth over convenience, patience over irritation, forgiveness over scorekeeping. And Jesus does not leave us to accomplish this alone. He promises “another Advocate,” the Spirit of truth. When we ask the Spirit’s help before a hard conversation, when we pause to pray instead of reacting, we learn we are not orphans; Christ is truly with us.

Saint Peter brings this into the everyday: “Always be ready to give an explanation… for your hope,” but “with gentleness and reverence.” This is less about winning arguments and more about living a hope that can be noticed: a calm presence under stress, a quick apology, a refusal to gossip, a consistent habit of service. Peter also reminds us that doing good may cost us. Christ “suffered… to lead you to God.” When discipleship involves inconvenience or misunderstanding, we are sharing in His saving pattern of love.

This week, name one place where your faith feels “stuck” and bring it to the Holy Spirit: a strained relationship, a recurring temptation, a fear you avoid. Ask the Advocate to fill that space with truth and peace, and take one small step of obedient love. And, maybe this week we could pray for the Spirit to heal what is wounded, free what is bound, and make our lives a gentle, reverent explanation of the hope God gives.

~ Father Anthony

It’s that time of year again! And so, with this Pastor’s Corner, I want to let you know that, thanks to your great generosity to the parish, our Catholic Faith Appeal (CFA) goal for 2026 has gone from $267,000 for 2025 to $298,000 for the new CFA year. Actually, the CFA goal for this year should have been $324,000 but the Diocese acknowledged that a jump of over $50,000 in one year was too much and so reduced our CFA goal for 2026.

Our assessment jumped that much because, basically, for every $10 given to the offertory collection last year, $2.60 of that donation was added to our CFA goal for this year. Last year we had over $250,000 extra in donations through the offertory collection! The upside of those extra donations is that our savings account is growing but the downside is that we’re asked to pay more CFA.

For those of you who don’t understand the CFA process a quick explanation. Each diocese in the country has their own equivalent of CFA with different rates and different calculations. However, here in the Diocese of Venice, each parish is assessed 26% of their income from the previous year. Whilst this is higher than in some dioceses, the CFA in this Diocese supports many more programs than in other dioceses, programs that directly support parishes and which help underwrite the costs of the Diocese.

Many of you see CFA as a tax from the Diocese and don’t like supporting CFA because you want to support the parish rather than the Diocese. However, as explained above, if you give to the parish, the Diocese will assess us 26% on all of that income anyway. Last year only 18% of parishioners gave anything to CFA so, to put it another way, 82% of households who supported the parish gave nothing to CFA. I will list some of the many benefits that we as a parish receive from CFA in future Pastor’s Corners but, from a purely financial point of view, if we don’t make our CFA goal, as we were in danger of not doing in 2025, then the Diocese would simply have taken the money from our savings account anyway.

So, bottom line, whether we make our goal or not, the Diocese will still get its CFA assessment from us, whether by parishioners supporting CFA or from the parish savings account. So, as we are about to start the CFA 2026 year my invitation to all of you who don’t give to CFA, or haven’t given for a while, is to consider giving at least a quarter of your donations to the parish via CFA so that we can meet our goal. That way our CFA goal for 2027 will be less because you gave less to the parish in offertory contributions in 2026. Hopefully, this Pastors Corner will encourage you to consider making a contribution to CFA this year. Thank you, and God bless you all.

~ Father Anthony