Deacon Duncan Harris asked in the homily today: How to we stay connected to God? We do so in the context of community -- of a community of faith. In the words of Jesus: "By this all shall know you are my disciples, that you love one another." We stay connected with God by the way we stay connected with one another in love. As we anticipate the coming of the Spirit, may we be filled with the Spirit's gifts of peace, joy, and love.
On this Memorial Day weekend, we, of course, remember our honored dead who gave their lives in the service of our country and in the service of our Church. Tomorrow on Memorial Day at 9:00 am, we celebrate our annual Memorial Day Mass in our parish cemetery. We remember and we celebrate and we rejoice with those who share in the fullness of God's eternal life. We pray especially for those whose final resting place is in our parish cemetery.
This is also our parish stewardship commitment weekend in which we commit ourselves to the praise of God and to some area of service in the building up of our parish community. We very much encourage you to fill out a stewardship commitment card sharing your time, talent, and treasure as a way of giving and sharing what has been given to you.
May you enjoy these beautiful days of sunshine as God's precious gift to all of us.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Sunday, May 18, 2014
First Communion Sunday -- "You are the living stones with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone."
This is our second "First Communion" weekend. What a great joy to celebrate the Eucharist with our First Communicants and their families. Indeed, this is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it. The excitement of the liturgies is infectious as our Easter joy is experienced by one and all.
In the second Scripture reading from the First Letter of Peter, we have the beautiful expression that we are the "living stones" of the house where God dwells. More that brick and mortar, God dwells within His people. The spirit of the Risen Lord is within us. This is the source of our Easter peace and joy.
In the Gospel, Jesus says: "Do not let your hearts be troubled." From a human perspective, even though every beating human heart knows fear and anxiety and confusion, Jesus invites to have faith in Him. He is the source of our inner calm. I love the expression: "If you can't it through the storm, don't tell me that Jesus is the captain of your ship." For those who trust in the Lord, all will be very, very well.
We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.
In the second Scripture reading from the First Letter of Peter, we have the beautiful expression that we are the "living stones" of the house where God dwells. More that brick and mortar, God dwells within His people. The spirit of the Risen Lord is within us. This is the source of our Easter peace and joy.
In the Gospel, Jesus says: "Do not let your hearts be troubled." From a human perspective, even though every beating human heart knows fear and anxiety and confusion, Jesus invites to have faith in Him. He is the source of our inner calm. I love the expression: "If you can't it through the storm, don't tell me that Jesus is the captain of your ship." For those who trust in the Lord, all will be very, very well.
We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Good Shepherd Sunday -- Mother's Day -- Vocations sunday
Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd and says we are to do likewise -- we are to be for others in the ways we serve and love. Pope Francis is a wonderful example to us of how we are called to be Good Shepherds. Pope Francis says we should smell like the sheep. We are to immerse ourselves in the mud of human failures, human sins, and human problems. Only after we know the stuff of people's lives are we qualified to offer solutions that matter.
Have you ever wondered what kind of mother Pope Francis had? I can only imagine how she loved Pope Francis into life, and in loving him gave him the capacity to love others. I can imagine how she taught him how to pray, to be kind, and to love.
On this Mother's Day, we are grateful to the mothers of our parish community for how you have responded to the vocational call of Jesus the Good Shepherd to love and to form your children. Like each of us, I am most grateful to my own mother for teaching me how to pray.
This is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. I had the great privilege of serving for ten years as our diocesan director of seminarians; and for five years previous to this, to being the spiritual director and the rector of Becket Hall -- the discernment community for young men considering the call of God to the priesthood. This has been a treasured part of my priestly ministry. May St. Joseph's faith community encourage, pray, and support young men from our parish to consider the call of God to ordained ministry.
I also would invite you to look at this Vocations Day with a wider lens. The truth is all of us have a vocational story to share. We are to pray that each and every one of us claim our vocational call from God. We are grateful in our parish community for the members of our parish staff who have responded generously to the call to lay ecclesial ministry. The parish would not exist without the generosity and the faith of our lay ecclesial ministers.
We are grateful for parishioners who have responded to the call of God to be catechists, to be engaged in youth ministry, pastoral care, social outreach,and parish governance.
My message is all of us have a vocational story to share. We pray that God's call is heard and responded to by each member of our parish community.
May we pray today for the grace to recognize the call of Jesus the Good Shepherd of our lives.
Have you ever wondered what kind of mother Pope Francis had? I can only imagine how she loved Pope Francis into life, and in loving him gave him the capacity to love others. I can imagine how she taught him how to pray, to be kind, and to love.
On this Mother's Day, we are grateful to the mothers of our parish community for how you have responded to the vocational call of Jesus the Good Shepherd to love and to form your children. Like each of us, I am most grateful to my own mother for teaching me how to pray.
This is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. I had the great privilege of serving for ten years as our diocesan director of seminarians; and for five years previous to this, to being the spiritual director and the rector of Becket Hall -- the discernment community for young men considering the call of God to the priesthood. This has been a treasured part of my priestly ministry. May St. Joseph's faith community encourage, pray, and support young men from our parish to consider the call of God to ordained ministry.
I also would invite you to look at this Vocations Day with a wider lens. The truth is all of us have a vocational story to share. We are to pray that each and every one of us claim our vocational call from God. We are grateful in our parish community for the members of our parish staff who have responded generously to the call to lay ecclesial ministry. The parish would not exist without the generosity and the faith of our lay ecclesial ministers.
We are grateful for parishioners who have responded to the call of God to be catechists, to be engaged in youth ministry, pastoral care, social outreach,and parish governance.
My message is all of us have a vocational story to share. We pray that God's call is heard and responded to by each member of our parish community.
May we pray today for the grace to recognize the call of Jesus the Good Shepherd of our lives.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
The disciples on the way to Emmaus
For the disciples on the way to Emmaus, "we had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel." Their hopes were shattered when their leader was crucified. Can we identity at times with these two disciples? When have our dreams been dashed? We had hoped our children would worship in the same way we do. We had hoped all 2600 parish families would be active stakeholders in the life of the parish.
The original disciples did not understand the meaning of the suffering and death of Jesus. They thought they were defeated. They did not understand that death was not a defeat. Rather, death was the way to share more fully in the Risen Life of Jesus.
Like the original disciples, we too have difficulty understanding the meaning of setbacks, suffering, death in our lives. We had hoped...
For the original disciples, the Risen Lord was present in their midst but they did not recognize Him. From this account, the key to finding Christ is know where to look. It is in the hospitality shown to the stranger and in the breaking of the bread.
We begin this weekend our annual cycle of stewardship. The Emmaus story is a stewardship story. All is a gift of God. In the breaking of the bread (the mystery of the Eucharist) and in our social outreach to the strangers in our midst, we discover the presence of the Risen Lord.
This evening we celebrated our stewardship appreciation dinner at Shadow Lake. I am grateful for all who live out their stewardship commitment in the service of our parish community.
The original disciples did not understand the meaning of the suffering and death of Jesus. They thought they were defeated. They did not understand that death was not a defeat. Rather, death was the way to share more fully in the Risen Life of Jesus.
Like the original disciples, we too have difficulty understanding the meaning of setbacks, suffering, death in our lives. We had hoped...
For the original disciples, the Risen Lord was present in their midst but they did not recognize Him. From this account, the key to finding Christ is know where to look. It is in the hospitality shown to the stranger and in the breaking of the bread.
We begin this weekend our annual cycle of stewardship. The Emmaus story is a stewardship story. All is a gift of God. In the breaking of the bread (the mystery of the Eucharist) and in our social outreach to the strangers in our midst, we discover the presence of the Risen Lord.
This evening we celebrated our stewardship appreciation dinner at Shadow Lake. I am grateful for all who live out their stewardship commitment in the service of our parish community.
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