30 June 2016 – Thursday of 13th week of Ordinary Time - Matthew 9:1-8

       Today, we hear about a group of friends who bring a paralytic to Jesus for healing.  Jesus sees the faith of this group of friends and he forgives the sins of the paralytic.  Notice it is not the faith of the paralytic himself that saves him.  Jesus later tells this man to rise, pick up his mat, and to go.  So many people came to Jesus for healing in his day, and so many come to him for healing in our modern era as well.   We are always looking for a cure for something in our lives.  Sometimes we look in so many different places for healing in our lives, often times in the places where we should not be looking for help.   Jesus brings healing to many people in Ancient Israel, healing that is often done because of their great faith, such as Jairus and the lady who was suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years.

        We want healing in our lives.  We want mercy in our lives as well.   It can be easy to ask for mercy for ourselves.  It might be harder to understand why others should receive mercy. Instead, we may want justice as we understand justice, justice from our perspective.  Yet Pope Francis has this to say: “Justice on its own is not enough. With mercy and forgiveness, God goes beyond justice, he subsumes it and exceeds it in a higher event in which we experience love, which is at the root of true justice.”  When we are hurt or wronged, it is natural to seek justice.  God shows us a better way that leads to love.   God had mercy on the paralytic and his friends.  Perhaps if it was just purely justice, there might have been a very different Gospel passage.  Let us pray this week that we can help move our world beyond justice to mercy and forgiveness. May the mercy of God and the wisdom of Pope Francis guide us and lead us.

1 July 2016 - Father Junipero Serra - Friday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time - Matthew 9:9-13

  When Jesus called out to Matthew, the tax collector, “Follow me,” I am sure it was a surprise not only to Matthew, but those who knew him.  How could a tax collector, seen as a member of a dishonorable profession, be called to be one of Jesus’ close associates.

      Sometimes, those who receive God’s call defy human logic.  On September 23, 2015, when Pope Francis was in the United States on a pastoral visit, he canonized Father Junipero Serra at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.  Pope Francis said that it was fitting to canonize Father Serra in Washington, since it is in that same city that Father Serra’s statue stands in the national statuary hall of the US Capitol, where he represents the state of California. Father Serra was an academic scholar, a professor in his native Spain, when he was chosen to travel to the missions in Mexico.  I am sure he did not seem to be the logical choice.  At the age of 55 and in very poor health, after spending 18 years in Mexico, Father Serra was chosen to found the missions in the Mexican province of Alta California, the present-day US state of California.   A hard worker, Father Serra’s founding of the missions in the state of California is seen as contributing greatly to the establishment and spread of the Church on the West Coast of the United States when it was still mission territory, Father Serra established 9 of the 21 missions in California himself prior to his death.  He is buried at the mission of St Charles Borromeo in Carmel.  A pilgrimage walk linking all of the California missions together has been established by pilgrims who have walked the Camino de Santiago.  And who knows, maybe in our lifetime that walk will become the American pilgrimage Camino.  I certainly have the dream of walking it one day, although most pilgrims have to break down over several years, since the whole mission chain from San Diego to Sonoma stretches across most of the state over more than 800 miles. 

       We never know how God is going to call us to follow him, do we?  I am sure Father Serra never imagine that his road from being a quiet college professor him would lead him to be founder of the Catholic missions in California.   All we have to do is take that first step in following that call.  

29 June 2016 - The Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul - 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18, Matthew 16:13-19

     Yesterday, we honored St Irenaeus as the saint of the day.  He was the Bishop of Lyons in France who defended the Catholic faith against heresy, dying a martyr’s death during a time of persecution. Last week, we celebrated the nativity of St John the Baptist, the man we prepared the path for the coming of Jesus, who also died a martyr for his faith, having been put to death by the Roman authorities.  Also, last week, we honored St Thomas More and St John Fisher, two men who were martyred from their refusal to deny their Catholic faith and the authority of the Pope during the reign of King Henry VIII of England in the 16th century.  I mention these martyrs today, because they all fall during the observance of the Fortnight for Freedom, 14 days in which the Catholic faith turns to prayer, education and action for religious freedom, both in our own country of the United States and in other countries around the world. The theme of this year’s Fortnight for Freedom is “Witnesses to Freedom.  During the Fortnight for Freedom, we are to hold firm, stand fast, and insist upon what belongs to us by right as Catholics. 

      We celebrate an important solemnity today in the midst of the Fortnight for Freedom - the solemnity of St Peter and St Paul, two martyrs for the Faith during the first century of the Early Church in Rome.  Both Peter and Paul worked tirelessly in proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in the first century after Christ’s death and resurrection.  They both had specific calls which had dramatic and profound effects on the development of the faith not only in Ancient Israel but throughout the world.  Peter, one of the original group of Christ’s apostles, was the rock on which Jesus established the Early Church as it declares in today’s Gospel from Matthew today.   The first pope, Peter helped establish the structures and traditions of the Early Church that have been passed down to us in the faith.  In many ways, Paul represents the continuity and constancy of our faith that has been passed down to us by the apostles and the Early Church Fathers and Mothers.  Paul, in many ways, represents the missionary and the prophet in the Church, the way the Church is always reaching out to different cultures and those of different walks of life, in responding to the lived reality of the people, infusing that reality with our faith.    The Church is always pushing into areas of social justice and social concern within the world, in communicating the message of Jesus Christ through new mediums and new technology.  When I was a missionary in Ecuador without even a telephone or a computer or direct mail service, I could never have imagined myself as a priest using things such as an ipad or a blog or a parish app.  Yet, in the spirit, of Paul, we are always finding new ways of reaching out to others, Pope Francis with his twitter account included!

       In the Early Church, one had to be a martyr to be declared a saint, with so many having given their lives for the Gospel in the time of great persecution.  The spirit of St Peter and St Paul is still alive and well in the Church today.  At the end of our days, may we be like Paul, who is able to say in the 2nd letter to Timothy, that we have competed well, that we have finished the race, and that we derive our strength from the Lord.  

28 June 2016 - Tuesday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time - Amos 3:1-8, 4:11-12

If you recall, for the last several weeks, we had been hearing from the 1st and 2nd books of Kings in our first readings in the daily masses.  Today, we hear from the prophet Amos. Amos was a shepherd from the southern kingdom of Judah.  God called him to be a prophet, sending him to the northern kingdom of Israel.  Amos confronted the people for the way they were devoted to worshipping God in their liturgies and prayers and piety, but ignored the injustices around them. Indeed, Amos is now a voice of social justice in the Hebrew Scriptures whose voice still calls out to us today. Amos today tells the people that although they were favored by the Lord in all of the human family, they did not respond in love and service. 

As we hear about the prophet Amos' call to bring God's message to the world around him, we might think about how we celebrate a wide variety of saints in our faith, men and women from different cultures and different times in history who served the Lord in many different ways.  These men and women reflect the signs of their times and the different realities that have faced the Church.   St Irenaeus was born in the early second century near the city of Ephesus in western Turkey.  Irenaeus moved to the city of Lyons in southern France where he served as a priest and then as the Bishop for 25 years.  He was martyred during a time of persecution in the Church there.  Irenaeus is most remembered for his writings in defense of Church doctrine, especially against the heresy of Gnosticism, a major philosophy that was present during the first centuries of the Early Church.   Gnosticism saw the material world as being inferior to the spirit world; it saw a need for human beings to gain salvation and liberation from the material world.   The Church, however, saw the world as intrinsically good as a part of God’s creation.  Irenaeus said: “He who is the Son of God became the Son of Man, that man might become the Son of God.”  He saw a unity between God and man, a unity between man and all of creation, very different from the dualism proposed by Gnosticism.  

As Amos confront the reality of his day, of the way the people were not practicing the mercy and justice of God in their daily lives, and as Irenaeus confronted the heresies that were trying to take control of the Early Church, we also are to read the signs of the times in our modern world. Are we practicing justice and mercy in our lives?  Are we turning away from the word of God and turning away from his laws and commandments?  How are we called to turn back to the Lord.  

26 June 2016 – 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 1 Kings 19: 16b, 19-21, Luke 9: 51-62

     God called Elijah to be his great prophet for many years.  After having endured many trials and tribulations, he journeyed for days and days to Mount Horeb in order to encounter God face to face.  When God appeared to him in that small, silent whisper, God told Elijah that he was to anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as the prophet to succeed him.  When Elijah came to visit him, Elisha was still living at home, working the fields with a team of oxen. On the surface, Elisha does not seem to be the logical choice to be the successor of the great prophet Elijah. He accepted Elijah’s invitation, but he wanted to say goodbye to his parents.  Elijah told him to go and bid them farewell, but Elisha thought better of it.  Instead, he slaughtered his oxen for food that he gave to all his men.  Then he burned his plough in order to make a fire to cook over.  Elisha destroyed his means of making a living, leaving everything behind in order to follow God without any hindrances or restrictions.  Elisha served Elijah as his apprentice until it came time for Elijah to depart this earth.  Elisha then wandered the land of Israel for 65 years as a prophet, performing many miracles in the name of the Lord.  He purified a polluted lake.  He cured a group of young prophets who ate a poisonous meal.  He healed the Syrian General Naaman of leprosy.  He provided counsel and advice to the Kings of Israel, calling them back to the Lord when they had strayed.  Little did he know where his journey would take him when he left his father’s farm to follow the Lord.  But Elisha was very loyal in following the Lord as his prophet. 

      In our Gospel today, as Jesus proceeds on his journey, a man calls out to him: Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go.  It is easy to say those words, but it is tough to follow them when the Lord takes us to some difficult and challenging places.  While we might admire the courage in the response of this man who calls out to Jesus, perhaps Jesus is able to look beyond the surface into his heart, realizing that he does not have the resolve to make such a commitment.  This man said that he would follow Jesus wherever he went – physically, geographically.  Even though he said this, I wonder if he really would follow Jesus to Jerusalem, even knowing that Jesus’ death there was a certainty.  We know that following Jesus is not just a matter of traveling to a physical place with him.  It is much more than that.  Jesus tells him – I don’t even have a place that I call home. Even though a fox has its den, even though the bird has its nest, I have nowhere to lay my head at night.  I go from place to place proclaiming the Kingdom of God.  Sometimes I am sometimes welcomed into a place, but sometimes I am not.  Are you willing to follow me everywhere under those conditions, no matter how difficult, no matter how uncertain?

       In our Gospel message today, Jesus calls us to faithfulness, to constancy, and to sacrifice in our lives of faith.  We may say we want to follow Jesus, but then we may want to place limits and boundaries on the way we follow him. So many martyrs and missionary and saints in our faith exemplify this steadfast call that Jesus asks of us.  Throughout my missionary work and throughout my priesthood, one of my heroes and patron saints has been St Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit priest originally from region of Normandy in France who was a missionary in Canada in the early 17^th century.  While a student with the Jesuits, Brebeuf contracted a severe case of tuberculosis, which almost ended his studies and his dream of becoming a priest.  However, he endured and after serving as a professor at the Jesuit college in Rouen, the capital of Normandy, he was sent to the French missions in Quebec to bring the Gospel to the native Huron people there.  In the novel Black Robe, based on the life of Jean de Brebeuf, the author Brian Moore has a scene where Jean de Brebeuf is kneeling at the site in the city of Rouen where Joan of Arc was martyred by being burned at the stake two centuries earlier.  At that site, Jean de Brebeuf’s mother prays for him and gives him a blessing, realizing that her son is undertaking a very dangerous assignment by becoming a missionary.  His mom realizes that he himself may die a martyr’s death, yet for the sack of the faith and her son’s calling to the priesthood, she still gives him her blessing.  She realized that this was God’s call for her son. Jean de Brebeuf, did die a martyr’s death in 1649 at the hands of the Iroquois, an enemy tribe of the Huron.  Yet, Brian Moore, a fallen away Catholic who wrote this novel about Jean de Brebeuf, saw in him a faith and a courage and constancy that still has a very strong message for us today.  So many in our faith have taken up their crosses and have followed Jesus wherever he called them, no matter the inconvenience, no matter what else is going on in their lives.  Being a disciple should take priority.  It should be at the center of who we are. Yes, it is indeed hard to be a disciple of Christ.  It can be very challenging and very frustrating.  It can try our patience and our steadfastness to the core.  But that is what Jesus is telling us in today’s Gospel: that our faith needs to be a priority in our lives.  It boils down to that. 

23 June 2016 – Thursday of the 12th week of Ordinary Time – Luke 9:51-62

      When I first walked the Camino in Spain in 2003, the economy there was going full steam.  A lot of people there were building new houses or buying a second or a third house as an investment, betting on the price of the house was going to rise.  They thought it was a sure thing.  They thought that they were building their lives upon a solid rock.  Well, we know what happened next.  The housing market and the stock market collapsed.  Countries like Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Portugal, and Greece had economic tragedies unlike anything seen like the Great Depression. When I walked the Camino in 2012, and again in 2014 and 2015, we walked through they very creepy town that had hundreds of houses and town houses and a large golf course, but many of the units had not been finished, and of those that had been completed, most were unoccupied and unsold.  During the housing boom in Spain, all of these house seemed like the best investment possible, but now it certainly did not seem like a good idea.

       Are our lives built on a strong faith?  What is exposed in our hearts when suffer a trial or a storm in our lives?  Sometimes those times of challenge and suffering bring us closer to Christ.  Sometimes our lives can fall apart and our faith can collapse.  We may see a need for security or protection, but do we turn to God in those times, or do we go to other things?  Is our house built on solid rock or does it collapse when the going gets tough. 

24 June 2016 - Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist - Luke 1:57-66, 80

     Normally, the Church celebrates the day of a saint’s death as his feast day, because that day celebrates his entrance into heaven and eternal life with our Lord.  However, in addition to celebrating Christ’s birth on Mary on September 8 and the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ on December 25, we celebrate the nativity of John the Baptist today on June 24.  We Christians interpret the life of John the Baptist as a preparation for the coming of Jesus, which is why John’s birth is so important to us and why we celebrate this solemnity today.   John’s parents - Zechariah, a Jewish priest, and his wife Elizabeth were beyond child bearing age and were without children when John’s birth was announced by the Angel Gabriel.   Zechariah did not believe this message, so he was rendered speechless until the time of John’s birth.  

      The nativity of John the Baptist is one of the oldest feasts in the feasts, being listed in a calendar of feasts in the early 6th century.    Today’s feast comes three months after the celebration of the annunciation on March 25 when the Archangel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was with child and was in the sixth month of her pregnancy.  It also comes six months before Christmas.  So how is the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist relevant to us today as modern disciples of Christ?  That is a good question, isn’t it?   As we celebrate John’s birth today, we can remember how we can be like St John the Baptist, leaping with joy in his mother’s womb the first time he is in the presence of Jesus.  We, too, should leap for joy as we encounter Jesus’ presence on our journey and as we announce his presence to the world.  We are to do this by not only our words, but our actions as well.  On the feast of the birth of John the Baptist, may we ask him to help us have the strength and courage to announce the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world.  

21 June 2016 – Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga – Tuesday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time – Matthew 7:6, 12-14

    Today, we hear a passage from the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew.  We have been hearing parts of this Sermon the last couple of weeks in our daily masses.  We hear several sayings today from Jesus of the qualities that he wishes his disciples to have.  The first saying might seem enigmatic – to not throw pearls before swine, to not give what is holy to the dogs.  Jesus is advising his followers not indiscriminately to expose their beliefs to all and without prudence.   Yes, the way of Jesus is open for all; however, not everyone is ready to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and to have a heart open to its message.   There are those who will not only reject the way of Jesus, but to ridicule it again. Even I, who was a lifelong practicing Protestant who went to church every week and who practiced the Christian faith, had to go through a year-long RCIA program before I entered into the Church and received the Eucharist and any other Sacrament of the Church.  Faith in Christ is a gift and not everyone receives it at once.

      Today, as youth from our parish in Tupelo and from St Joseph Catholic Church in Starkville, we celebrate St Aloysius Gonzaga as the saint of the day. He was born into a very influential aristocratic family from Northern Italy.  Aloysius studied to become a Jesuit in spite of very poor health. He was admired by his professors and fellow seminarians for his holiness and for his devotedness to the faith.  When the plague broke out in London, he helped nurse and care for the victims, even when his superiors forbid him to do so because of his poor health.  He came down with the plague and died after being confined to his bed for several months.   He died at the age of 23 in 1591.  He is buried in the Church of St Ignatius of Loyola in Rome and was beatified only 14 years after his death.  Pope Benedict XIII declared St Aloysius as the patron saint of young students in 1729. In 1926, Pope Pius XI named his as the patron saint of all Christian youth. Due to death from the plague, he is the patron saint of plague victims and the patron saint of both AIDS sufferers and their caregivers.  As Jesus spoke about what qualities his disciples should have, we see in the virtue and courage of St Aloysius Gonzaga an example for all of us.

22 June 2016 – Wednesday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time – 2 Kings 22:8-13; 23:1-3

    Our first readings from the 2^nd book of Kings that we have been hearing these last several weeks have jumped around many centuries to tell the tales of the different prophets and kings who had authority in Ancient Israel.  Today we hear how the book of the law of God was found in the Temple after having been lost for many centuries.  Many modern Scripture scholars believe that this is the Book of Deuteronomy that was found.  King Josiah is contrite and repentant when he hears God’s law read to him out of this book.  The words speak to him deeply.  He realizes how he and his people have strayed from God’s law in so many ways.  Having found the book of the law after it had been lost for so long reminded me of the way the remains of St James were lost for a time as well.  Most people know the story of how the remains of James were rediscovered in a cave in the early 9^th century after they had been buried there after his death in the first century.  However, less well-known is how the remains of James were hidden in the year 1700 so that the invading British would not find them.  Well, I guess the cathedral officials in Santiago de Compostela hid the remains so well that they could not find them themselves for many, many years, until they were rediscovered accidentally during construction work that was done on the cathedral in 1879.  Imagine being a pilgrim during that time period, having walking for many of hundreds of miles to the Cathedral in northern Spain on pilgrimage through many dangers and through bad weather, having been told that they misplaced the remains of the saint whom you have come to honor.  It would be quite a disappointment, wouldn’t it? Although, in some ways, have we hidden the book of God’s law in our own day in the way we sometimes abandon God’s law in our lives or in the way we try to manipulate it for our own gain or benefit?  We can throw stones at the Ancient Israelites for their sins and transgressions, but we don’t want to look at our own. 

19 June 2016 – 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Luke 9:18-22

     Jesus asks his disciples a very important question in the Gospel today, a question that all of us as his disciples need to answer.  A question like this is important to our identity and very well-being.  Sometime it is as important to know what questions to ask as it is to know the answers.  This is illustrated by a story that is told of a missionary who was serving in the jungles of South America.  This missionary was not accustomed to the hot tropical weather, so he was tempted to cool off with a swim in the river that went through his village.  However, he had heard that there were piranhas in the river.  He was afraid that the piranhas would bite him if he got into the river.  He asked the local villagers if there were piranhas in the river and if they would bite him, but the locals assured him that the piranhas would only bite people when they were swimming in large schools of fish, which was not the case in this part of the river.  Every day the missionary swam in the river, cooling off from the hot tropical climate.  His daily swims helped him survived this challenging missionary work in the jungle.  Some months later, the missionary heard that a local fisherman had fallen out of his boat while fishing and his body had not been found. Frantic, the missionary asked the villagers if perhaps the piranhas had eaten up this fisherman.   Again, the villagers assured him that the piranhas did not swim in schools in this part of the river, and thus would not bite people or harm them.  Finally, the missionary decided to ask why there were not any schools of piranhas in this part of the river.  Very nonchalantly, the villagers replied, the piranhas never swim in schools of fish where there are a bunch of alligators in the river. The missionary was seized with terror, realizing that he had been swimming in a river full of alligators.  Yes, if we don’t ask the right questions, the consequences can be very dire indeed. 

      There are a lot of spiritual questions we can ask in our lives, but none is more important that the one we hear in the Gospel today:  “Who do I say that Jesus is?”  We can believe a lot of things about Jesus.  We can believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary.  We can believe that Jesus was a great teacher who proclaim the Gospel of the Lord to the world and that he helps us live according the values God wants us to live.   We can believe that the stories about Jesus in the Bible are truly the Word of God. We can believe that Jesus performed great miracles and healed a lot of people.  But do we truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is both true God and true man?  Do we truly live out that reality in our lives each day as his disciple?

      We can say that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Messiah, but perhaps our concept of what that means needs to be opened up and expanded.  Through the way God’s holy word speaks to us, through the way the Eucharist feeds us, how the devotions and sacraments of our faith touch our lives and touch our hearts, all of this can have an impact in who we say Jesus is.  Jesus ended up being a Messiah that was very different from what the people of Ancient Israel were expecting.   They expected a Messiah who would be a great military and political leader just like King David.  They thought that the Messiah who kick out the Romans who were ruling their country, that he would make Israel a great power in the world, that he would bring them great honor, wealth, and prestige.  Jesus, however, came as a servant, not a military leader.  He asks us to serve on our journey of faith with him as our example.

      Pope Francis and Bishop Kopacz and our other Church leaders help us in expanding our view of what our faith calls us to do, of who Jesus should be in our lives.  In the bulletin this week we have the statement that Bishop Kopacz made in response to the shootings in Orlando this past weekend.   Bishop Kopacz stated that in the face of the evil we saw in that mass shooting, we must continue to proclaim the dignity of human life as embodied in our Church’s Gospel of Life, to respond to such acts not out of fear or retribution or revenge, but out of the love and compassion and peace of Christ.  Pope Francis has also stimulated and challenged us in a lot of ways in the time he has been Pope.  As a priest, I take to heart what he says and I reflect upon the true meaning of his statements in the context of our lived reality, which is sometimes a very challenging task.  This weekend is the one year anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si, which  looked at the protection and stewardship of our environment.  Pope Francis asks us in this encyclical to look at the type of world that we want to leave to our children and he urges humanity to work together to solve the most pressing problems of inequality, injustice and environmental destruction.  May the words of this prayer written by Pope Francis in Laudato Si inspire us to make the world a better place, a place we can leave to our children and to future generations:

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature

as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace. AMEN. 

Father’s Day Blessing - St James Catholic Church - Tupelo Mississippi - June 19 2016

Heavenly Father, in your love and mercy, you created mankind. 

You sent your Son Jesus Christ,

to redeem us and to save us. 

Your desire was for your Son to be born into a human family like ours,

so you gave him the Virgin Mary as his mother and St. Joseph as his father. 

We pray today on Father’s Day for the Fathers in our community, that St Joseph be an example and guide for them. 

We pray that St Joseph may guide them and lead them in the love, care, and protection that they give their families.  

Help our Father through their challenges and struggles in life. 

Let them know of our love and appreciation and affection. 

May you guide them and their families safely through this life to eternal life.  

May almighty God bless you our Fathers in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  AMEN.  

17 June 2016 – Friday of the 11th week of Ordinary Time – Matthew 5:13-16 - mass for Vacation Bible School – Cave Quest – Following Jesus the Light of the World

     We come to an end of Vacation Bible School today, and as always, we always end Vacation Bible School with a mass around the table of the Lord.  I have had a lot of fun visiting all of you at Vacation Bible School this week. We have had a lot of fun with our Bible lessons, with our music, with story time, with arts and crafts, and with our snacks and refreshments each time.  The theme of VBS this year is Cave Quest.  A cave is usually a dark place, isn’t it? But, in the midst of darkness, we also have light.  Jesus is the light of the world, isn’t he? We had a lot of different mascots at VBS this week, symbolizing how Jesus is a light in our lives in so many different ways:

Jesus gives us hope.

Jesus gives us courage.

Jesus gives us direction.

Jesus gives us love.

And Jesus gives us power. 

      In the Gospel today, Jesus tells us that you should not light a lamp and then hide it under a basket.  Why would you do something like that.  A light is meant to shine throughout all the world.  Each one of you can be a light.  Each one of you can bring the light of Christ to the world. I hope a message that you take away from VBS this week is that there are a lot of people who really love you here at our parish.  We have Miss Jessica and Miss Katherine and Miss Colleen who did a lot of planning and work for VBS. Miss Raquel and the kitchen crew gave you all some delicious food this week.  Miss Anita and the arts and crafts crew help you make some wonderful art projects this week.  Miss Erin helped us learn some really neat songs.  I hope you realize how much all of our adult and youth volunteers love all of you children.  How they tried so hard to make this week such a wonderful time for our parish. Just by the love and kindness we show to others – that is a way we can be a light in the world.  Enjoy your last day of Vacation Bible School this week.  And remember how Jesus can help us be a light in the world.

Bendición – El Día de Los Padres - el 16 de junio de 2016

Bendición – El Día de Los Padres

Señor Dios, Padre misericordioso,

creador del género humano,

Tú enviaste a tu Hijo Jesucristo,

para redimir y salvar a la humanidad,

El quiso nacer en una familia como la nuestra,

le diste a la Virgen María como madre

y a San José como padre;

te pedimos por estos padres en nuestra comunidad

para que, a ejemplo de San José,

amen a sus hijos, los cuiden y protejan,

y sobre todo, les enseñes a amarte a Ti

que eres nuestro Padre del Cielo,

te sirvan en todo,

y alcancen finalmente la vida eterna.

Te lo pedimos a Ti que vives y reinas por los siglos de los siglos.

Amen.