What can I say about
Betty Guy, our pianist, but
thank you, thank you, thank you? As she announced last week, Betty will be leaving us to be closer to her family in Martinique. Betty has served so well here adding so much to our liturgies over her many years with us. We wish her well as she moves on to another phase of her wonderful life. Be sure to give her your regards after Mass.
I have been informed that after a great deal of work our web-site is up and running. Check it out and tell others about it. Thank you so much to all who put it all together. The address is on the front page of the Bulletin.
School has started, so drive more carefully.
As I’m sure we have all heard President Trump has ended the DACA program with a six month leeway. That means that if congress does nothing about it, 800,000 young people brought here as small children can be deported from the only country they remember and grew up in. Let us pray for a quick and finally solution that these 800,000 American children can stay here where they grew up.
We are about to begin our 90
th year as a parish. We are looking for more history of the parish as well as ideas on how to celebrate this great anniversary. Why not spend a little time looking at the pictures of the priest and deacons who have served here? Maybe you will be enlightened by the Holy Spirit to contribute a great idea or two for this coming year.
Today’s readings are about forgiveness, something really important in our lives.
In our first reading from the Book of Sirach, we are told, “Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults.”
In our second reading, St. Paul talks about death as well, “So, then, whether we live or die, we are the Lora’s. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be the Lord of the dead and the living.” To forgive keeps us close to the Lord.
Today’s Gospel is all about forgiveness. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?” That seemed like a lot to Peter. “Jesus answered, I say to you not seven times but seventy-seven times.” Elsewhere the number becomes 70 times 7. In other words, forgiveness is supposed to be endless. The parable Jesus tells is really clear as well. One servant’s debt is forgiven because he begged for freedom but then he turns around and sends another the servants to jail for a smaller debt, even though that servant used the same words asking for forgiveness. The first servant gets punished. Jesus concludes, “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from the heart.” Forgiveness is necessary for the Christian.
On Thursday, the Church celebrates Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. That’s the same St. Mathew, whose Gospel we have been reading all year. This Gospel was composed in the year 85. The gospel is generally arranged in an alternating pattern of narrative and discourse. Intended for a largely Jewish-Christian audience, it seeks to portray Christianity as consistent with Jewish tradition and a continuation of it. Matthew preached in Judea and Ethiopia where he was martyred. And yes Jesus called him from his sinful job as a tax collector for the Romans. Saint Matthew pray for us.
The Church celebrates a more modern saint on Saturday, Padre Pio, who died in 1969 and was canonized by John Paul II in 2002. He is patron of civil defense volunteers and Catholic adolescents. He had the stigmata but devoted his life to the Eucharist and said, “I only want to be a poor friar who prays.” Saint Padre Pio, pray for us.
As Deacon Mel mentions in The Youth Corner, we are looking at having an RCIA class starting in September and finishing at Easter next year. If there is anyone interested in becoming Catholic or anyone who is Catholic but missed a sacrament along the way, please see me or Deacon Mel and we can plan accordingly.
Let us continue to pray for peace in the world. Let us also pray for vocations to the church. Let us pray for the sick of the parish. Let us pray that all will come to respect life. Let us pray for one another and for the canonization of Father Tolton
.