I will be away Tuesday – Thursday PM, attending the Diocesan Continuing Education Days at Pokagan State Park. If there is an emergency, please call Deacon Mel, whose contact info is in the Youth Corner.
The 100th Anniversary Mass for the apparitions at Fatima will be at 6 PM at St. Matthew Cathedral. All are invited.
Just a reminder to participate in the 31st Annual Bishop’s Appeal! Your pledge and payment are important to the work of the diocese. If you couldn’t sign a pledge card last week, please pray over your pledge this week. If you have already made a pledge, thank you!
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. The address is on the front page of the Bulletin.
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 solution that these 800,000 American children can stay here where they grew up.
We are about to begin our 90th 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.
October is the Month of the Rosary. Try it, you might like it!
Did you know the Prophet Isaiah was a song writer and singer, too? Today’s first reading shows us this. He sings a song for his friend, God, about God’s vineyard. He starts by telling all the good things God has done for his people and then sings about their reaction, which wasn’t to listen to nor thank God for his gifts. So, he then sings of God’s punishment for his people. He simply lets them go off on their own to destruction. The conclusion is a play on words in Hebrew: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant; he looked for judgement, but see, bloodshed! For justice, but hark, the outcry.”
The Responsorial Psalm talks about the same vineyard, but ends in a prayer asking: “O Lord, God of hosts restore us; if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.” The psalmist recognized that the people needed to be close to God, not off on their own.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the same imagery of the vineyard. He is talking to the chief priests and elders of the people, trying to convert them to lead the people to himself. Isaiah sang to all the people, who had become wild grapes. Here Jesus begs the leaders of the people to change. If they don’t, Jesus says: “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce fruit.” Jesus is the cornerstone rejected by the chief priest and elders upon which the Church is built. In the parable God is the landowner. The messengers are the prophets and Jesus is the murdered son. We, the Church, are the people who need to produce good fruit for God.
Saint Paul in the second reading tells the Philippians and us: Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.” “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your request know to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
On Wednesday, the Church honors Saint John XXIII, one of my heroes. He was elected Pope in 1958 at the age of 78. The Cardinals in the conclave were supposedly split between conservatives and liberals and John XXIII at the age of 78 was a compromise candidate. Being old and frail, they didn’t think he would live very long and he didn’t. He died in 1963, but he called the Second Vatican Council in 1962 which ended under Pope Paul VI in 1965. “Good Pope John” opened the Church to the modern world. As we all know the Latin Mass was used until Vatican II opened our worship to the vernacular. It is good to pray in one’s own language.
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.