Once again, the sun shone down on our 13^th Annual 5K Fun Run/Walk and Spaghetti Dinner. For some it must have been a hot day but for others it was a good day to be out and running. The great weather brought out more than 300 runners and walkers.

 Thank you so much to our co-chairs Bonnie Danic and Jim Soter, they along with their spouses John and Patty did an excellent job, and I cannot thank them enough for their willingness to help the parish in this way. It takes in lot of time and efforts to have a successful event and year after year our co-chairs do it. Everything was well-run and organized, and they put a lot of work in behind the scenes to make sure that we had a great day for the parish.  

A huge thank you to our great team of volunteers, as well as all our sponsors.  Without the help of all of you who stepped up to help in different ways, it wouldn’t have been as successful as it was. This event has been growing year after year and it has been a wonderful opportunity to bring the parish, school and the neighborhood community together. Thank you so much to everyone who, once again, made this event a huge success.

Blessings,

Fr. Socorro

A Prayer for Our Church

Heavenly Father, In every age, you have been our refuge. Yet again and still, we stand before you asking for your protection on your holy Church.

For the victims of abuse and their families, pour out your healing and your peace.

For the Bishops of this country, continue to inspire their decisions, and guide them with your Spirit.

For the thousands of good and faithful priests, who have followed your call to serve you and your people in holiness, sustain them by your grace.

For the faithful who are angry, confused, and searching for answers, embrace them with your love, restore their trust, console them with your clear Gospel message, and renew them with your sacraments.

We place our Church in your hands, for without you we can do nothing.

May Jesus, our High Priest and true compass, continue to lead her in every thought and action – to be an instrument of justice, a source of consolation, a sacrament of unity, and a manifestation of your faithful covenant.

Grant this through that same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (From FDLC.org)     

Are you going to serve God or not? We hear this question from Joshua in the first reading today. It should go right to our own hearts. It is a question that is part of our lives: serve God or not? The readings today put this question to us and we are asked to answer it.

 John’s Gospel reports that many of those who had been Jesus’ disciples ceased to follow him at this point. The number of people following Jesus dwindled from a crowd of more than 5,000 to only 12 people. And it is to these 12 that Jesus now turns his attention and he asks them: Do you also want to leave?” Peter speaks up for the 12 responding, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

 We have to remember that this statement, although it sounds so very clear, is not very clear. For instance, Peter betrayed Jesus. Thomas refused to believe. The Apostles are good examples to us because they are not people who just believed without having any failures or faults. They made a lot of mistakes and were not faithful always–but in the end, they decided to walk with the Lord.

We must seek to respond to the invitation of our Lord. Even if we have gone away from the Lord Jesus, He still invites us to return. Let us not be afraid of turning back to the Lord if we have left Him. If we have remained faithful, let us strive to love Him even more. And so we need to ask ourselves ‘Are we going to serve God or not’?

 Here’s just a verse and a chorus of the Gospel song sung by Bob Dylan – “Gotta Serve Somebody” – it has many more verses to it.

 You may be an ambassador to England or France

You may like to gamble, you might like to dance

You may be the heavyweight champion of the world

You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

 But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

You’re gonna have to serve somebody

It may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

I hope you will be able to join us for the Parish Picnic on Sunday!

Blessings,

Fr. Socorro

 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51)

On the third consecutive Sunday in Ordinary Time the Word of God invites us to consider Jesus as the bread of our lives. We continue to hear the bread of life discourse from John’s gospel. In this Sunday’s gospel Jesus declares, that “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Bread is synonymous with food. When we pray The Our Father we say, “give us today our daily bread, it means give us today our daily food. So, let us ask one question. What does bread do to our life?

 Bread essentially does three functions to life. First of all, bread nourishes human life. Without bread life would come to a grinding halt. It facilities all human activity. It is the source of all our energy. It makes us work and play, sing and sail. It is the essential ingredient of life. Secondly, it not only nourishes our life but also relishes us. We just don’t eat one kind of food always throughout the year. We enjoy different recipes. We try to explore varieties of food and varieties of food add flavor to life. Thirdly, we would not be alive if it were not for food. Bread not only nourishes life but also propagates and perpetuates life. Life continues from one generation to another because of bread.

When Jesus declares that He is the bread of life, He appropriates to Himself these functions of bread. As bread nourishes life, so does Jesus. As bread relishes life, so does Jesus. As bread perpetuates life, so does Jesus.  My dear friends, Jesus is the source of our energy. He nourishes us through the Holy Eucharist. He nourishes us with his own Body and Blood through the Eucharistic banquet. Jesus not only nourishes our life but also adds flavor to our life. And finally, Jesus gives us immortality. He tells us this is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.

We have the most personal experience of God in the Eucharist. He comes to us, speaks to us, and touches our hearts. Jesus, “the Bread of Life,” the “living bread,” becomes our bread. Let us appreciate Christ’s presence in the Holy Eucharist: Since the Holy Eucharist is “the Body and Blood, together with the soul and Divinity of our Lord, Jesus Christ,” as the Sacrament it increases our intimate union with Christ. It preserves, increases, and renews the Sanctifying Grace we received at Baptism. It cleanses us of past sin and preserves us from future sins. Let us appreciate Jesus who comes to us as bread for our soul and be grateful to him throughout our lives.

Let us ask ourselves, how do we approach this Most Holy Sacrament? How does it change us and make us enlivened each time?

Fr. Kishore  Batu SAC

Stewardship Thoughts

In today’s Scripture reading from the Book of Proverbs, Wisdom inspires the people to forgo foolishness and eat the food and drink that God has “mixed.” This prefigures St. John’s Gospel account where the evangelist further develops Jesus’ theology of sacrifice and His institution of the Holy Eucharist — the true source and summit, strength and unity, of Catholic life. What a tremendous gift! St. Paul, in his Letter to the Ephesians, encourages us to discern the will of the Lord, and to give thanks for everything in gratitude to God through Christ. As Christian stewards, we strive for union with the Lord by regularly partaking in Christ’s Eucharistic banquet. Strengthened by the reception of Holy Communion, we embrace evangelization as we commit to stewardship as a way of life. We do this when we share His joy and peace with our parish community and those brothers and sisters who are in need of our Lord’s message of hope. Besides weekend Mass attendance, try to attend at least one weekday Mass to meet Jesus in the Eucharist.