Weekend Masses

Dear Brothers and Sisters, A simple question “who is my Neighbor” leads to one of the best known stories in the Gospels. It’s a story that has as much relevance today as it had 2000 years ago. The Samaritans were the outcasts of society looked down on and despised. It’s a Samaritan that Jesus casts as the main character in His story. He makes it very clear that the outcast shows mercy while the establishment walks by and ignores. My mother had a simple question when we were kids. Sometimes one or other of us would describe a neighbor’s or a classmate’s home and all the “things” that were in it and when we had finished she would say “but are they respectable people?” This would often puzzle us and she would sit us down and explain that things were not what made a person and that the size of a house or the amount of goods was not the measure of a person’s life. And then she would say a respectable person can walk out of a hovel and a crook can walk out of a castle. The challenge for all of us is to see in every person’s life the quality and the mercy and not judge them by their goods and possessions. “Which of these three was neighbor to the robber’s victim? The one who treated him with Mercy. Go and do likewise” Let us try to live that way. Let the journey continue, Fr Karl  

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Every year there are those who start their July 4th celebration before the rest of us. You hear the solitary fireworks going off. I wonder are they celebrating the fact that they got across the Stateline undetected with fireworks or the 4th. In every one of us there is that wish to get away with something. Around the 4th you realize that people have gone to extraordinary means to get those fireworks As I looked at the gospel this weekend I thought of the extraordinary men and women I have known in my lifetime and the extraordinary things they did to to spread the faith. They set out like the disciples to proclaim the good news in Africa and other places. They were not rich or powerful, but had an abundance of faith and commitment. Through their sacrifices and faith, people were and still are brought to Christ. I thought too of the young men and women who have the courage and faith to join religious communities and seminaries today. They are going very much in a different direction then the world we live in. Like the early missionaries they will need an abundance of faith and commitment. Please pray that their independence and faith will keep them on the right path, but also pray for others to follow them. There are in this parish many young adults that I would love to see take up the challenges of priesthood and religious life. As we celebrate Independence Day let us remember our country in our prayers this election year, but also remember our young people as they struggle to adjust to college life away from home. Pray that their faith will grow and that some of them will show the independence and faith to volunteer to be our priests and religious for the future. “The harvest is abundant but the Laborers are Few” Let the journey continue, Fr Karl