A Word from Your Pastor June 23 Corpus Christi

Dear Parishioners:

34 years ago Saturday, June 22, 1985, I was ordained to the priesthood at St. Joseph Cathedral.  This weekend is very special to me, because with the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, it brings together the two most wonderful gifts I have ever received: the Holy Eucharist and my share in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.

My first parish as Pastor was the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Newark, Ohio.  Each year, we celebrated Corpus Christi as one of our parish feast days.  (The other, of course, was Holy Thursday, with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.)

I delight in the gift of priestly ministry an in the Sacramental Life that is the heart of the Catholic Church.  There is a kind of joy that I experience every time I celebrate the Eucharist that I hope everyone can share.  It does sadden me that so many have begun to take for granted the Gift that is ours in the Eucharist.  I would do anything I could to try to share the depth of this Gift.  But those I would want to share it with just cannot receive it, because they are not here.

How do we learn the Truth of the Catholic Faith?  There is only one way – to practice it.  That means making it the center of your decision-making process, not an after thought or an optional extra.

I learned the beauty of the Eucharist by attending Mass through my whole life, both on Sundays with my family and also on weekdays at the request of my Mother who wasn’t able to go to Mass every day due to raising children.  My Mom asked me and my other siblings who were old enough to take advantage of the fact that we could attend Mass before School every day when I was in grade school.  I attended a high school and then a university that had priests on staff who celebrated Mass daily at times that students could choose to attend.  Eucharist became the very heart of my day.

Priesthood has opened up so many opportunities that I could never have imagined.  It has brought challenges I never expected, especially in recent years.  But it has been such a tremendous gift, worth all of the sufferings that are part of it.

My sincere hope for you is that you will discover for yourself the wonderful riches that are available to us that come through the Church.  I am certain that if you choose to open your heart even to the Truths that you find inconvenient, you will soon discover their worth.

I thank God for Eucharist, for Priesthood and for His Holy Church.  I thank God for you who have shared this part of my journey as a priest.  Let us keep one another in prayer.