A Word from Your Pastor - July 31

Dear Parishioners:

As July comes to its close, we are all wondering just where the Summer has gone.  We begin again all too soon to gear up for our busy Fall schedule.  In the meantime, it is important to take stock of what is most important in our lives in order to be able to discern direction as the busy-ness comes.  We have to remind ourselves of our priorities.

As Catholic Christians, there is no priority greater than our Faith in God and the connection to God that being members of the Church makes possible.  That has to be center of our lives.  We must be ready and willing to live for our Faith, and to die for our Faith, if we find ourselves confronted by the circumstances that warrant it.  How we choose to live our time in the ordinary “busy-ness” in our lives will set the pattern we will follow when things get difficult.  This Summer, we have heard of many who have been unexpectedly attacked due to their Faith and of so many who have lost their lives in the clashes of culture that are all around us.  As we enjoy what remains of Summer’s leisurely pace, let us renew our commitment to one another to put Jesus Christ at the center and our willingness to live and die for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

St. Ignatius of Loyola’s prayer is a fitting way to renew this covenant with God: 

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.

In our daily “routine,” it is possible to set a pattern of response and to discern our actions based on priorities we have chosen.  If God is our Ideal, our First Choice, then we want to please Him in everything.  We avoid sin and pursue virtue because we love God first and best.  For those who share the covenant relationship created by the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, your spouse is first after God.  Then comes your family, and all the other host of relationships and responsibilities that are given to you in your personal state of life.  If we keep these thoughts in mind, many other decisions are made easier, even if they are harder to put into practice.  God is with us through His Spirit and in the community of the Church, to build us up and free us ever more to belong to Him.