Our annual OLPH BBQ is next weekend, September 27, 28 and 29. Friday we are open 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., Saturday from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. and Sunday from 2:00 until 8:00 p.m. The forecast is for fine weather, so plan to join us for great food, entertainment and a wonderful time. Please be sure to purchase tickets to our raffle, and this is the last weekend that discounted pre-event ride tickets are also on sale. We still need volunteers, so please make it a point
to sign up this weekend, even if you are only able to give a couple of hours. In coming for the BBQ, please do not park in the lots of our neighboring businesses. Those lots are their property and they need them for the purposes of their business activities. It is our Christian obligation to be respectful of our neighbors and their rights. In addition to our own lots, we have arranged for additional parking at Hart High School (through Arcadia Street), and also at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on Orchard Village. There will be volunteers at those parking lots to assist you. On Wednesday, September 11, our parish school held its annual assembly to commemorate the events of 9-11 and to honor and thank first responders. We had a wonderful turnout from the sheriff and police departments, from firefighters and military personnel, from doctors, nurses, paramedics and others. Many of these are parishioners and parents of our school children. The speaker this year was John Dove. John served as a police officer for 21 years and was one of the first responders at the World Trade Center. His presentation moved me deeply. It reflects the best of our Christian faith and of our society. With his permission, I’d like to share a portion of his remarks with you in this message: This will always be a sad day for me and many other people in our country but seeing you here honoring those who were lost that day makes me very happy. We should never forget what happened. We cannot forget. I am honored to have been asked to speak today. . . I came to share a message with all of you especially the children. The people who attacked our country on 9/11 had hate in their hearts. They knocked down buildings, hurt and killed many people but I am here to tell you, as terrible as it was, hate lost that day. I saw it with my own eyes. Because the thing I remember most was the love I saw. I saw people from all different ethnic, religious and political backgrounds and people of all different colors, shapes and sizes coming together to help each other, sometimes sacrificing their own lives to do so. . . So, if I can ask one thing of you today, it would be to not allow hate creep into your heart. Try every day to love your family, your classmates, your neighbors and your teachers. Be kind to each other. When you see someone hurting, sad or in trouble, be a hero to them. If you do that, hate will always lose just like it did on this day 23 years ago. This is wisdom that John learned from his reflection on and prayer about the traumatic experiences of that day. This is wisdom we see in Scriptures, and especially in the life, teachings and deeds of Jesus. Because just as John discovered on 9-11, on Calvary, hate lost. On Calvary, though his enemies had their way with Jesus, love triumphed. As Mr. Dove asked our schoolchildren, I ask all of us. Please embrace the wisdom of Jesus. Do not allow hate to creep into your heart! Be men and women of Christ, of love! Jesus, you taught us to learn from a little child, help us to be humble servants who love one another. Holy Mary, whose love is beyond all telling, pray that we may always walk in your Son’s way of love and compassion. Father Craig Dear Parishioners,
In our daily life, we face challenges, we experience situations that often test our faith, our patience and our capacity to love and serve others. Today’s reading from St. Mark’s Gospel (Mk 7:31-37) gives us a profound view of how we can live our faith in a more authentic and meaningful way, especially in the context of our labor on behalf of the parish and the different apostolic ministries (Communion to the sick, feeding the poor, etc.). We are told of how Jesus heals a deaf man with a speech difficulty. This act of mercy allows us to learn about the importance of listening and of communicating effectively with God and with our brothers and sisters in faith. In our daily lives, it is easy to become trapped within the noise and the distractions of the world. This challenges our capacity to hear God and others causing us to become overly concerned with the voices and the noises vying for our attention misleading us as the sources of the divine, making us forget the divine spirit of God comes to us in the smallest and gentlest whispers, “After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” for the Lord was now present in that gentlest of whispers. (1 Kgs 19:11b-13). This Gospel passage invites us to open our hearts and our ears to the gentleness and the littleness of life and nature in order to tune ourselves to the voice of God and to become more sensitive to the needs of others. In our labor as a parish community, this passage reminds us of the importance of making sure every space is inclusive of all the members of our parish, regardless of color, race, economic status, etc. This implies the calling to love with a heart like Jesus’. A heart that remembers that the sin does not define the sinner and that all of us are sinners; equal in God’s eyes, therefore brothers and sisters---all sinners who nonetheless keep striving for holiness. In our apostolic mission, this passage challenges us to serve as Christ’s instruments of healing and reconciliation. To put our ego aside and put on the armor of God, Jesus Christ. Like Jesus, we are called to open the ears of the deaf, to help the voiceless speak and to knock on the hearts that are closed with the message of the Gospel. The message that even the deaf hear and moves the speechless to find their voice to proclaim the love that opens all hearts, that of Jesus Christ, his words, His actions, His compassion and hope. Fr. Luther |
Fr. EnriqueOur associate pastor, Fr. Enrique Piceno, Archives
January 2025
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