Dear Parishioners:
Congratulations to the graduates of St. Patrick School. Twenty-seven students graduated on June 13th. Many of them have been in St. Patrick School for 11 years. If they have, they will have spent more time in St. Patrick School than it will take them to graduate from high school, college and graduate school combined! We pray that the Lord will continue to bless them in their journey ahead in high school.
In addition, congratulations to all our high school graduates! Our local public schools celebrated graduation this week and our Catholic high schools celebrated graduation over the past few weeks as well. While our graduates should be proud of their accomplishments, I would say that the best is yet to come. In a special way, I urge all graduates to listen to God’s call in their life. Often at graduation, we ask the graduate, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would say the better question is to ask is: “What do you think GOD wants you to be when you grow up?” God has plan for each one of us; part of that plan may be a vocation to the priesthood and religious life. I urge all graduates to pray and ask for God’s guidance in their life for the future.
As we begin the summer season, I encourage everyone NOT to take a vacation from Christ and his family the Church. Even when you are on vacation outside of the area, please make an effort to go to Mass. Simply go to “masstimes.org” to find Catholic Churches near you! God’s grace does not take a vacation from us; let’s not take a vacation from Him! As I noted last week on the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), reception of the Eucharist is essential to drawing closer to Christ. Holiness is a life-long project and takes spiritual discipline. It is not easy BUT it is possible for everyone!
This past week we also celebrated Religious Freedom week. I would encourage you to google “Religious Freedom Week.” It will put you on the website of the US Bishops (USCCB). We need to be more informed about this issue, and we need to be people of action and prayer regarding this issue. We should not be complacent about this. Remember the quote attributed to Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Remember: Together, we can do something beautiful for God.
In Christ,
Fr. Brian