The Gospel for this past Tuesday was Jesus urging his disciples (and now us) to ask "the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest" (Mth 9:38). While in these post-Vatican II days, it is appropriate to speak of all the baptized as being "laborers" who bring people to know love, and serve Jesus Christ and be happy with him forever in heaven (as the Baltimore Catechism taught most of us), many have traditionally seen this passage as Jesus' call for us to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. In our diocese, your prayers and those of others have helped in leading a significant number of men to commit thenselves to the Lord to priesthood for service of our diocese. In addition, our parish has a wonderful history and a growing reputation of supporting our seminarians in the practical need of finances to form them in all the ways that prepare them to serve God's people in the priesthood (and those who don't finish as potential lay leaders of the Catholic faith or as permanent deacons). While, sadly, over the last 10-12 years we have lost some of our most generous contributors to our seminarians through death or moving away, some new parishioners and others have joined the effort and helped our fundraising amount at our Taste of Faith evening to stay consistent and not drop much, if at all. I pray such will be the case this year as I urge all of you to consider joining us to see and talk with many of our current seminarians (as 18 of them are expected to join us) and hear from at least one of them who will speak to everyone present, as well as hear about our seminarians fromour vocation director Fr Hebert. Additionally, during the evening, we will hear from our bishop, Anthony Taylor and from one of our young priests, Fr Joseph de Orbegozo, (who is one of many who has benefitted from our support) who will share some relfections about his early priesthood which includes his current position as Rector of the Cathedral of St Andrew as well as an instructor of our seminarians in philosophy at our diocesan "House of Formation". Add to all this a delicious meal (see bulltin announcement to get the menu) from Chef Johnna and a raffle for gallons of my homemade ice cream, and I believe attendees will leave satisfied in more ways than one, especially all who give (hopefully generously) that night to the effort to form laborers for the Lord's harvest. Please note if you cannot join us that evening for whatever reason, we welcome your contribution to this effort by making your check out to Knights of Columbus (putting on the meo line "semnarians") and place it in the collection or mail it (if possible before the July 28 event) as we like to present a check for the total amount of money collected to Bishop Taylor and Fr Hebert righ before our event concludes!
Those of you who have attended Masses of Resurrection for our parishioners who have passed into the hands of our loving and merciful Lord, know that I always welcome the congregants who are not of our Catholic faith. I then indicate to them that I will try to make them as comfortable thorughout the Mass with our way of worship, especially our variuos changes in posture, including, of course, the time that we take the prayer posture of kneeling. At Communion time I usually speak after consuming the Body and Blood of Christ with a little statement that the Holy ucharist is our opportunity as Catholics not only to come into personal union with Jesus in his "Real Presence", but, also, our receiving the Eucharist speaks of our unity of belief that this is truly Jesus in the forms of bread and wine. I then address specifically our visitors of other faiths and invite them during this "Communion rite" to either stay in their pews and be in communion with the Lord in their own way, or, if it would be meaningful to the to come up in the procession, cross their arms and I invoke God's blessing on them individually. While some do come up and receive a blessing, most stay in their pews while the Catholics who wish to do so, come forward for Holy Communion. Over the years of my doing all this at funeral Masses, I have received compliments from people that are positive about taking the time to "especially welcome" people of other faith traditions into the worship congregation who have gathered for such a meaningful liturgy. I have also received some criticism about not including others in receiving Holy Communion our "Catholics Only" Communion Rite. Some have at least questioned "what I say" right before people come up to receive Communion or a blessing. While I'm always open to revising what I say (and welcome input from anyone on the best words to use at that time), I firmly believe in saying something, because if I don't it can be awkward and unfair to have people come up during Communion Time unaware that we do not offer "open Communion" to everyone who is there as Protestant churches often do. Among other things, it does remind us to pray that all Christians will be more united in their love for the Lord, in following his example and command of love, and of spreading his Good News of salvation to people who don't know and/or believe in him! Our gathering on such occasions and at least praying th Lord's Prayer together, and maybe aslo some common songs, celebrates the reality that we believe in the same Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our Resurrection and our Life, who calls us to union with him now, and forever in the life to come!
It has now been nine days since my dear and holy mother, Ebby, after three days of hospice care, passed into the arms of the Lord, with her patron saint, Padre Pio ushering her to or at least toward her eternal reward. After too short of time with her husband, my dad, Bill (who died in 1985) she continued her life as a nurse doing night shift at St Joseph Hospital in Hot Springs (where she got her training as an RN in the early 1950s). She also continued to be a strong influence on muself and her other adult children, especially in the ways of her love and commitment to the Lord, His Church, and in her ever growing family. She became a mother in caring for her firstborn, Sharon, when she was born on August 11, 1956, and then carried and welcomed with my dad eight more children, the last one, Mark, being born on May 26, 1967. A quick, and astute calculation will tell you that she and my dad were blessed with 9 children over and eleven year span!! Most who find that out can't imagine the challenge that was for her body and the challenge in many other ways of raising that many children who were so close in age! Perhaps I'll go into that another time. While she got defensive whenever I or any of my siblings commented that we grew up poor, and was quick to say we had clothes on our back, shoes on our feet, a roof over our heads, (one she lived under for 66 years), and food on the table, (all of which was true, thaanks to God and my devoted, hard working parents), I give thanks to God first for them and all the wonderful lessons we learned in that very modest environment and the love that was shown to us and shared not so much in spoken words, but in countless deeds done for us and others!! My mom and dad's faith in God was strong in their hearts and in their actions, including prayer in the home, a Catholic school education (which they were both blessed to have), and participation in ministries, my dad as an usher and my mom as a long-time money counter at St Mary's in Hot Springs. My brother, Joe, started as an altar server at the age of 5 and the other five brothers followed suit, serving every Sunday and some weekdays through our high school years. I'm sure the girls would have done the same if allowed to do so in their growing up years. My mom, for all of her years of learning and living the Catholic faith (from her saintly mother, my grandmother "Mama Blitz") was the "rock of faith" in our lives and the "glue" that kept the family together and coming together for most big holidays and other occasions. Not to be understated was her role as the "peacemaker" as she always tried quickly to quell any arguments of ill will among her childre. Her prayers for her family and others were unrelenting and consistent. My faith and hope tells me that they will be even stronger in her eternal life in heaven. Her faith told her, and my faith tells me now, I can't wait to see you again!!