One of the many blessings of having a parish pictoral directory is that it helps us to identify and, hopefully, have occasion to meet and get to know our fellow parishoners, some of whom have been here a long and some a relatively short time. The parishioners who have been here 15, 20 or even more years, will hear a name and say "I don't know that person" which, in many cases, is someone who has not been in the parish all that long. One parishioner, Kathy Clark, our VIP for the month of July, has been in the Village only 6 years with her husband, Shawn, and has become more familiar in the parish (and community) because of her willingness to get involved and use her time and talents for the Lord in service to others. She has taken on leadership roles (i.e. president, vice-president and database administrator) of the Ladies of Sacred Heart and now for the glory of God and the benefit of the parish, the coordinator of our Eucharistic Adoration Ministry. In the "Walking With Purpose" lady's bible study group, she serves as a group facilitator, helping our ladies to grow in their life in the Lord. Liturgicallly she works behind the scenes as a sacristan, and is most recently a memeber of our family assistance committee. While all this keeps her plenty busy, she has worked part-time with Good Sam's services for the home-bound, has gotten involved in HSV Players (and our parish dinner theater in 2022) and has worked helping people with visual impairments through FOCUS. Kathy is one of those special people who has a hard time saying no when asked to do something or who steps forward on her own when a need arises to join in some effort or ministry. Doing all of this (and probably more than this) in just six years of living in the Village and being a member of Sacred Heart Church, I have no doubts that she will add to this list of ways she gets involved and continue to be a gift to those whom she serves. One more thing I want to mention is that Kathy assists her husband, Shawn, when he takes on the task of livestreaming our Sunday Mass, which blesses those who cannot come to Mass and others as well. God bless you, Kathy, a well deserved choice as our VIP for the month of July!
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!