Second Collection to assist Covid Crisis in India

There will be a second collection this weekend at ALL Masses (June 12 & 13) to assist with the current Covid Crisis in India. We strongly encourage you all to take the time to read this article that was published in the Catholic Commentator to get a better concept of how dire this situation is for the people of India: https://diobr.org/news/diocese-establishing-relief-effort-for-india

In the past six weeks, 168 priests and 148 women religious have died. This country is in dire poverty and in need of food and supplies, especially in rural areas. Any donation that you can provide will go a long way in helping these people through this crisis.

Letter from the Pastor; June 13, 2021

Planting Seeds/Marriage

Today’s readings are all about planting seeds and building God’s Kingdom, often through small, ordinary actions on our part, which the Holy Spirit turns into great works. This is a call we can and all need to answer in our increasingly secular world for which the “nones” (atheists, agnostics, and those unaffiliated with any church) are the fastest growing “denomination.”

Today, at all our masses, we recognize the great vocation of marriage and it’s role in building God’s Kingdom. The jeweled seed of our life’s garden. There is a direct link between the “divorce crisis” and the rise of the “nones.” It is through the sacrament of marriage, where two surrender their lives to one another and to God, in a beautiful bond of unconditional love, that God is best seen in our broken world. If our youth don’t see unconditional love bonding and lifting the couples they can see, feel, and touch, how will they ever believe it awaits them in a God they can’t see, feel, and touch?

The “normalization” of couples simply living together is one of the sad developments of our changing society along with the efforts by many in our government, advertising and entertainment industries to redefine marriage in any form other than a one woman and one man permanent, lifelong union. God gave us marriage as Jesus emphatically reminds us in Mt 19:4-5:

“Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”

We do not have jurisdiction to rewrite that which God has decreed. The joy and fulfillment we seek in our most hallowed relationships can only be realized by following the design of our Creator. This is a clearly drawn battle line we must respond to as the salt of the earth, and for the good of those misled into these paths.

To have someone give themself to you is the greatest gift any of us can receive. All that I am, hope for, and dream of; all of my energies, talents, and love; all of my fears and freckles; all of our coming successes and failures, good times and bad - I pledge to you completely and whole heartedly. Just as Jesus gave himself for us. Compare that with, “Well, you seem to be the best option I have at the moment.” Yuck! Don’t fall for it.

Thank you God for this great gift, our married couples, their witness to your love, and your love for us.

Have a Blessed and Holy Week!

Father Eddie Martin