Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus turns to his disciples after his teaching on the Bread of Life and after his followers commented: “this saying is hard; who can accept it?” and after some of his followers leave due to this hard teaching, he asks: “Do you also want to leave?”
And with great conviction, Peter says “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Do we live in this conviction? Are we convinced that Jesus is the Holy One of God and there is no other?
The statistics are very challenging in our Church today. For every one person who enters the Catholic Church, six leave. But why? Maybe it’s the preaching? Maybe it’s the music? When you look at the statistics, many US Catholics say they want to see the Church make significant changes to Church teaching and policies. As a priest, I have heard from many people in different walks of life say, if we change this policy or change this teaching, then we will get more people to come back to the Church. After much prayer, I’ve come to realize the reality is, it is not so much about the Church changing but more about us changing. We need to change our hearts, we need to change our minds. We need to give Church teaching a try. Instead of fighting the faith, we need to put it on and take ownership of our faith. When we begin to live it, we will see how beautiful God’s plan is in our lives. With great humility we can humbly accept that we are not God and that there is a ‘Holy One of God’ who loves us and wants the best for us!
Thank you! Thank you to the Festival Committee and all the volunteers who made our festival such an amazing day! It was a beautiful day in so many ways! Great weather, great food, great music and a great atmosphere of joy for our community! Thank you for helping us remember that this place is Always Home!
Pray for vocations. Remember to pray for vocations in our church today. Especially pray for Josh Stecz, our seminarian, who will return to Borromeo Seminary this week. Also, pray for Sister Colleen, our religious Dominican sister, who recently received her habit and religious name as they entered their Novice Canonical year on August 8, the feast of St. Dominic. Sister Colleen has been given the name Sister Jane Rose! Congratulations! Remember that our parish now prays for the Rosary for vocations on Tuesdays at 6:30 pm and Saturday mornings after the 8:15 Mass. Keep praying!
May God’s peace and joy be with you,
Fr. Jeremy
