Happy 4th of July!
At the beginning of my reflection for this weekend, let me tell you a story about a bishop who was interviewing a senior seminarian before his ordination as deacon and asked him where he would like to be assigned as a deacon for pastoral training. The seminarian said, somewhat boldly, “Oh my, bishop, anywhere but New Canaan!” “Why not there?” the bishop asked. “You know,” the seminarian answered, “that’s my hometown — and we all know that ‘a prophet is not without honor except in his native place.’” The bishop replied, “Don’t worry my friend! Nobody in your hometown is going to confuse you with a prophet.”
Today’s Scriptures challenge us to face rejection with prophetic courage and optimism. Very often our friends, families, or childhood companions fail to listen to us and refuse to accept the words of grace, love, and encouragement that we offer to them because they are so familiar with us that they are unable to see us as God’s appointed instruments, the agents of God’s healing and saving grace. But we have to face such rejection with prophetic courage because by our Baptism we are called to be prophets like Jesus, sharing Jesus’ prophetic mission. As prophets, our task is to “speak the truth in love,” and to oppose the evils in our society without condoning or encouraging sinful behavior even in our dear ones. Let us also acknowledge, appreciate, and encourage the prophets of our time who stand for Truth and Justice in our society with the wisdom of God in their heads, the power and love of the Holy Spirit in their words, and the courage of God in their actions.
What’s new at the parish:
A New Deacon’s arrival! This weekend we officially welcome Deacon Lawrence Toth who has begun his ministry in our parish community. I am very grateful for his openness to walk with us on our journey of faith. I encourage you to embrace with prayer Deacon Lawrence, his wife Stephanie, their family and his ministry at St. Genevieve – St. Maurice parish. I couldn’t imagine the more beautiful gift for my 1st anniversary in this parish! God is Good, all the time! Never doubt it!
The 4th of July. This weekend we commemorate the national Day of Independence. May God strengthen and bless America and make our nation a haven of liberty and justice for all — born and unborn. Let us pray that all Americans red and blue, would understand that real freedom can only be found in our relationship with God, not without HIM!
Restoration of the outside crucifix. A week ago, two of our parishioners: Pat Poirier and Roger Cebulski voluntarily helped us to restore the crucifix in front of the church. They spent many hours scrubbing and cleaning the corpus and the cross and putting a new color on it. It looks beautiful for another many years, hopefully. I’d like to THANK both of them for the time and effort they put on that restoration.
A sincere apology to all of you who did not have a chance to have a bulletin last Sunday. Unfortunately, we did not receive the number we had ordered. In this bulletin you will find two of the most important things that you missed from the last one: An introduction of our new Deacon, and a new post-COVID protocol for our church.
May the 4th of July and this long weekend be holy, blessed and restful to you and your families.
Fr. Tom