{"id":8446,"date":"2021-09-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/?p=8446"},"modified":"2021-09-03T14:51:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T18:51:13","slug":"from-fr-tom-51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/2021\/09\/04\/from-fr-tom-51\/","title":{"rendered":"From Fr. Tom"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Ephphatha\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a little ritual in the new rite of Baptism whose name and form are taken from today\u2019s Gospel: \u201cThe Ephphatha.\u201d The <\/span>celebrant touches the ears and then the lips of the one to be baptized saying: \u201c<\/span>The Lord Jesus who made the deaf hear and <\/span>the mute to speak, grant that you may soon receive His word with your ears and profess the faith with your lips, to the glory <\/span>and praise of God the Father.\u201d <\/span>This simple ceremony captures what happened in today\u2019s Gospel passage. Jesus, by healing a <\/span>deaf man with a speech impediment, fulfilled Isaiah\u2019s Messianic prophecy, <\/span>\u201cThe eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears <\/span>of the deaf unstopped. \u201d<\/span>The ailments listed by Isaiah are also symbolic of our interior illnesses: <\/span>blindness to the needs of <\/span>our <\/span>neighbor, <\/span>unwillingness to hear God\u2019s voice, and the inability to speak words of praise, apology, forgiveness, and gratitude<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

We need to allow Jesus to heal our spiritual deafness, muteness and blindness.<\/strong> <\/span>We may find it hard to speak to God in <\/span>prayer and harder still to hear Him speaking to us through the Bible and the Church. <\/span>Let us ask for God\u2019s help to open our <\/span>ears so that we may hear Him while reading the Bible, and praise and worship Him loudly in our family prayer, also in our <\/span>public worship by actively participating in the Holy Mass, singing with the choir and praying with the congregation. Jesus\u2019 <\/span>compassionate touch will help us to hear the cries of the poor and the sick and to show kindness, mercy and consideration to <\/span>others. His healing touch will also help us convey peace and hope to those around us.<\/span><\/p>\n

May our eyes be open to see God\u2019s presence in our midst, and our ears be open to hear His Voice. <\/span><\/p>\n

P.S.<\/span><\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Next Sunday we will be celebrating Welcoming Sunday in our parish. Every three months, we recognize, welcome, <\/span>and bless our new parishioners. Please help other people, especially our guests and visitors, realize (and not only on <\/span>this Sunday) how open, hospitable, and welcoming our faith community is, because God is in our midst. <\/span><\/li>\n
  • You are all invited to our parish picnic next <\/span>Sunday, September 12<\/strong><\/span>th<\/span>, after the <\/span>11 am <\/span>Mass until <\/span>3 pm. <\/span><\/strong>Come with your <\/span>children and grandchildren and invite your friends and neighbors. Let\u2019s make this day a celebration day for our parish <\/strong><\/span>and neighborhood.<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n
  • FYI<\/span><\/strong>…<\/strong>The parish office will be closed on September 6<\/span>th <\/span>for the observance of Labor Day!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Happy and joyful Labor Day Weekend to all of you! <\/span><\/p>\n

    Fr. Tom<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Ephphatha\u201d There is a little ritual in the new rite of Baptism whose name and form are taken from today\u2019s Gospel: \u201cThe Ephphatha.\u201d The celebrant touches the ears and then the lips of the one to be baptized saying: \u201cThe Lord Jesus who made the deaf hear and the mute to speak, grant that you may soon receive His word with your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fr-tom","ctfw-no-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8447,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8446\/revisions\/8447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}