{"id":8480,"date":"2021-09-19T10:34:06","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T14:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/?p=8480"},"modified":"2021-09-19T10:34:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T14:34:06","slug":"8480","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/2021\/09\/19\/8480\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Hopefully your week was filled with God<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s grace and His presence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you imagine what a shock it was for the disciples <\/span>arguing about which of them was the greatest when Jesus <\/span>placed a child before them? In Palestine at the time of <\/span>Jesus, children were last. Children had no status until they <\/span>matured. But Jesus, goes even deeper saying: \u201cif you want <\/span>to be first, you must be last of all and servant of all\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

The disciples and Jesus had two different ideas of <\/span>service and how to achieve greatness. In today\u2019s Gospel <\/span>passage, they had not yet learned what true greatness was <\/span>and were arguing about it among themselves. They did in <\/span>time learn what true greatness is and they followed Jesus in <\/span>their deaths, being martyred. Peter was crucified upside <\/span>down on an X<\/span>–<\/span>shaped cross in Rome. Andrew was crucified <\/span>on an X<\/span>–<\/span>shaped cross in Greece and is said to have <\/span>preached to his crucifixioners for two hours until he died. <\/span>Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael, was killed by <\/span>continuous whipping in Asia. Thomas was stabbed with a <\/span>spear in India. James was put to death by the sword in <\/span>Jerusalem. By their martyrdoms they won many souls for <\/span>Christ. How they later matured from that day in today\u2019s <\/span>Gospel when they were arguing on the road. They truly <\/span>recognized what the word GREATNESS means in the eyes <\/span>of God! <\/span>What\u2019s the lesson for us? <\/span><\/p>\n

The more we drift away from <\/span>God the less we recognize what is truly great and comes first <\/span>and the more the we resemble the pathetic attitude of the <\/span>disciples arguing on the road. The Church, our Mother, in its <\/span>ministry reminds us what is truly great and comes first. She <\/span>reminds us that power, drink, sex and money are not the <\/span>ultimate goals of life, that the ultimate goal of life is to know, <\/span>love, and serve God. We take our image and model and <\/span>ideal of what is truly great from Jesus and his Good News. <\/span>We do not want to be contaminated by the world, but want to <\/span>be the salt of the earth and the light of the world and to show <\/span>the world what comes first. For this let us pray! <\/span><\/p>\n

Catechetical Sunday <\/span><\/h5>\n

This weekend we recognize and bless all of these men and <\/span>women who voluntarily decided to serve our community of <\/span>faith as catechists and religion teachers. At 11 am Mass we <\/span>will pray for them all, giving them a special blessing as they <\/span>began this journey of spreading the good news to our <\/span>children. Please support and pray for them. May their service <\/span>be effective according to the will of God and the power of the <\/span>Holy Spirit. <\/span><\/p>\n

Faith Formation kick off <\/span><\/h5>\n

September 22<\/span>nd <\/span>is the beginning of the Faith Formation <\/span>classes. Please, pray for all of these children and youth, <\/span>their parents, catechists, and FF coordinators. May they all <\/span>work together to know God better and to serve Him and <\/span>those in need. <\/span><\/p>\n

Successful Parish Picnic<\/span><\/h5>\n

It was a beautiful event. I am grateful and filled with joy <\/span>after my first Parish Picnic with you all. The weather was <\/span>great. The turnout was very satisfying. The involvement of <\/span>the people was wonderful. Let me express our gratitude to <\/span>all of the parish groups: Men\u2019s Club, Women\u2019s Sodality, <\/span>Saint Vincent de Paul, Faith Formation, Young Adults, Choir <\/span>Members, Parish Staff, and many volunteers including Chris <\/span>Edmonds and Chris Tebow, the DJ (let\u2019s call them CC, both <\/span>of them did a fabulous job). It was truly a family celebration. I <\/span>am blessed being a part of such a loving and open parish <\/span>community. Let\u2019s continue our journey of faith supporting <\/span>and carrying each other. <\/span><\/p>\n

S<\/span>T<\/span>. M<\/span>ICHAEL<\/span>\u2019<\/span>S <\/span>DEVOTION<\/span><\/h5>\n

You are all invited to <\/span>St. Michael\u2019s devotion <\/span>this <\/span>Tuesday, Mass at 7 pm and adoration of the Blessed <\/span>Sacrament. We all need St. Michael\u2019s protection to stay <\/span>strong in our faith! St. Michael <\/span>\u2013<\/span>pray for us. <\/span><\/p>\n

Have a blessed week. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

Hopefully your week was filled with God\u2019s grace and His presence. Can you imagine what a shock it was for the disciples arguing about which of them was the greatest when Jesus placed a child before them? In Palestine at the time of Jesus, children were last. Children had no status until they matured. But Jesus, goes even deeper saying: \u201cif you…<\/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-8480","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\/8480","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=8480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8481,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480\/revisions\/8481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}