May 4, 2008

This weekend, Fr. Jon is speaking at all our Masses to announce his return to Religious Life with the Missionaries of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. We are all very grateful to Fr. Jon for his
dedication and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and all the ministry and service he gave us over these past four years. To thank him, we plan to have him celebrate the 12:30 pm Mass on Sunday, June 29 and have a reception for him after that Mass with a chance to give him our gratitude and support. He will also be celebrating the fifth Anniversary of his Ordination as a priest on Friday, May 23 with a 7:00 pm Mass and a reception afterwards. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us. Fr. Jon’s last day with us will be Monday, June 30.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus back to the Glory of the Father’s presence in heaven. Remember, just last Sunday we heard Jesus assure the apostles: “I will not leave you orphans…” Yet we begin our readings with the account in the Acts of the Apostles where they are left standing there, staring at the sky as Jesus disappears. They are frozen with fear, hopelessness and confusion; He was their leader and now He is gone. Angels appear to re-assure them. The Gospel passage is the end of Matthew’s Gospel. It records the last words of Jesus to the apostles before He ascends – again, they are re-assuring – “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” They are to baptize, teach, observe and live the commandments; Jesus will take care of the rest. Paul writes to the Ephesians in our second reading about trusting in God’s wonderful power “which He worked in Christ, raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens…and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body…” Our church today is as much led by the Risen Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, as it was when these scriptures were written. AND IT IS IMPORTANT TO BELIEVE THAT AND TRUST THAT THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS ACTIVE HERE AND NOW AS IT WAS FOR THE APOSTLES THEN.

I want to thank Marie Gannon for coordinating guardians for the 24 hours of Adoration since it began, and Liz Spears for taking over the coordination of the volunteer guardians now. This weekend, we welcome John Boyle, a seminarian studying for the priesthood, to speak at our Masses on next weekend’s Second Collection which will be for the education of all our Archdiocesan Seminarians. Next weekend is also two great events – MOTHER’S DAY AND PENTECOST. For our mothers, we will have a special blessing and a gift prayer book. For Pentecost, we encourage everyone to wear red and pray for the Spirit to renew and strengthen us all in doing God’s work. Thirdly, since it is Mother’s Day and we traditionally honor the Blessed Mother, Mary, we will have our annual MAY PROCESSION after the 9:30 am Mass. Please bring flowers to decorate the outside statue of Mary in the Memorial Garden; we will provide song sheets and crown the statue, acknowledging Mary as our Queen.