September 13-20, 2026

 

Hello to all!!

As I begin this I bring greetings from Deacon Barry White and all the good folks at St. John's CEC parish in St. Joseph, MO.  They appreciate that I and Fr. Jim have been and will be providing Eucharist once a month for their community.

Our upcoming scriptures are Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 145; Philippians 1: 20-27 and Matthew 20: 1-6.  The first reading calls us to 'seek the Lord and His ways', which are much higher and more wonderful than our ways.  Philippians  chapter one uses this phrase,  'Life is Christ and death is gain'.  It also calls us to center our life fully 'In Christ' and to probe what that may mean--to LIVE IS CHRIST????   It further states that we are to conduct ourselves in a way worthy of Christ.  And our gospel presents Jesus telling the parable of a landowner, who calls people to work for his vineyard at various times of the day and (righteously) pays them a full day's salary, no matter how long in the day they worked. Troubling but absolutely fair, given the owner's complete generosity.  What does this story told by Jesus stir in us?

Chapel Schedule
Noon Tuesday Eucharist (September 15), Fr. John presiding
         +++++++7:30 pm Tuesday, Fraternity Business Meeting on GoToMeeting+++++++
Noon Thursday Eucharist (September 17), Fr. Jim presiding
5 pm Saturday Eucharist (September 19), Fr. Jim presiding

Keep the prayers coming for Fr. Jim's wife Jenny as she recovers from knee replacement surgery.

SAYINGS OF THE SAINTS

"Three things I pray, to see You more clearly, love You more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day"   St Richard of Chichester

"We must speak to them (the enslaved Africans as they got off the slave ships) with our hands before we speak to them with our lips."  St Peter Claver SJ  (He supposedly evangelized and baptized over  300,000 slaves and prisoners in Cartagena, Colombia.  This saying reminds me of a saying ascribed to St. Francis:  "Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.

"the human progress that Christ wants to promote
is that of whole persons
   in their transcendent dimension 
   in their historical dimension
   in their spiritual dimension,
   and their bodily dimension.
Whole persons must be saved,
persons in their social relationships,
   who won't consider some people more human than others,
   but will view all as brothers and sisters
   and give preference to the weakest and neediest.
This is the integral human salvation
   that the Church wants to bring about--
a hard mission!
But the Church knows what its revolution is:
the revolution of Christ's love.                       St Oscar Romero

That does it for me.  Have a blessed week. Love,

Fr. John, OFP

 

 

Pontifications by Fr. Jim McNeely