Ordinary Time 21

The word "amen" means “so be it.” We say that word many times when we pray during the Mass. On this final week of hearing the Bread of Life Discourse from chapter 6 of John’s Gospel we are asked to put our faith on the line and say “Amen.” As Jesus calls himself bread to be eaten many of the descendants said “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” and they “no longer accompanied him.” Jesus then asked the Twelve if they would leave, too. Simon Peter answered for all: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” As we say “Amen!” we are then to live in communion in a world of broken bodies, shed blood, wounded hearts and crushed spirits. As we believe that the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, what is the change in us that should accompany receiving them?

This weekend a member of the Parish Festival Committee made a presentation of where your help is needed to make this year’s Parish Festival a success. As the tradition continues, please respond to the invitation to assist in the many areas where help is needed, whether it is preparing a basket for the basket raffle, donating a case of soda pop or water, or volunteering at one of the many booths. Thanks!

This week we celebrate the life of Saint Augustine and his Mother Monica. Monica prayed for the conversion of her son. He was baptized on Easter Sunday by Bishop Ambrose in Milan. On their return trip to Africa she died having said there was nothing left for her to do since all her hopes had been fulfilled. She is the patroness of mothers. May we imitate her example and never give up encouraging our children’s spiritual journeys. A doctor of the Church, Augustine’s intelligence and pastoral concern shaped the thought of Western Christianity and guided the Church for over a thousand years. Let us imitate his restless search for God and his joy when God is discovered.

Wednesday, August 29 is the Passion of John the Baptist. His birth brought great rejoicing; even in the womb he leapt for joy at the coming of human salvation. He alone of all the prophets pointed out the Lamb of redemption. And to make holy the flowing waters, he baptized the very author of Baptism and was privileged to bear him supreme witness by the shedding of his blood.

Our Responsorial Psalm this week, "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord," urges us to acknowledge and give thanks for the refuge and joy we find in the Lord.

Ordinary Time 20

I welcome my brother priest from Saint Vincent Archabbey to Holy Cross this weekend as I am beginning my third year as Pastor of Holy Cross on vacation. Yes, August 18 begins my third year, and what a blessing you have all been to me! Let us petition the Holy Spirit to make laughter a gift of the Holy Spirit!

In Biblical times, before the advent of fast food and lone dining, people ate around a common table. With whom you ate was just as important as what you ate. You didn’t sit down to dinner with just anybody. You ate with family. You ate with people who embraced your laws and customs. If you invited a stranger to your table you were implicitly offering not only a meal but shelter, protection and extended family status, and once you did, it was more or less for keeps. In our eat-and- run culture, we no longer intuitively accept that meals are a kind of covenant. The family dinner table is not what it used to be. It doesn’t bind us each to each. Burgers shared out of a bag in the car from front seat to back is not quite the same thing. To appreciate the ramifications of covenant belonging implicit in a meal, we have to reach beyond to our holy-day tables, where insiders and outsiders are still defined and being there still means something. Absenting ourselves from that table is still a deliberate and telling decision. When we come forward at Mass to receive Holy Communion, we are choosing a shared life: with rich history, a responsible present, and an oriented future.

Next weekend, August 25 and 26, we will offer a special blessing upon all who will be returning to school: teachers, administrators, students and support staff.

This week we celebrate the lives of some very special saints:

• Monday - Saint Bernard: May we learn from him that “real happiness will come, not in gratifying our desires or in gaining passing pleasures, but in accomplishing God’s will for us.”

• Tuesday - Saint Pius X: Like him, may we seek always to "restore all things in Christ."

• Wednesday - the Queenship of Mary: May we always love, serve and honor Mary our Queen.

• Thursday - St. Rose of Lima: Like her, let us pray, “Lord, increase you love in my heart.”

• Friday - St. Bartholomew, the Apostle: May we imitate his desire to be with Jesus and continue the mission of Jesus without seeking notoriety.

Our Responsorial Psalm this week, "Create a clean heart in me, O God," reminds us to humble ourselves before the Lord and to pray for God to renew our spirit.

Ordinary Time 19

We continue through the month-long Gospel of John’s “Bread of Life Discourse.” In our first reading today the Prophet Elijah found strength for his long, dangerous journey in the food God sent him. We too can find strength in the “the living bread from heaven” Jesus, on our long, challenging journey to God’s Kingdom! Saint Paul reminds us that sharing in this gift requires us to be as compassionate and forging toward one another as God, in Christ, is to us.

This Wednesday, August 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation. Mass here at Holy Cross will be at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, August 14 and 8:00 AM on Wednesday. The origins of the church’s belief in the Assumption of Mary into heaven, defined as a dogma by Pope Pius XII in 1950, go back to an early tradition in both the East and West that Mary’s natural death was in fact a falling asleep (Dormition), and that bodily assumption and not burial completed Mary’s earthly journey to heaven. She is the Mother of God, mother of Jesus, and a sign to the whole church of the final destiny of all the faithful. The Church’s declaration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary in 1950 was addressed to a world exhausted by war and the deaths of over 50 million human beings. The value of human life had been so subjected to mindless brutality and destruction; by affirming Mary’s dignity as the ultimate measure of every person, especially the poor, the church asserted something of critical importance. Every life is precious in the sight of God!

We send our congratulations and God’s blessing to Monsignor Lawrence T. Persico, the Vicar General and Pastor of Saint James in New Alexandria, as he was named Bishop of Erie last week by our Holy Father Pope Benedict. Please pray for all during this time of transition.

You will notice on the back of the bulletin that there are many empty spaces for ads. If you or your place of employment would like to place an ad to help defray the cost of printing the bulletin, please call Mary Ann Klingensmith at (724) 925-2480.

Our Respnsorial Psalm this week, "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord," urges us to acknowledge and give thanks for the refuge and joy we find in the Lord.

Ordinary Time 18

Welcome to August! What an exciting month as preseason football begins, the return to school is just around the corner, and we enter into Festival mode! Enjoy the "dog days" of summer!

Last Sunday, we began a five-week series from the Gospel of John on the Eucharist, Jesus’ “Discourse on the Bread of Life.” Today, Jesus helps us understand that God’s gift of manna to the Israelites in the desert, the story we hear in today’s first reading, was a sign pointing to Jesus, the true Bread from heaven. Saint Paul, writing to the Ephesians, reminds us that, as a Eucharistic people, we must “put away” our old, sinful selves and “put on the new self” created by God for holiness.

Monday, August 6 is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. This day coincides with the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 (and on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945). Jesus’ Transfiguration reminds us that despite our human tendency to acts of violence and death, our lives can be changed by God’s power to give new life.

Wednesday, August 9 is the Memorial of Saint Dominic, the founder of the Dominicans. They were educated to preach, teach and do pastoral work. May we follow his advice to “practice charity in common, remain humble and stay poor willingly.”

Saturday, August 12 is the Memorial of Saint Clare. Greatly revered and respected as a “new leader of women” and credited with many miracles, she was canonized just two years after her death. Like her, may we learn to “Go forth without fear, for God who created you has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother.”

Our Responsorial Psalm this week, "Lord, give us bread from heaven," reminds us that only God can satisfy the hunger in our hearts.