COME SEE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS – Mother of Divine Providence Parish is sponsoring a tour to the Franklin Institute to see the DEAD SEA SCROLLS on September 29, 2012. This is a once in a life time experience to see some of the original parchments containing the sacred Scriptures. How did we come to have these, you ask? In 1947, a shepherd, tending his sheep, stumbled upon a hidden cave along the shore of the Dead Sea in Qumran. As he was tending his sheep, he was tossing stones into the opening of the cave and he could tell by the sound that they were hitting something. Found inside were pieces of pottery
containing ancient scrolls that had been there for thousands of years. After the excavation, more than 900 scrolls were found that were amazingly preserved. Some of these parchments will be seen on our tour along with other fascinating artifacts. We will even have the opportunity to touch a three ton stone from Jerusalem’s Western Wall and place a pray on the stone, which is a tradition for those who actually visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem. This exhibit actually ends on the day we will celebrate the opening of the “Year of Faith” — October 14, 2012. Please consider joining us for this exciting experience and walk back 2000 years in time to see items that are part of our Faith Tradition.
Year: 2012
Mother of Divine Providence celebrates The Year of Faith!
Mother of Divine Providence proudly announces its participation in the Year of Faith and recommends the following links:
http://www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en.html
http://archphila.org/yearoffaith/
OUTLINE FOR THE PARISH CELEBRATION
OF THE YEAR OF FAITH
October 14: Opening Mass 11:30am and Vespers 4:00pm
October 22: Holy Hour and Night Prayer for Mothers to pray for their children, 7:00pm
November 20: Holy Hour and Night Prayer for an increase of vocations to the priesthood from our parish for our Archdiocese, 7:00pm
December 2,3,& 4: Parish Retreat (The retreat will be on-line with tips on how to make the retreat at home or at work) All Organizations are asked to participate in this parish time of grace.
December 3: Blessing of our Holy Year Shrine to Saint Francis Xavier, Patron of Missionaries.
Advent Reflection on the Nicene Creed: Link to Catechesis from our homepage.
Catechesis on great spiritual writers
February 17 – 19, 2013 Parish Forty Hours, Father Thomas Whittingham, preacher
March 25 -31, 2013 Holy Week (full participation)Evangelization effort to draw people into Holy Week
June 2, 11:30 am – Principal Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi with Traditional Eucharistic Procession
June 11, 2013 Holy Hour and Night Prayer for Fathers/Husbands to pray for their families.
Reflections on Vatican Council Documents – These reflections are being offered by our seminarian Mr. Steven Kiernan in the parish offices.
June 20, 7pm Overview of the Documents of the Second Ecumenical Council at the Vatican
June 27, 7pm Declaration on Religious Liberty (Dignitatis humanae)
July 11, 7pm Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum)
July 18, 7pm Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium)
July 25, 7pm The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum concilium)
September 14, 2013 Pilgrimage of Faith, to St. Rita Cascia Shrine in Philadelphia.
November 24, 2013, Feast of Christ the King, 11:30, Closing Mass.
December 3, 2013, 7pm Holy Hour of Thanksgiving in honor of Saint Francis Xavier, patron of our Holy year of Faith. Father will bless participants with the relic of Saint Francis Xavier afterward.
Father Cioppi encourages each organization to develop a plan to celebrate faith through catechetical and liturgical encounters.
MONTHLY THEMES
October Mary, Mother of God, Patroness of Mothers and Families
November The Communion of Saints, Prayers for an increase of vocations to the priesthood in our parish
December Word made Flesh: the Incarnation and its effects in our lives.
January Saint Francis Xavier: our parish patron for our Year of Faith: “Going out” establishing the ‘new evangelization’ in our parish.
February Opportunities for establishing a sanctuary worthy of God’s dwelling: The Call to priesthood
March Saint Joseph, Patron of the Church, Fathers and of Men.
April “He has been raised” – the Sacred Triduum
May Mary, Mother of Divine Providence: The call to the Consecrated Life.
June the Sacred Heart of Jesus
September the Sacrament of Confession: A celebration of Reconciliation and Penance.
October Mary, Mother of the Church
November, 2013 Reflections on the Sacraments of Initiation
Week One: Sacramental Life
Week Two: Baptism
Week Three: Confirmation
Week Four: Eucharist
During this Year of Faith our Parish Council as well as our Organizational Teams will be discussing the question, What is a Catholic in “good standing.” What are the benefits inherit in our active particpation in the Church as the People of God.
Reflections on the Instrumentum Laboris of the XIII Synod of Bishops: The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20120619_instrumentum-xiii_en.html
An Instrumentum Laboris is a working document that the Bishops who are attending the XIII Synod of Bishops in Rome will take with them to discuss, making recommendation to our Holy Father. The Instrumentum is developed from a Lineamenta which is an opening questionnaire of topics and questions sent to all the Bishops around the world to be considered.
There are some wonderful thoughts here that I think will help us in our own discussions about the new evangelization in parish life.
The question of a ‘new evangelization’ arises of course from the call of Blessed John Paul II and many Bishops responded that “the new evangelization is precisely the Church’s ability to renew her communal experience of faith, and to proclaim it within the new situations… which have arisen in cultures.” (IL, 47) Certainly our parish does share with one another an experience of faith. It is most obviously when we gather for worship, culturally through our parish carnival, our support for Catholic Education, and in the integrity of our Faith Formation, i.e Why Catholic? “Proclaiming it” within the new situations which have arisen gives me pause in that we probably could spend some time talking about what new situations there are in our community and in our society.
One factor which hits every parish is the reality that 25% of Catholics in our community join us for Sunday Worship of God. This break with the precepts of the Church, by its nature, weakens the faith of our community as a whole and brings about some inherent problems that we might not realize, namely: that more people ignore the teaching authority of the Bishops, and begin to think that their religion is a private affair and thus don’t feel a necessary obligation on their part to join us and to be a part of the People of God.
The most painful result of this lax in faith is that parents place themselves and their children in danger of losing the faith God gives them. It is sad that there are people among us who have lost their faith but don’t realize it. They still call themselves Christians believing that if they do keep saying it, they will justify the void they feel. In fact, their disengagement helps them become more of an island without the support and nourishment of the sacraments they are welcomed to receive. (IL,48)
So how do we, at Mother of Divine Providence, take on the new evangelization in the context of ‘proclaiming?’
We should think about this as we ourselves prepare for this Year of Faith, a year of clarity for us as Catholics. There are many signs of hope right here in our community. We are a people who ‘demonstrate by our activities, the real possibility of living the Christian faith through the proclamation of the Gospel even within a cultural setting.” (IL50)
The Instrument identifies five areas or ‘sectors,’ which our parish should consider in our attempt ‘to proclaim the Gospel and help people to experience the vitality of the Church (IL,51). These sectors include culture, society, economics, civic life and religion.
Recently our country has experienced a secularization of political and social thought which is having a profound effect on our lives; movements actively pursuing an attempt to eradicate Divine Life or even a transformed life from our national language.” The ‘death of God’ proclaimed by many intellectuals in recent decades has given way to an unproductive, hedonistic and consumer mentality, which leads to a highly superficial manner when facing life and responsibility (IL,53).
The Common Good becomes irrelevant to the needs of many smaller and diverse agendas litigating and pressuring the majority to acquiesce to their demands which makes it difficult for the Christian mind to focus on the Absolute Truth Who is God.
“To respond to religious needs, persons revert to individualistic forms of spirituality or forms of neo-paganism to the point of forcibly spreading a general climate of relativism (IL,53), i.e. whatever ‘I’ think matters, nothing else.
We might be tempted here to despair the state of the society today, but this next section of the Instrument thinks otherwise. It is precisely within the secularized world that Christ sends us. We can all interact here to experience our common humanity. It is here in our natural state that Christ can enter. “Purifying the human through the human nature of Jesus of Nazareth, Christians can create an encounter with people who are secularized but continue to question what is really and truly human. Our common search for truth, our natural desire to purify ourselves in order to encounter the truth can indeed help develop the Christian’s faith (IL,54).
The Bishops are interested in the initiative of the “Courtyard if the Gentiles,” which I think our parish would benefit from its own research into the idea and make practical use of it in King of Prussia which enjoys such a diverse population both transient and local.
Father Roger Landry, in his article “Reconstructing the Courtyard of the Gentiles,” April 11, 2011 wrote,
“ In Paris on March 24 and 25, a remarkable new Church initiative began. Born from the pastoral zeal, Biblical expertise and the university experience of Pope Benedict XVI, it is an attempt to establish a dialogue with non-believers modeled on the ancient Temple of Jerusalem’s courtyard of the gentiles, where non-Jews would come to query the scribes about the Jewish faith, debate the meaning of existence and, if they so desired, pray, either to a God who remained mysterious to them or to the One whom they believed had revealed Himself to the Jews. Since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has worked very hard to establish an ecumenical dialogue with other Christian Churches and ecclesial communities as well as an interreligious dialogue with other major religions. Curiously absent from a structure conversation and joint search for truth, however, has been a forum for discussion with non-believers. The Courtyard of the Gentiles is an attempt to remedy that lacuna.
The idea for a Court of the Gentiles was first mentioned by Pope Benedict in his pre-Christmas address to the Roman Curia in 2009. Reflecting on his pilgrimage to the Czech Republic, a country with many “seekers” — agnostics searching for the answers to the deepest human questions — Pope Benedict reflected on the words Jesus quoted from Isaiah, that the Temple “must be a house of prayer for all the nations” (Is 56:7; Mk 11:17). “Jesus,” the Pope said, “was thinking of the so-called ‘Courtyard of the Gentiles’ which he cleared of extraneous affairs so that it could be a free space for the Gentiles who wished to pray there to the one God, even if they could not take part in the mystery for whose service the inner part of the Temple was reserved.” Benedict said that there are many who “know God, so to speak, only from afar; who are dissatisfied with their own gods, rites and myths; who desire the Pure and the Great, even if God remains for them the ‘unknown God’” referred to by St. Paul in his speech at the Athenian Areopagus. “I think that today too the Church should open a sort of ‘Courtyard of the Gentiles,’ in which people might in some way latch on to God, without knowing him and before gaining access to his mystery … who nevertheless do not want to be left merely Godless, but rather to draw near to him, albeit as the Unknown.”
That desire was soon put into motion by Cardinal Giovanni Ravasi, the affable, engaging and learned President of the Pontifical Academy for Culture, who decided to launch the idea in Paris, the symbolic birthplace and home of the enlightenment. At three institutions with unimpeachable secular credentials — UNESCO, the Sorbonne and the L’Institut de France — there were discussions and presentations by believers and non-believers; the whole event culminated in the square or “courtyard” of Notre Dame Cathedral, where Pope Benedict gave a live televised address.
The next Courtyard, a dialogue on technology and science, will be held in Chicago. Others are being planned for Albania, Sweden, Quebec, and Asia.
In his address to those assembled in the Notre Dame plaza, Pope Benedict expressed his joy that the Pontifical Council for Culture had taken up his desire that a dialogue with non-believers be established and that so many believers and non-believers had responded. “At the heart of the ‘City of Light,’ in front of the magnificent masterwork of French religious culture which is Notre Dame, a great court has been created in order to give fresh impetus to respectful and friendly encounter between people of differing convictions,” Pope Benedict said. “Believers and nonbelievers alike have chosen to come together, as you do in your daily lives, in order to meet one another and to discuss the great questions of human existence.” Speaking about God together, he implied, should be as natural for believers and non-believers as going to school, to the grocer, or to work together.
He began the heart of his address by turning to non-believers, praising their deepest desires and validating some of their just criticisms of believers and religious institutions. “Nowadays,” he said, “many people acknowledge that they are not part of any religion, yet they long for a new world, a world that is freer, more just and united, more peaceful and happy. … Those of you who are nonbelievers challenge believers in a particular way to live in a way consistent with the faith they profess and by your rejection of any distortion of religion that would make it unworthy of man.” In saying this, Benedict was echoing one of the great, but hidden, insights of the Second Vatican Council, which noted that one of the principle causes for non-belief in the world is precisely the lack of integrity found in the lives of Christians. “Believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral or social life, believers must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion” (Gaudium et Spes, 19). Pope Benedict wanted to acknowledge that reality head on, especially after the sexual abuse scandals involving Catholic clergy concealed God’s and the Church’s true face to non-believers even further.
Pope Benedict, however, also wanted to tackle directly another disfigurement. He said that in a highly secularized society that often is prejudiced and intolerant to religious belief, believers have a deep desire to tell others that faith is a “treasure” rather than a poison. Questions about God, he stressed, ennoble rather than harm man. “The question of God is not a menace to society,” Benedict exclaimed. “It does not threaten a truly human life! The question of God must not be absent from the other great questions of our time.”
The path of dialogue, he indicated, is not just a path of mutual tolerance but rather of mutual cooperation and search for the truth. He called the participants to “build bridges between one another,” and “work to break down the barriers of fear of others … born of mutual ignorance, skepticism or indifference.” He asked them to make “a courageous decision to seek the truth,” and to help their fellow believers and nonbelievers to “rediscover the path of dialogue.” Just as non-believers have nothing to fear from God, so “religions have nothing to fear from a just secularity, one that is open and allows individuals to live in accordance with what they believe in their own consciences.” Taking up and applying the motto of the French revolutionaries, he said, “If we are to build a world of liberty, equality and fraternity, then believers and nonbelievers must feel free to be just that, equal in their right to live as individuals and in community in accord with their convictions; and fraternal in their relations with one another.” He declared that one of the reasons for the Courtyard of the Gentiles is “to encourage such feelings of fraternity, over and above our individual convictions yet not denying our differences.” He also suggested — in a point that ought to be pondered — that the bridges believers and nonbelievers build between each other might likewise prove to be bridges between both groups and God, since each person, as a creature of God, is “in some way the road that leads to God.”
After the successful inauguration of the Courtyard of the Gentiles, Cardinal Ravasi noted in an interview that the Church’s hope is not for the Courtyard to remain a series of itinerant events sponsored by a Vatican Pontifical Council but rather a “fixture of the pastoral activity of every diocese.” As the numbers of non-believers in the state of Massachusetts and elsewhere continues to grow, as we seek to give witness to the faith in the midst of the modern areopagus of so many colleges and universities, and as the number of misconceptions about the Church has multiplied due to the scandals as well as to the way the truth about the Church has been only partially portrayed in some secular news outlets, the time is doubtless at hand for us to respond to the Holy Father’s initiative and open up a courtyard — or several courtyards — here.”
http://www.integratedcatholiclife.org/2011/04/reconstructing-the-courtyard-of-the-gentiles/
The Instrument demonstrates an interesting development in what it calls ‘the phenomenon of the great migration.’ So many people even in the United States are on the move to new cities or to the urban experience where one can see easily ‘the erosion of a basic reference point to life, values and the very bonds through which people build their identity and come to know the meaning of life (IL,55). This movement of populations, linked to secularization can leave ‘less room for long standing traditions including religious ones (IL,55). The Bishops encourage us in the parish to ‘develop new forms of solidarity and new ways of sharing development for the good of all (IL,55).
This may take a more personalized approach to ‘coffees after Mass’ where priests and people can get to know each other better and trust each other to share family traditions and customs and come to understand better the commonality of our parishes even in our diversity.
Our plan for an approach to the new evangelization is actually rooted in older models: subdividing our parish into localities with a person assigned as ‘captain.’ This person would be responsible for getting to know their district, inviting neighbors to come together and reaching out with other neighbors to those who are lost, confused or who have abandoned their faith. Ways and methods of attracting people will be discussed in our new ‘think tank’ for the new evangelization. The formation of a think tank on this issue will help cultivate new ideas for all levels of our parish’s development and hopefully allow an outreach for more participation in the core mission of our Church: to save souls.
The issue of advertising the work of Jesus is not easy. Media today is not interested in the Good News and often time loses interest. Parishes do not have the resources to nurture a steady stream of interest in their particular work. Social media, at this point is proving to be a better outreach for people and I encourage our parishioners and others to connect with our work through our website: https://www.mdpparish.com/ . Social media offers an opportunity for people to choose us, to seek us out and learn more.
Parishes today lose out in very real ways if they do not use the social media to their advantage in the preaching and catechizing of their flocks whether faithful or not. Access to even spiritual information in ways that people are growing more and more familiar remains an important part of communicating God’s Word and invitation to live out the Sacramental Life of the Church.
The next section of the Instrumentum looks at changes in the religious sector. There is a concern ‘about naive and emotional character in a return to religion. “Instead of being a gradual and complex development in a person’s search for truth, the return to religion, in many cases, has not been a very liberating experience. Consequently, the positive aspects of rediscovering God and th sacred are viewed as impoverished and obscured by a fundamentalism which frequently manipulates religion to justify acts of vioence and, in extreme but fortunately limited cases, even terrorism” (65).
As a parish, I don’t think we can underestimate those who have fallen away from the practice of their religion or even given up their faith for another ecclesial community in an effort to find emotional satisfaction without any real commitment. I think this will take some real reflection, discernment and courage in address this challenge. How do Catholics announce the Good News to people who have already misplaced the source of Truth in their lives or have settled for an incomplete reveleation of God’s mercy and love.
Yes You!
“Me? You can’t possibly mean me?” You can just imagine the expression of bewilderment that came over Amos when God told him: “Go, prophesy to my people.” He must have been dumbfounded. NOT ME, he surely thought! After all, I’m just a simple shepherd content with herding my sheep. What do I know about being a prophet?
If God asked you today to go out and “prophesy to my people,” to bring your God to the world, what would you say to him? Think about that for a second. What would you say to him? I bet most of us would respond just like Amos did. “What, me a prophet? You’ve got to be kidding me God!?” I have a family and a job! The kids have soccer practice and baseball games. I have no time to be a prophet. Besides, I have no idea what that even means and I’m not all that “religious.” Continue reading “Yes You!”
Summer Spiritual Scavenger Hunt
Play the MDP Summer Spiritual Scavenger Hunt from July 15 – August 15 for a chance to win one of these prizes:
1st Prize: 2 ‘Ride all Night’ wristbands for the Community Carnival Wristband Night
2nd Prize: $25 Gift Certificate to Petrucci’s Ice Cream at NorView Farms
3rd Prize: $15 iTunes Gift Card
Everyone in the parish is eligible to play. Just click on the link at the top right hand corner of this page (^) to begin your Summer Spiritual Scavenger Hunt. Good Luck!
"For when I am weak, then I am strong" – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
The Word of God needs fertile ground where it can be planted. We come together as a parish symbolizing the People of God. The dynamic of Catholic Mass is that it is a conversation rooted in our ability to listen and respond worthily to God. But, if our worship here is not worthy, not celebrated purely in the Rites provided for us, it will fall lifeless and have no merit.
If our Catholic neighbors come together but refuse to understand or even know each other in the marketplace, they will misunderstand each other in the Church. If they come together and see no other point of view but their own, they will be unable to see the Common Good of the whole community. But if they come open to loving Christ and seek to listen for His conversation, even those who disagreed greatly can recieve His Word both in our weaknesses and in our strengths. Paul says, I will boast in my weaknesses in order that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Strong but gentle and a very reliable product. Buy clomid online? Through years of experience we know which medications work well and what price it the best for you.
If we can pay attention to the words of the Confiteor: “I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.”
Can you hear what you have said? Admitting that you have greatly sinned, yet you gather here together, as a parish, to sacrifice all our strengths and weaknesses to God on this Altar. Now, our hearts lay open and fertile!
From this Altar then comes the Word of God spoken, and there will be good listeners to hear and proclaim.
Saint Paul gives it to us straight when he says ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ Our call to holiness is work: it is planting and nurturing and harvesting-all at the same time and all within its own time. But it is all Christ’s work that we do together; in family, among neighbors as a parish. Therefore we should grow ‘content(ed) with weakness, insults, hardships persecutions and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when (we are) weak, then (we are) strong!”
You and I have a tremendous job to do, either we hinder or help the work of the Lord, in the vineyard of our neighborhoods, of our parish and of our homes. We can with confidence open the door wide to Him and do his work, we can listen to His Word and elevate our spirits, we can be pure in our worship and worthy in our reception.
Filled with this confidence we share at this Mass, we affirm what Ezekiel said to us: “As the Lord spoke to me, and set me on my feet. I heard the One who was speaking say: Son of man, I am sending you forth!” We can leave here today with hope that our imperfect response to His Presence will always be ‘yes,’ and our hearts laid bare, will be fertile ground for His planting. “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord!”
How Important is Your Name to You?
Naming a child is one of the first things new parents do. The name given to the child helps define an identity that will last a lifetime. Studies have shown that a person’s name influences the development of their personality, their interests in life and how they are perceived by others in the world. That’s why choosing a name is a significant part of every culture and is so important to both the people who receive them and the societies that give them.
Elizabeth and Zechariah knew that naming their first born child was not something to be taken lightly, especially since an angel of the Lord told them their son shall be named John. For Zechariah, John was an especially troubling name since no one in his family had previously been named John. This name was clearly outside of the cultural norm of the Jewish tradition. Choosing the name John required Elizabeth and Zechariah to have tremendous faith and trust in God. Continue reading “How Important is Your Name to You?”
Archbishop Chaput begins Fortnight4Freedom
This is a great link to a speech delievered by Archbishop Chaput:
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/06/launching-the-fortnight-for-freedom
What we believe matters! Mark 4:26-34
Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,
I don’t know if you had the opportunity to listen to the Bishops meeting last week o EWTN. They were discussing the Health and Services Mandate that begins very soon and the ramifications of that edict on our right to express our religion in the public forum. It is sobering when you here a Bishop stand up and say, we have to consider what will happen, if we loose – what will we have to sacrifice- our hospitals, our schools, our institutions for the physically and mentally disabled, our housing for the neglected elderly and sick, our institutions who care for the homeless and the poor and most of all, our right to express our opinion in the public forum.
A former official in the State Department described how the administration is changing the language of our right to religious freedom to our right to religious worship which narrows our freedom in the public forum and reserves it within our houses of prayer.
It is alarming to think with what personal sacrifice Americans have defended the right to religious freedom throughout Europe, Asia and in the Middle East that now we must defend the integrity of our own Constitution.
What can we do? The Bishops have organized a Fortnight (14 days) for Religious Freedom from June 22 – July4. Find out what you can do on our parish website: MDPPARISH.COM.
In the meantime, let us look at the parable revealed to us today When Mark says, ‘the Kingdom of God’ he refers to the ‘reign of God,’ the day when all mankind accepts the Will of God and fulfills it perfectly on earth as it is in heaven.
There are three lessons we can learn here:
The parable tells us of the helplessness of man. The farmer does not make the seed grow. Human beings cannot create. They can develop, nurture, discover, even rearrange, but they cannot create. Man is not God.
Only in arrogance do people believe they can create. Humans will always and everywhere be subject to the natural law of creation. For behind all things is God. He is the Master of Life.
Secondly, the parable tells us something about the Kingdom. Jesus uses the mustard seed and its natural growth to describe the coming of the Kingdom; the germination of a seed, for instance into a mature tree is often unnoticeable. The Kingdom of God is the same. Over time one who has the eyes of faith, sees the hand of God working. No matter how much we try to stop it, despite our pride and busyness, the Kingdom of God continues to come.
Thirdly, the parable summons us to be prepared. Death is a perfect teacher. When we witness a person dying we see all the cares of the world being left behind and only the really important things in life stay close. You hear it again and again. The three most important things in life: God, Family and God – nothing else. This is how we get ready, we put these things in perspective and everything else will fall into place.
If we determine to live with an undefeated patience, with hope rather than despair, and are always prepared to see the light of eternal life, we will, by the grace of God, be ready for the coming of God’s Kingdom.
We are in a time of clarity in our country and in our Church. What we believe matters. We believe in our God given right to express what we believe in the public forum and to offer in trust, our gratitude to Almighty God for what He gives us.
We are imitating the Heart of Jesus – Hosea 11:1,3-4, 8c-9
We have come together this morning to spiritually ready ourselves to end the school year and begin our summer vacations. I know you are all excited as you should be. This day will be different from other days, in that, for our parish, this day is historical. All of you are a part of a historical movement not only for our parish but also for our Archdiocese Our parish has been asked to open its door to all families who seek good Catholic Education. We do this gladly and generously as we should as Christians.
There is a sadness for those who have gone before us and who have marked the passage of time and life with their memories of our school. But because we are sharing our school doesn’t mean we are diminishing our parish resolve to educate nor the fond memories we will cherish throughout our life as a parish.
We are imitating the heart of Jesus to embrace all children who are in need and because we do this we are glad and filled with a greater hope that our parish will be made stronger through our sacrifice.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom we have great devotion and who solemnity we celebrate today, opens His heart to us from the cross with the lance that represents the inhumanity people can have toward each other. Blood and water, the sign of our sacramental life, pours out to fill the empty cups of our soul. His heart is filled with the fire of love for us that burst out to touch us.
The Sacred Heart calls us to conversion, to make reparation for sins, to love and to be grateful. He calls us to become salt for the earth and lights in the world, and we will be just that, with the help and prayers of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who loved and cared for children in their need.
I want to publically thank Mrs. Garvin, the teachers and staff. I want to express our gratitude to all the principals and all the teachers and all the alumni and invite them to walk forward with us into a new future where our faith will be nurtured and where the Gospel of Jesus will become understood so we can together grow in communion with the saints.
As we leave on this vacation, let us re-dedicate ourselves to God’s boundless love and open our hearts to receive from the heart of Jesus the entire mystery of the Godhead.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You.
Do not be afraid; just have faith. Mark 5:21-43
My dear friends, these graduation ceremonies are not the celebration of one student, or one class, or even of one school. It is as a parish that we gather this evening to give thanks to God for whom nothing is impossible.
Our students have come to this point not just through the sacrifices of their families, though great sacrifices they are; and not just through the education of a superior faculty and staff, though educated they have become.
They arrive at this point in their lives with the encouragement of this entire parish, who with great pride, graduates them into a new stage in their lives. For this, our parish celebrates the Sacrifice of the Mass in the Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, our patron, whose festival day we remember.
But let us now consider the Gospel revealed today:
“When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side,” Jesus takes the initiative to cross over the sea, always a metaphor for confusion and doubt. Jesus deliberately crosses over to minister to us, ‘on the other side.’
The first great lesson to remember tonight, my dear students: that Jesus takes the lead in finding us, no matter where we are hiding.
Then what happens: Jairus, a synagogue official, ‘came forward.’ Why does Mark have Jairus come forward, because even a synagogue official can thirst for Truth and Hunger for God.
The second great lesson to remember tonight, my dear students: that all of us, no matter who we are or how great or less we become, we thirst for Truth and hunger for God.
And how does Jairus find Truth and become satiated with God? ‘Seeing Jesus he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him. Wow! Jairus was very low that day I’m afraid that all he had left was to fall on his knees and plead earnestly.
The third great lesson to remember tonight, my dear students: that all of us need to come to a moment of clarity, that without God we are nothing nor is any good thing possible without Him. Fall on your knees every night and give thanks and glory where it rightly belongs, to God.
As we learn these lessons, Jesus approaches the synagogue official and says, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
Parents, Friends, Parishioners, this is where you come in, because you never left. “Just have faith.” These lights are entrusted to us to be kept burning brightly because they are, like us, children of the light! Saint Anthony of Padua said once, “Teach with words, love with deeds.” If we are going to teach them these lessons in life, we will need to learn them and to act upon them. We cannot just teach the faith; we must learn it and love because of it.
And so my dear graduates, in words of the incomparable William Shakespeare (Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene 7) “Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave. ~William Shakespeare
The last Eighth Grade Graduation of the School at Mother of Divine Providence within the Mass in memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, June 13, 2012