From Father Steven - August 30

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
​
Lately in my prayers and reflections, I noticed that there are many bad things happening all over the world. It seems almost as if things are going from bad to worse. Many injustices, cheating, hatred, Covid and other illnesses, and so on. Always praying for the world and interceding before God to "have mercy on us and on the whole world", I ask myself, WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP THIS SITUATION? Personally, there is very little that I can do. Mostly what I can do is to bring God's love to everyone I encounter and be a sign of God's fidelity to the people (...besides that if I am a priest today, indeed nothing is impossible for God.) It's true that you and I can do a lot of little things and if each one of us contributes like this, we will light the world on fire with God's love. However, we need ONE PERSON to help us and everyone else to bring this change in the world, namely, GOD!

I have read many times from different people living at different ages exhorting us to reach out to God. With every apparition of the Blessed Mother, and most visions of Jesus, the message is always the same. Let's entrust ourselves and the whole world under the care of God. For every problem that we have, God has already prepared graces to give us. BUT, GOD CANNOT FORCE ANYTHING ON US. We need to ask for what we need. Needless to say that we also need to ask for those in need and for the whole world. In other words, WE NEED TO PRAY. It seems to me that as Europe was faced with immediate danger back at the time of the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, or faced with the Black Plague in 1347, and many other occasions, we are also faced with many challenges in our world, from political divides to the pandemic. The answer is always to entrust everything to the Lord. That doesn't mean that he will remove all problems, but He will give us the strength to overcome every obstacle and difficulty. Some groups began praying the rosary every day. Others are doing 24 hours of Eucharistic Adoration, AND WHAT ARE WE DOING?

I'm sure that there are parishioners who pray the Rosary every day, participate (even remotely) in daily mass, spend time with the word of God, come to Church from time to time, and more. But I also observe that more often than not, that those are individual efforts. What if we were to do this together? I WOULD LIKE TO CALL THE WHOLE PARISH TO BE UNITED IN PRAYER FOR 48 HOURS. Let’s invite our friends and family to come together in the Eucharistic presence of Christ in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. As the opening prayer from last week said, “O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose, grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, amid the uncertainties of this world, our hearts may be fixed where true gladness is found.” Let’s all be united under this same purpose, in order to find this true happiness.

Therefore we will have the ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT FROM 6:00p.m. on SUNDAY, September 6th, THROUGH 6:00p.m. TUESDAY September 8th . Only during our 7:30am daily Mass we will repose the Blessed Sacrament. This past week the Church remembered St. Monica, who spent her whole life praying for the conversion of her husband and her son. Following her example, let’s also pray for the conversion of the whole world.

Courage brothers and sisters! "I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me" (Philippians 4:13) PS.

​We will be sanitizing the Church regularly during that time, masks will be required at all times, and hand sanitizer will be available at the main entrance.

God Bless,
Fr. Steven