Dear Friends,
First and foremost, I hope all of you are well, you and your loved ones.
In our readings today, Christians are going out proclaiming Jesus as their Lord and of course also being persecuted because of Christ. The Church throughout its history has always been under attack by various organizations and people and through it all, it lives and thrives.
You and I today experience a different sort of attack on us due to this virus. As a community of faith, we’re presently deprived of our Sunday worship in our Parish Church which is sad and disheartening. You can always view Mass in Sts. Peter and Paul and St. Ursula every Sunday at your leisure on our website. However whatever Mass you view online doesn’t give you what your hearts and souls yearn for and of course, that’s the Eucharist. At this time, since we cannot receive our Lord in Holy Communion, the next best thing is to receive Him spiritually in your heart by saying the following prayer.
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Let’s continue to pray for one another. Sts. Peter and Paul, pray for us. St. Ursula, pray for us.
God Bless,
Father John
The Acts of the Apostles basically tells us about the early Church and how it came to be as a result of the disciples going out to preach the Word of God. During that time, there was a great deal of persecution because of Christ.
The time period may have changed; we are now in the 21st century. But the persecution takes on different forms. The unborn, the elderly, the handicapped in mind and body. All these people who do not have a voice of their own depend upon you and me to fight for them.
Our society more than ever needs committed Catholics to stand up for what we believe, to live the Gospel message and to fight for causes that we believe in. We need to be a united people, a people who puts Christ first and foremost in our lives.
It’s not easy for me to do this nor is it easy for you. We need divine help and we get that help at Mass. That help is the Eucharist, the Bread of Life. Jesus is the living bread come down from heaven that lasts forever.
There’s no magic to it; the Lord tells us to eat this bread and it will fortify us and give us what we need to live Christ- like lives. Jesus in the Eucharist enables us to carry on the work of the now Risen Lord that we thought at one time was impossible.
May we hunger for this holy Bread always and may it transform us to be staunch followers of Christ and help us to bring about more Christian values to a world so desperately in need of them.