There are many great things happening at Queen of Heaven Parish all thanks to your involvement and support!  The mission most dear to my heart is passing on the beautiful truths of our Catholic faith.  Sunday, September 8th we will begin a new catechetical year – the parish school of religion (PSR), high school youth ministry (Upper Room), and Sacramental prep programs for First Reconciliation, First Communion, and Confirmation. 
            These are more than just “programs.”  I really dislike the term because it sounds blah and worn out.  Truly they are one of the most important ways we live and achieve the mission of Jesus Christ and His Church.  Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.”  He wants us to do the very thing He instructed his closest followers to do: go therefore and make disciples of all the nations!  No easy task for sure.  Particularly when our own nation is in need of deep conversion and re-evangelization. 
            Nevertheless, it is our hope that rich faith formation at our parish will help our youth draw closer to God.  My prayer is that they come to know the Church as a place where they are received in genuine love and are shown God’s healing power.  This is key to evangelizing future generations that will inevitably be starved for Truth!
            Thank you in advance to Donna White who directs our PSR program, and to all the many catechists who sacrifice their time each week.  On Behalf of Father Durkee, Deacon Steve, and all the staff, may our parish be abundantly blessed with an awesome year ahead.  Please pick up a registration from the bulletin boards or download from the parish website and turn in either at the main office or in the collection baskets at mass. 
 
In Christ’s Peace,
Steven Dyer

This weekend at all the Masses we are hearing a challenging message from our Deacon to share our treasured Catholic faith with someone who does not share that gift at the moment. We are asking you to make a concerted effort among your family and friends to invite them to join the Catholic faith. There is a saying that goes, “It’s just not about keeping the faith, but spreading the faith.”  St. John Christendom said, “I fear for the salvation of anyone who does not work for the salvation of others.”
 
I heard a story of a very zealous pastor who would call anyone randomly from the phone book who had an address in his parish boundaries and asked them if by chance if they ever thought about being a Catholic. I’m not sure I recommend that technique, but I do admire that pastor’s zeal for souls. When I examine my own conscience, do I have a similar zeal for souls? I also ask the same the question for all of us at Queen of Heaven.
 
The reason for bringing up this topic right now is because in a few short weeks our RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiations of Adults) program begins mid-September. The meetings are Monday nights at 6:30-8:00 pm in Parish Life Center Room 3. The classes are taught by a team: Deacon Steven Makara, Father Durkee, Steve Dyer, Sharon Herbe and Judy Richard. They run through the Easter season. There is no obligation to become a Catholic, they can just “come and see” and learn about the faith; by the way, anyone (confirmed Catholics) can attend these meetings to just learn and have a refresher course of their Catechetical formation.
 
Of other things….
 
This coming week we celebrate The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a 7:00 pm Vigil Mass on Wednesday, August 14th in the church; and a Mass at 8:30 am in the church and an outdoor Mass at 7:00 pm on Thursday, August 15^th.   An ice cream social will follow in the pavilion after the 7:00 pm Mass.
 
The following week on Thursday, August 22nd, we will celebrate our Patronal Feast Day, The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with a 7:00 pm Mass. There will be a covered dish dinner from 6-6:45 before the Mass.
 
God Bless our students who have begun or getting ready to begin school.
 
Blessings in JMJ,
 
Father Dave

When you were a kid your parents warned you about the danger of reaching up and touching the top of the hot stove.  Part of you wondered why it was such a big deal.  Maybe another part of you said I am going to do it anyway.  You may or may not have followed your parent’s advice, but sooner or later you figured out that they were telling you the truth.  Their goals were to keep you out of harm’s way and to pass on valuable wisdom for your future.  This is all to say, sometimes we realize the importance of wise words at the time, other times in our spiritual journey we need to experience things first hand to reinforce the truths behind them.
 
 The series of readings from this weekend’s Mass all contain a similar theological message.  What is the essence of what the Lord wants us to hear, and are we ready to listen to His words and put them into action?  We know that our lives are finite, and that death will eventually take both sinner and saint.  Earthly things seem to be in sharp contrast with Heavenly things.  Riches are not for storing up and greed is to be eliminated.  While Ecclesiastes is not all pessimism, the author does say our labors are fleeting.  This is a great reminder to us who tend to think only in terms of the comfortability and permanence of things.  While we need money, skills, and knowledge in this life, these are mere stepping stones to what lies ahead. 
 
The pitfall of our modern mindset is to think that if we work hard enough and accumulate enough money to do and buy all the things we could ever dream of, then will be satisfied.  This is precisely the philosophy of the rich man in Luke’s parable: “Rest, eat, drink, and be merry!”  That sounds like a great retirement plan to me.  Then why does Jesus come in and ruin the party?  Like the parent who says do not touch the hot stove because it could burn you, Jesus shows his disciples that acting like the rich man is foolish.  For money, pleasure and knowledge are merely necessary things along the path of life, but God is the goal of the journey.  God is not interested in these things as far as they deter us from loving Him and following His commandments.  Let us pray for the desire to be rich in the things that matter to God.             
 
Grace and Peace,
Steven Dyer
 
P.S.
Next weekend, we will be in the Gathering Space answering questions and providing information about the Parish RCIA Program.  Please come and see us!    

In our Gospel today, we hear the very familiar words of Jesus, "And I tell you, ask and you will receive seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” When I hear these words, and I am sure for many of you, my thoughts often go to prayer. We don’t have to look very far to see how much our world today needs prayers. There surely is not a shortage of things to pray for in our world today: from all the situations we see in the news, to things happening in our own families, and situations with our close friends and co-workers. All of this can make us feel very overwhelmed.                                         
 
We probably catch ourselves thinking, we have so much to pray for, but so little time. I want to challenge us to ask ourselves, is this really the case? Think about the life of Jesus, he lived a very busy life. His daily schedule certainly was not very light: from walking from town to town, to teaching and preaching, performing miracles, and leading his Apostles. Despite this, in scripture we hear about him often going off on his own to pray to the Father. He knew how important prayer was for him to accomplish all that his Father was calling him to do.                                    
 
As people of faith, we need to grow in our own sense of this reality. Our whole lives should be a living prayer. Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton tells us, “We must pray without ceasing, in every occurrence and employment of our lives - that prayer which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him.” This is a challenging quote, but it represents the call that Jesus is calling us to. Living a Catholic life is not about showing up for one hour for Mass every week and checking that box off. We are called to go out and proclaim the good news to all we encounter, and we cannot do this unless we pray and unite every moment of our lives more fully to Jesus.                                                                                
 
Now you may be asking yourself, I do pray a lot, but I don’t get the answers that I desire. Why is this the case? We live in a culture today that is all about getting things immediately. God, however, does not work this way. All things happen in his time not ours. This can be tough at times, but we must continue to pray and know that he will answer the door and provide when the time is right. So, make your lives a living prayer, and you will certainly not be disappointed.
 
God Bless,
 
Ben Schweigert

Life is full of choices and these choices come in all different shapes and sizes. You’ve made several simple choices thus far today: perhaps choosing what cereal to have or making the decision to pick up a church bulletin and share a few minutes with the Deacon through his writing. Some choices, however, involve more important matters (should I trade in the car or wait another year?) or really important, life–changing matters (like those surrounding the answering of our call to discipleship).
 
Today’s Gospel is all about choices. In Luke’s narrative, we find our Lord (and probably a pack of twelve or so hungry men tagging along) visiting his friends Mary and Martha. Most likely we’re familiar with the story. With Jesus’ arrival Martha busies herself caring for the needs of her important visitors while her sister parks herself at the feet of the Divine “…listening to him speak.” Martha, finding herself anxious, worried, a bit overwhelmed, and perhaps angry at her seemingly lazy sister, barks at our Lord, “Tell her to help me.”
 
But, Jesus in his wisdom, reminds Martha, and us too, that “There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part” – and that better part simply involves staying close to Jesus, listening to him and loving him.
While Martha may see the situation as Mary taking advantage of her by choosing the seemingly easy way when it comes to the household work at hand, that’s not really the case. The better part that Mary took, and of which our Lord speaks of, is not necessarily the easier part. Christ never promised that following him would be easy, relaxed or tranquil. In fact, he promised it wouldn’t. The spiritual life is full of mystery and, thus, we may think that we’ll find ourselves on unfamiliar ground if we abandon ourselves and trust God to lead us on our path to Salvation. And, fearing unfamiliarity, it’s often much more comfortable for us to keep busy doing what we’re familiar with, rather than tackling the harder choices that life throws at us…just like Martha did.
 
But Mary chose wisely – putting her normal activities on hold for a little while so that she could take advantage of the better part – sitting at Jesus’ feet, drinking in his wisdom, his love and his beauty.
 
Without the daily renewal and deepening of our personal relationship with Jesus Christ that only comes about by “sitting at his feet” and engaging in various forms of prayer and study along with the Sacraments, sooner or later routine sets in. We get into a rut: prayers become mechanical, the sacramental life slides into mere ritualism, and before we know it, our faith gets sidelined and we get dragged further into the rat–race of this world.
 
Jesus, Martha and Mary challenge us today. Are there good and Godly things in our lives that we fear and thus choose to avoid by busying ourselves? Why not ditch the familiar avoidance routine and go for the “better part?”
 
May God live in the midst of your hearts!
 
Deacon Steve
 
P.S. Just as Martha and Mary welcomed our Lord into their home and hearts, please consider welcoming Jesus more deeply into your life (or the life of a loved one) by means of our upcoming RCIA program.

Dear Friends,
 
A few weeks ago, on the feast of Corpus Christi, I shared with you during my homily the words from a Holy Card I received on my First Holy Communion Day in May of 1962 from Sister Siena, our second-grade teacher at St. Vincent, Akron.  Several people have asked me for a copy of it. In lieu of my letter this weekend I share this Holy Card with you. I hope it strikes you as it did me. How timeless it is fifty-seven years later.
 
Peace and Love in JMJ,
Father Dave
 
FIRST COMMUNION HOLY CARD
 
             Once Jesus, the Son of God, fed a vast multitude of people in the desert with five loaves of barley bread and two fishes. And after five thousand men, women and children had eaten their fill, there was enough food left over sufficient to fill twelve baskets.
             The people were astounded by this miracle, and they concluded that if they followed this Master who could multiply food that would enable them to obtain eternal life.
             The people were very interested, and they asked the Lord to give them this special, wonderful food. Then it was that Jesus spoke these historic words, “I am the Living Bread that has come down from heaven; if anyone eat of it, he will not die. If anyone eat of this Bread he shall live forever – and the Bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world…Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He who east my flesh and drinks my blood has life everlasting, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, abides in Me and I in him.”
              Jesus made it possible for men to feed on His sacred Body and Blood when at the last supper with His Apostles:  His first bishops and priests, he gave them the power to change bread and wine into His real Body and His real Blood.
              You are going to make your first Holy Communion. This means that for the first time you are going to partake of the living Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. What an awesome thought! You are more privileged than the angels of God in heaven.
              This is the first time you will be receiving the Body and the Blood of Christ. There will be a second, a third time; there will be many times and there will be a last time. You must strive to keep your heart pure so that when you receive Christ at the hour of death, you will be as worthy then as you are now on this day of your first Holy Communion.
              You eat your daily food so that you might have a strong and healthy body. In other words, you eat to live. If you did not eat, you would soon die.
              The same holds true for the food which Christ has given to us: His own Body and Blood. If you eat it, you will have a healthy soul, strong with the grace of God. And you shall have eternal life; you shall never know the everlasting death that is the lot of the devil and his fallen angels and of those who follow them. To achieve this wonderful gift of unending life with God, you must go to Holy Communion frequently; as often as you can, refresh yourself with the Divine Food:  The Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ.

             The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.  Have you ever felt like you were not qualified to do God’s work?  I think it is a scary thing when we are first presented with opportunities to put ourselves out there in the name of our Faith.  Yet, that is exactly what Jesus does with the seventy-two that were chosen to spread his message in Luke’s Gospel today.  They probably felt apprehensive, fearful, and at the same time excited to learn what would come of their mission.
            Jesus gives the seventy-two specific instructions on how to perform their mission of spreading the Gospel to the world.  He indicates that there will be danger on the journey.  He also gives them to power to stomp on “serpents” and “scorpions” along the way.  Jesus tells them this so they cannot boast, and so they know that he is the Master of the harvest.  It is a good reminder that we are partakers in working to spread God’s kingdom, not the originators of the message.
            Recently, Pope Francis wrote a message to the young Christians of the world.  It is called Christus Vivit.  In it he explains that to live lives of heroic virtue we must become more fully who God created us to be.  I have often thought, if only I could be like this or that saint, then that is all I must do to live the Christian life well.  But the Pope goes on to say that we ought not be carbon copies of the saints.  Becoming a saint is to become more fully and truly ourselves.  We all can leave a special mark on the world that no one else can, and if we realize that, then we do not have to be in competition with others.  You have something only YOU can offer.  Take time to reflect on what that “something” is and be ready to share that with others.  Do not let fear or negativity prevent you from being sent by God to minister to His people. 
            We would like to invite you to a share session about our San Lucas mission trip on Sunday, July 14th, from 9:15 am to 10:45 am (in between the two morning Masses) in the Parish Life Center.  We will have a slide show of our successful mission trip and give witness talks of what we learned and experienced while we were in Guatemala.  Refreshments will be served.  Thank you for your support on this important endeavor.
 
Have a peace-filled week,
Steve Dyer

I am sure we have all had times where we have read certain passages in scripture and been taken aback, and we ask ourselves, did that person really say that? Our Gospel this weekend probably presented us with a couple of these instances. A man approaches Jesus, and Jesus says, “Follow me.” Instead of following him right away, he responds by saying, “Lord let me go bury my father.” Many of us were probably like, this seems like a reasonable response, he will go bury his loved one and then follow Jesus. Jesus, however, responds very differently by saying, “Let the dead bury the dead.” When we heard this, I bet many of us were like, who does Jesus think he is? Shouldn’t he show some sympathy to this person? Imagine hearing this response during a time in your life when you were grieving a loss of someone; you probably would be very shocked by whoever responded this way.                                                                               

Another man who must have been close by then responds and says, “I will follow you Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” Again, this seems like a very reasonable thing to do. I’m sure any of us when asked to do something by someone when we could be gone for a long time would first want to say goodbye to our families first. Jesus, however, again seems to see things a different way, because he responds by saying, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” After hearing these couple of responses by Jesus, we may be finding ourselves very shocked. This does not seem to sound like the caring and loving Jesus that we all think he is.                                                        

Despite these feelings that we may find ourselves having when hearing these things, my friends, I want to encourage you in saying that Jesus was not trying to be a mean and nasty person by responding this way. He was instead trying to show us that sometimes we do our best to make every excuse possible when asked to follow Jesus. Think about it, so often Christ is calling us to dive deeper into a relationship with him, but we refuse because we are too busy, or we have better things to do. He was responding in this way to show us that falling into these traps can be very dangerous because he wants all of us to follow him and be led to give our whole selves for the sake of the kingdom.            

In reflecting on this, I cannot help but think about the celebration that we will be having here at the parish this weekend. This Sunday, June 30^th from 5:00-9:00 p.m. we will be coming together to celebrate 20 years of Father Dave being our pastor here at Queen of Heaven. What a great blessing this is for all of us! There was a time when he himself was asked by Christ to follow him, and instead of making excuses he gave his whole life for the sake of the Church. As a parish community we should take time this weekend to pray for him and give thanks for all that he has done for this parish community, and just think, none of it would have happened if it was not for him saying yes, to his vocation to the priesthood.

I know that he has been a great pastor and example for me as I journey on the road to the priesthood as well. My brothers and sisters, we certainly are not all called to be priests like Father Dave was called, but we are all called to dive into a much deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. May we all respond well, and not make any excuses, because when we do so we will be greatly blessed indeed.
 
God Bless,
Ben Schweigert

           I would venture to guess that most Catholics believe the Church’s teaching that
“…the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully and without error teach the truth.
Written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author.”
So why is it that an alarmingly large percentage of the Catholic population
today doesn’t believe in the true presence of our Lord in the Eucharist? What’s
not to accept? Our Lord’s words recorded by the Gospel writers couldn’t have
been any clearer, “This is my body…this is my blood.” He didn’t tell us that
the transformed bread and wine at the Last Supper represented his body and
blood. Rather he uses the word “is” during this most sacred of meals. With this
simple two-letter word our human logic flies out of the window and our senses
fail us. But the truth of the matter is, at the consecration, simple bread and wine
as humans understand these things to be, no longer exist. What now “is” – is
Christ’s real presence in our midst.

           Today we celebrate the great solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood
of Christ (or simply Corpus Christi). The institution of Corpus Christi as a feast
in the Christian calendar has an interesting history. Tradition has it that the
feast resulted from approximately forty years of prayer and work on the part
of Juliana of Liège, a member of a religious community living in 13th-Century
Belgium. Orphaned at the age of five, she and her sister were entrusted to
the care of a group of Augustinian nuns where Juliana developed a special
veneration for the Blessed Sacrament.

          Juliana always longed for a feast day specifically set aside to honor our
Lord in the Eucharist. Her desire was miraculously confirmed by a vision of
the Church under the appearance of a full moon having one dark spot, the
dark spot signifying the absence of such a solemnity. In 1208, she began to
receive other visions. In these visions, Christ himself instructed her to plead for
the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi. These visions were repeated for
the next twenty years but she kept them secret. When she eventually relayed
the message of the visions to her confessor, he relayed it to the bishop, who
involved Rome. Pope Urban IV then instituted the feast of Corpus Christi in
1264. For Juliana, the full moon no longer had one dark spot!

          One of the 4th century Church Fathers, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, commenting
on our reading today from St. Paul’s Eucharisticly–themed letter to the
Corinthians, presents us with a challenge:
              “This one teaching of the blessed Paul is enough to give you complete
              certainty about the Divine Mysteries… For Paul proclaimed clearly that:
              “…the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after
              he had given thanks, broke it and said: ‘Take, eat, this is my body.’ In the
              same way also the cup saying: ‘Take, drink, this is my blood.’” He Himself,
              therefore, having declared and said of the Bread, “This is my body,” who
              will dare any longer to doubt? And when He himself has affirmed and said,
              “This is my blood,” who can ever hesitate and say it is not his blood?

           Let’s pause for a moment and reflect. What is it that we truly believe about
the real presence? In the communion line, are we merely going through some
ritualistic motion or are we coming to meet a real, living, breathing God/man –
our Lord Jesus Christ – in a special, mysterious, intimate way?

May God be your heart and your life!
Deacon Steve 

P.S. Please continue to pray for those individuals in your life who (although
they may not realize it) may be longing to know Christ in a deeper way and are
waiting for you to invite them to join our RCIA program.

Dear Friends,

Today, we celebrate Father’s Day and the Feast of the Holy Trinity. How appropriate these two celebrations come together today. We are made in God’s image, and God’s image is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The very nature and essence of God is a community. If that is true for God’s essence, then that is true for us as well. We are called to live in community, meaning we are called daily to build relationships with our God and with others.

This third Sunday of June, we are called to thank God for the relationship we have with our fathers. This idea of honoring our fathers was not invented by the Hallmark card industry or tool companies. It was in the very mind of God. The fourth commandment (by the way, they’re called the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions), is honor your father and your mother and you shall have a long life. What is the best way we honor our fathers? One of the best ways we can honor our fathers today is by offering this Mass and Communion for them. Today at Mass, everyone will receive a holy card with a beautiful prayer on it for our Dads. We want to thank the Anthony Funeral Home for providing them to us for free.

Celebrating this Feast of the Holy Trinity, I can’t help but think of two stories. Number one is the story of St. Patrick teaching the people of Ireland, who at the time were pagans, using the three-leafed shamrock to explain that just as the shamrock is one shamrock, but has three leaves, so too, we believe that God is One, yet also three Persons. It is a mystery.

The second is one of a little boy, who was digging a hole in the sand on the beach. St. Augustine was walking by and asked the boy, “What are you doing?” as he was pouring water from the ocean into his hole. The boy said, “I am trying to empty the ocean into this hole.” St. Augustine said to himself, “For me, to try to comprehend the mystery of the Holy Trinity is similar to him trying to empty the ocean into that hole.”

Of other things, this week we are celebrating our Vacation Bible School. Many, many thanks to Melanie Mesmer and her fabulous team of volunteers who are helping make this year’s VBS a wonderful experience for our youth.

Next Sunday, June 23rd, is the Feast of Corpus Christi. We will be concluding the Mass with a procession with the Blessed Sacrament to an outside altar for Benediction. A reception will follow in the Pavilion to welcome Father Semonin to our parish, featuring Guiseppe’s pizza and cake.

Peace & Love in JMJ,
Father Dave