What a challenging time we live in! Our world today is filled with dividing walls: walls that divide one country from another, one race from another, Democrats from Republicans, citizens from those who long for citizenship, Browns fans from Steelers fans. We can’t walk too far in our world today without confronting some barrier to unity and these barriers are strong. The Devil has been busy over the years building fences cobbled together with fear, misunderstanding, self-interest, pride and prejudice.

As disciples of Christ we’re called to break down the walls that divide and in their place work to build a world of harmony. But how? Where do we begin?

Well, thanks be to God, we’ve been given a way to topple the barriers and uncover the cornerstone upon which human harmony can flourish. Today’s excerpt from the letter to the Ephesians describes the unifying mission of Jesus in clear and powerful terms: “For (Christ Jesus)…broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through His flesh…that He might create in Himself one new person in place of the two…thus establishing peace in one body, through the cross, putting enmity to death by it.”

St. Paul’s exhortation makes clear the fact that Jesus has come to tear down the walls of hostility that divide us from one another, to make us one by his cross. We are one body! So the mission of Jesus is a mission of unity, and as disciples this becomes our mission too: a mission that calls for us to surmount all divisional barriers and work to bring together brother to brother and sister to sister.

So, we’ve been challenged, and this task is indeed daunting. How can we as individuals even begin to approach this mission? We begin with humility and build on Christ. Any true and lasting transformation in the world doesn’t start with the guy on the other side of the fence changing his mindset.

Rather peace begins with you and me living the Gospel. And, with that, we become conduits of the healing graces of Christ that the world so desperately needs. What a wonderful world that would be!

May God grant you his peace, his grace, his light and his most holy consolations!

Deacon Steve

Dear Parish Family,
I am happy to announce our Parish Library (the shelves which are located just outside the Gift Shop) in the Gathering Space of the church has been reopened with 763 books available for your borrowing. Many new books have been donated, so come check it out!
I am so grateful to the volunteers who spent many, many hours arranging them by subjects. Those subjects include:  Prayer, Jesus, Mary, Saints, Spiritual Life, Scripture, Children, Family, Teens, Mercy, Vocations, and Grief, Death & Suffering. The library is on an honor system; please feel free to browse, borrow, read and return. Return the books to the basket next to the library shelf.
What a perfect time, in the middle of the summer, for us to take up a book and read! St. Jerome once said, “When we pray, we speak to God; but when we read (scripture or a good spiritual book), God speaks to us.” St. Alphonsus Liguori said, “It is spiritually impossible to save your soul without good spiritual reading.”
In today’s world, so filled with bad news in the papers and on our television and social media, now is the time to fill our minds with the good news. Please “check it out” (literally). By the way…it’s all free!
Of other things…

• At noon today, Sunday, July 11th, in the outdoor pavilion, there will be a family picnic for all PSR volunteers and their families, catered by White House Chicken. God bless all of our PSR volunteers. Hope to see you there!
• Tomorrow, Monday, July 12, there will be a funeral Mass at 10:00 a.m. for Bernice Ward. She attended daily Mass for years. All are invited to attend and pray for her.
• I will be joining 200+ priests for a Spiritual Conference sponsored by The St. Paul Center from July 13-15. It is part of my commitment to continuing education and retreat. Please keep me in your prayers as I will for you.
• We want to congratulate Owen and Ethan Frank, who will be receiving the highest rank in scouting – the Eagle Scout – on Sunday, July 18. Our prayers and best wishes go out to them. Also, our thanks go out to them for choosing Queen of Heaven to be the beneficiary of their Eagle projects. Owen’s project beatifies the west parking lot’s edge with a berm of gravel to replace the muddy ground and to help stop erosion. His brother, Ethan, gave us the beautiful new St. Therese of Lisieux Prayer Garden on the northside of our west parking lot.
• Monday, July 26, 8:30 a.m., we will have a special Mass to recognize all grandparents on the feast day of the grandparents of Jesus – Saints Joachim and Anne. A doughnut social will follow.
• Don’t forget our Fun Days at the end of this month – Friday and Saturday, July 30 and July 31, 5:00 – 9:30 p.m.

God bless your day and week!
Love,
Father Dave

How do the faithful take up the call to be prophets? According to Bishop Robert Barron, “a prophet is a proclaimer of God’s truth,” and we are all called to be prophets via our Baptism. A prophet is someone so enamored with God that they want to share Him and the story of the Bible with everyone. Some may call that being fanatic or over the top.

The way I understand it, that is the freedom we celebrate today. Among the many freedoms we have in this country, the first amendment grants us the freedom to practice our faith. Have we taken this for granted? This freedom to worship the Creator of heaven and earth without persecution under the law, however, does not protect us from the type of persecution Jesus speaks of in Mark’s gospel. While Jesus is speaking truth to his own people he gets openly rejected.

It is a challenge to proclaim God and our love of Jesus among people who reject us, especially in these uncertain times. The statistics are clear: people are walking away from the Church – spiritually, morally, and intellectually, in big numbers. Bishop Barron says it this way: “to the degree we Catholics blend into the general landscape, we have lost our edge, we have lost our distinctiveness, and have gone into rebellion,” much like the Jews who ignored the prophet Ezekiel. 

So, how do those who remain faithful take up God’s call to be priest, prophet, and king? God says whether they heed or resist, people will know there is a prophet among them. Whether they listen or not, it is still our call to carry out the mission. We cannot worry about the outcome or impact. That is up to the Holy Spirit. We do our part by reaching out to those who have wandered away.

How willing are we to have conversations like this with family members or friends we know who have become lapsed or angry at the Church for any number of reasons? Disclaimer: this will not make you popular. But this is the way of Jesus. He was met by the same kind of opposition. In the end we are called to be faithful to God. Nothing more, nothing less. Let us celebrate the freedom we have this day (while we still can) to proclaim God’s truth in a world that has lost sight of its true home.

In Christ’s peace,
Steve

Dear friends,

One of the most cherished fairytales we have as an American culture is the story of The Wizard of Oz. It is a story that holds meaning for many different generations. Now in a good fairytale we can always identify with the characters. Some of us may feel like Dorothy or the Scarecrow or the Tin Man. But I would bet that the character that most of us identify with in The Wizard of Oz is the Cowardly Lion…always filled with fear…always running away from his problems…always frightened by the unexpected.

How often in our lives we are like the lion in our own cowardliness. How many times we are paralyzed by our own fears, how often we find ourselves running away from problems, how often we are frightened by the unknown as we worry about our health, our jobs, our children, our success, and our future.

That is why we are inspired by the characters that we find in our Gospel story today. What makes the man named Jarius fall at the feet of Jesus and beg (that removed) the Lord to heal his daughter? Courage! What makes the hemorrhaging woman reach out and touch the cloak of Jesus? Courage!

Jesus tells the synagogue official Jarius and the woman that has been afflicted with a hemorrhage for twelve years that fear is useless. What is needed is trust! Jesus says to Jarius, “Do not be afraid! Have courage! Your daughter has not died, she shall live.” Jesus says to the woman who is hemorrhaging, “Do not be afraid! Have courage! It is your trust in God which has healed you!”
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are reminded by the Lord that our fear is useless. What is needed is trust. What will make us face our fears today? Courage! What will help us to stop running from our problems? Courage! Jarius and the hemorrhaging woman found their courage in Christ, and so can we.

Of other things…
•   Mark you calendar for our upcoming Fun Days on Friday, July 30, and Saturday, July 31, 5:00-9:30 p.m. each evening (see the bulletin flyer ad).
•   Monday, July 5, 9:00 a.m. we will have a Mass in the church pavilion to honor the Fourth of July holiday (Independence Day).
•   Reminder, starting next weekend, July 4, due to the heat, the 9:00 a.m. Mass on Sunday will now be outdoors, and the 11:00 a.m. will be in the church.

Love in JMJ,
Father Dave

“Ok class. Put away your books and pencils.” Oh those dreaded words we heard when the teacher was about to pop a quiz on us! Well, just for fun, I’d like to present a pop-quiz of sorts to you. Don’t worry it’s an easy one – here’s the question: “What was today’s responsorial Psalm?” Give up? Well it’s from Psalm 107: “Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.”

The idea of giving thanks to God for all things isn’t just about being nice or polite. Rather, developing and living the discipline of an “attitude of gratitude” can literally change our lives – emotionally, mentally, spiritually and even physically!

Here’s what Henri Nouwen, a twentieth century Dutch priest, professor, writer and theologian has to say about the topic:  “Gratitude…goes beyond the ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. The choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. But each time I make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious. There is an Estonian proverb that says: ‘Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.’ Acts of gratitude make one grateful because, step by step, they reveal that all is grace.”

We have a providential God who loved us into existence and continues to love us as He supplies grace upon grace in each moment of each day. Everything we experience is a pure gift from the One who cares for us more than we can imagine. So, let’s choose to “give thanks to the Lord…” for all things that He blesses us with.

May our providential Father continue to bless your soul with his great blessings and make it all His!

Deacon Steve

Hitting 67 years of age this year and thinking about my childhood days, I can’t help but see the changes that have occurred in my life…a lot of gray hair and a lot of changes in society. One thing that struck me is how things have changed in terms of numbers and size.

Years ago growing up in Akron, when we wanted to go shopping in a major department store, there were only two choices – O’Neils and Polskys – and they were only in one location, dowtown. Now there are stores everywhere! I remember turning on the TV and there were three or four choices of channels…3, 5 and 8…and now for those who have cable TV or satelite, there are 100+ channels to choose from. Back then, when going to an amusement park, the big thrill was Chippewa Lake or Meyers Lake which boasted of 15 rides and attractions and one roller coaster…which kept us happy for hours. Now Cedar Point boasts of 20+ roller coasters and 100+ rides and attractions.

A characteristic of today’s society seems to be “the bigger, the better” and “the more, the merrier.”  Someone coined a word for this society – “jumboities.” We want to have the biggest army with the biggest guns, and most businesses would like to be the biggest in their field. Many towns would jump at the chance to double their population. Many people would like to live in the biggest house and drive the biggest and most expensive car.

Was Jesus impressed with “the bigger, the better” motto? Actually just the opposite. Jesus said that whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of these lowly ones, will not want for his reward, and where two or three are gathered in my name, I will be in their midst. He also said, “let the children come to me” and “whatever you do for the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.”  He also praised the poor widow’s two pennies that she put in the offering.

The Gospel today compares the reign of God to little seeds The Farmer sowing a little wheat can produce a harvest large enough to fill a silo. The mustard seed, the smallest of seeds, springs up to become the largest of shrubs.

So what does that mean to all of us?
A word of warning that looks can be deceiving…bigger does not necessarily mean better; a reminder that a majority does not determine the truth; and not to give into crowd pressure.
We are not in control… the farmer plants the seed but after he plants it, he goes to bed and the seeds keep growing; the sun and rain are out of the farmer’s control; and God is at work even when we don’t realize it.
Word of encouragement…that everything does not depend on us; and also it is encouraging to know that our efforts count for something.
Sometimes we are not really sure that our efforts count for something. There is so little we can control that it hardly seems worthwhile. Jesus reminds us great thing come from small beginnings, and He encourages us to keep on doing those things.

We may not be able to stop wars, but we can try to get along with our own parents, spouses, children, brothers, sisters, and our next-door neighbor.  We may not be able to abolish prejudice, but we can be courteous and respectful and kind to people of other races and creeds. We may not be able to bring an end to crime and corrruption, but we can be honest in our own dealings. We may not be able to wipe out poverty, but we can help somebody who is in need.

These small efforts are like mustard seeds, so tiny that they hardly seem to matter. But Jesus took them seriously. He saw them as the start of something big, even the Kingdom of God. My friends, let us not sell ourselves for less than what we are worth. We are important. Our efforts do count for something. Take to heart this message of our Lord, and live by it…great results always come from small beginnings.

Love in JMJ,
Father Dave