A Message from Fr. David, June 12, 2022

FR. JOE BARBONE’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY AS PRIEST

This Sunday (June 12th) the St. James community is hosting a 50th anniversary Mass for Fr. Barbone at 2pm, with a reception to follow. We are honored to host this liturgy and to provide the opportunity for Fr. Barbone to celebrate fifty years of service as a priest of Jesus Christ, throughout which he has been a conduit of God’s grace, mercy, and love.

As my most recent predecessor, I am most grateful for Fr. Barbone’s time of service here at St. James. Fr. Barbone will remain in our prayers as he continues his priestly ministry post-retirement, and he will remain in our hearts in gratitude for his faithful service to the community of faith. Ad Multos Annos!

WEEKLY HOLY HOUR WITH EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

We are so excited to announce that beginning Wednesday, June 22nd, St. James will offer a weekly Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration every Wednesday evening from 7pm to 8pm in the church.

Holy hours are the Roman Catholic devotional tradition of spending an hour in Eucharistic Adoration in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. The restlessness and stress of daily life too often keep us from experiencing the peace that the Lord offers us. This peace can be found through an intimate relationship with Jesus in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

We are fortunate to have this opportunity here at St. James in the church where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed every Wednesday (beginning June 22nd) from 7pm to 8pm, and the second Saturday of the month from 3pm to 4pm.

REFLECTION ON THE READINGS

In our Gospel this weekend, Jesus tells his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.”

Truth is often unbearable, as Jesus himself noted to his disciples. A 90-year-old friend of mine likes to say, “If you knew everything that was going to happen to you from the beginning, you’d lock yourself in a room.” This could be a pessimistic outlook, but it’s certainly true that we often look back at things we’ve been through and are grateful we didn’t know all the details up front. Too much information too soon can be discouraging to the most courageous heart.

We have to grow into wisdom simultaneously with the grace necessary to apprehend it, as Jesus did. Only then can we discover the truth about ourselves: that we are stronger, braver, and more heroic than we ever dreamed possible at first assessment. Another way of saying this is that the indwelling Spirit of God is more accessible to us than we may credit. If we foreclose on our futures too soon, we miss the vast potential of God to be God in us.

This is a powerful argument for the sanctity of life. If we surrender our unborn babies, we lose who they would have become and also who we might have been in relationship to them. If we insist on capital punishment, we cut short the activity of grace at work in the criminal and all who know him. We do the same when we incarcerate rather than seek to rehabilitate, or choose retaliation before negotiation in matters personal and global.

Friends, God has work to do in our world generally and in us particularly. If we foreclose on those possibilities by presuming the worst about ourselves and our humanity, how much precious saving grace is lost to us.

Quote of the Week