Dear Parishioners,

 

Until the end of November, we return back to the Sundays of Ordinary Time. Remember, in this case “ordinary” does not mean uninteresting or dull, it means that the Sundays are numbered. We go from 2nd to 34th on the calendar. We had a few weeks of ordinary time between Christmas and Lent, and now we have the greater share of it until Advent starts again.

 

This is a very beautiful time of the church year. Since there are no distractions to prepare for, or recover from, it is a concentrated time of just God and ourselves; an opportunity to spend quality time reflecting upon our relationship and our level of discipleship with Jesus. During this special time we will honor many different saints who are wonderful examples to follow. They all had completely different personalities, gifts and talents, but all were united in their love for, and faith in, Jesus. We come before God today with all of our differences as well, but we are also one in faith walking together on the road to holiness.

 

For those of you who are going away this summer, you can always find out where the closest Catholic Church is to you by going to www.masstimes.org. This is a wonderful online directory of all parishes in the United States, and a few foreign countries, where you can find the location, and hours of Sunday and weekday Mass, as well as other devotions. As usual, if you visit another parish this summer, please bring me a copy of their bulletin, I love seeing what is going on in other churches and dioceses.

 

Thank you also to all of you who made the transition to our Summer Mass Schedule so painless and effortless. I hope you realize how uplifting it is to celebrate Mass in a reasonably full church with great singing and responding, rather than in a relatively empty building sitting by yourself.

 

Fr. Armand