Dear Parishioners,

Today we celebrate the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. This weekend we will hear a young King Solomon asking God for wisdom and understanding so that he might properly distinguish right from wrong, and so judge with kindness and compassion. We often find ourselves misleading ourselves about right and wrong or judging others

hastily and unfairly. This weekend let’s take the opportunity to pray that we may emulate Solomon and welcome God’s wisdom and mercy into

our lives so that we can be guided in using right judgment.

Next weekend, August 1 and 2, we will celebrate the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

It seems that thousands of people, many of them sick and all of them hungry, walked for miles from towns throughout Galilee just to see and hear Jesus. How fortunate we are that Jesus is with us here whenever we gather in His name. He nourishes us at the Altar, strengthening our weaknesses and fortifying us for our own journeys. Next weekend let us pray that we may all eat and be satisfied at the Eucharist.

The Popes Worldwide Prayer Network: Next Saturday is the First of August. We will change the general intention as recommended by Pope Francis to remember in our daily prayers.

The August 2020 intention is: “We pray for all those who work and live from the sea, among them sailors, fishermen and their families.”

COMMENTARY ADDRESS TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE MEETING FOR CHAPLAINS AND VOLUNTEERS OF THE APOSTLESHIP OF THE SEA

Pope Francis, June 27, 2019, POPE FRANCIS

Since more than ninety percent of world commerce is transported by ships of various kinds, the dependence of our society on the maritime industry is indisputable. Without sailors, the global economy would come to a standstill; and without fishermen, many parts of the world would starve. I would ask you to convey my esteem and encouragement to the sailors and fishermen whom you meet, many of whom work for lengthy periods of time, thousands of miles away from their native land and their families.

Your presence is also a sign of the primordial worth of the human person, prior to and above every other interest, and an incentive for everyone, starting with the poorest, to work for justice and re- spect for fundamental rights. Let us remember that “men and women who are made new by the love of God are able to change the rules and quality of relationships, transforming even social structures. They are people capable of bringing peace where there is conflict, of building and nurturing frater- nal relationships where there is hatred, of seeking justice where there prevails the exploitation of man by man. Only love is capable of radically transforming the relationships that men maintain among themselves” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 4).

Farewell: When I came here four years ago I shared with you the following passage from Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (2:1-10). It is rather how I like to see my priesthood. It is how I feel as I depart Saint Monica for Saint John Bosco.

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age* knew; for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,” this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.

I still have some weddings scheduled here and I hope that there will be other times when I will encounter parishioners from Saint Monica. “Please pray for me, as I will for you, so that merrily we might meet in heaven.” Saint Thomas More.

Faithfully yours, Fr Joe Weber

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