Chosen to Bear Fruit
Easter's sixth Sunday
Announcements for May 8, 2021:
Our Lady of Mount Carmel School 8th-grade students will be hosting a flower sale this weekend after Masses.
OLMC Youth Ministry’s next meeting is Friday, May 14 at 7:00pm in Gordon Hall. It is open to teens in grades 8 through 12.
We've made major improvements to our Listen Everywhere system. If you need help hearing what's going on during Mass, check out our Pew Resources.
I have reshuffled some things on the website, but you can still find all of our announcements in our Parishioner Portal.
Please be in touch with me if you need anything at all, or if you'd like to share any questions or concerns.
Dear Saints,
We have another stirring Gospel passage to tackle this week. More on that after the break.
Although Mother’s Day is not marked liturgically, the secular holiday is as good a chance as any to celebrate our mothers. I hope you are doing so this weekend!
Motherly love is self-effacing. No, it is self-sacrificial. This for-the-other love of true mothers, biological or not, brings to life the love of God in a way we so desperately need. Thank you to all of our parish’s women, our sisters in Christ, who so faithfully make God’s love a reality for us!
What a great opportunity this is for us, also, to honor Mary as the Mother of God and our mother. The more our hearts swell for love of Mary, the more we are made to imitate her devotion, and give praise and honor to her son.
I do understand, my friends, that many of us have been or are deprived of a mother’s love for any number of reasons. Please know that, wrapped in the mantle of our Blessed Mother, we are united in prayer.
_-_Song_of_the_Angels_(1881).jpg)
La Vierge aux Anges. Detail.
William Adolphe Bouguereau, 1881
I'd like to focus my reflection this week on just a few words from Sunday's Gospel. We hear Jesus say to his disciples, "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you." Given the prevailing view of "religion" today, it's a revolutionary idea that we follow Jesus not because we have chosen him, but because he has chosen us.
If Jesus has chosen me, then it seems right to know not only why I'm a good choice for his crew, but also what we're supposed to achieve. His team, we find out in the same passage, has been chosen to "bear fruit that will last," and this fruit is nothing other than God's love brought to life for his beloved world.
I offered a reflection on this theme earlier in the week. You can find it by clicking here.
There's much more to say about this, but I'd like to draw out one additional point: If we think that we are Christians by our own choice, then we are likely to use our practice of the faith to further our own pre-planned agenda. But if we see our following Jesus as a response to his choosing us, then we can focus solely on his purposes.
By Jesus' choice, we are liberated for a life of generous self-gift!
I love you, my friends, and I look forward to seeing you soon.
In the Peace of the Risen Christ,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Christ Washing the Apostles' Feet
Dirck van Baburen, 1616