All the World Ablaze
Jesus the fire starter
Announcements for August 13, 2022:
If you need anything at all, please be in touch with me.
This weekend we welcome Father Vidal Gonzalez for the diocese's 2022 Missionary Cooperation Plan. You can give to this year's MCP in all the usual ways, including online.
The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not a holy day of obligation this year, but feel free to join us for Mass Monday morning!
Visit the OLMC Parishioner Portal for all of our recent announcements.
Dear Saints,
This weekend's Gospel passage contains some of Jesus' most inflammatory language. He says:
I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
I don't know exactly why, but this gets me pumped up even before I try to think through what Jesus is talking about. (Inner monologue: Yes! Fire!!)
But let's get to the point. The fire Jesus sets is the blaze of Divine Love, unleashed in his Death and Resurrection. The power at work in Jesus' rising from the dead will, as it takes root in human hearts, raise up God's fallen world.
When Jesus predicts that his fire-casting will cause division he quotes from the book of Micah (7:6). Here, facing certain crisis, the prophet exhorts Israel to put no faith in family or friends, but to trust only in the Lord.
That's our task, too. Hope in Jesus. Place your trust in him. Jesus is our only way forward. We'll get to where we need to be by trusting and following him!
I love you, my friends, and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Christ's Peace,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
PS We have the Missionary Cooperation Plan appeal this weekend. You can give to the appeal in all the regular ways, including online.
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
La Passion du Christ
Gilles Catelin, contemporary