Father Michael's Column

Pastor’s Column for June 29th, 2025

Summer officially began a little over a week ago, and I hope you will find yourself blessed in many ways throughout this summer. The trick about being blessed, however, is to be OPEN to receiving God’s blessings—and that means first recognizing the blessings, and then, seeing them as gifts, to joyfully give thanks! 

One follows upon the other: you can hardly expect to rejoice over blessings if you aren’t aware of them. And you can hardly expect to recognize further gifts and rejoice over them if you don’t appreciate the ones He’s given before. A self-defeating pattern emerges: We don’t joyfully give thanks because we don’t see the blessings, and we become dull to receiving further blessings because our hearts are complacent rather than being primed by an attitude of gratitude to receive more blessings. 

Bad patterns are changed by consciously replacing them with good ones. So, I encourage everyone to see the blessings that have already been given—and give thanks! All the time. Every day. 

A premiere opportunity to give thanks is by joining the worshipping community every Sunday at Mass —including throughout the summer. (If you’re going to be out-of-town for a vacation, we have a directory in the business office that can help you find a parish nearby.)

Last week we celebrated the Feast of The Body and Blood of Christ. The Church gives us this yearly feast so that we might become more profoundly aware of the real presence of Christ under the forms of bread and wine, and grow in our appreciation of the Eucharist. 

The Celebration of Eucharist is central to who we are as a Church. Without the Eucharist we would cease to be Church. (This is why it’s so important to keep praying for vocations to the priesthood: without priests there can be no Eucharist.) Christ becomes present to His Church during the Mass, and remains present afterwards in the tabernacle. (This is why we bow or genuflect before the tabernacle.) 

Yet, as I suggested above, complacency can replace expectancy, and I fear that there are many people who have become very complacent about Mass. This might be because of a lack of understanding about its depth and power, or it might be because the Mass has become so familiar that it’s taken for granted. One unexpected blessing of the temporary suspension of public Masses during the COVID pandemic was that some people realized how much they missed Mass! There is some truth in the words of the old song by Joni Mitchell: “Don’t it always seem to go...that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” As the pandemic recedes into history I hope that more and more of our Catholics will find themselves drawn back to Sunday Mass. Sometimes people too easily excuse themselves, whether because of the inertia of being away for a time, or on the basis of comfort or convenience, or some other minor reason. Perhaps in the past some chose to absent themselves simply because it was summer and they were busy with other activities. Whenever people are absent, it is a cause of concern not just for me as the priest, but for all of us. 

We are all diminished as a Church when there are brothers or sisters not with us to worship. Their absence not only deprives them, but us as well. I frequently ask people to pray for the members of our parish who do not get to Mass regularly through their own choice, so I urge you to add that intention to your regular prayers. You just might be the source of strength someone needs to get them here. Perhaps you might even have a more direct role in bringing back to Church someone you know who has lapsed from the full practice of their faith. (Typically that doesn’t happen by telling them how wrong they are—but rather, by respectfully inviting them back, while sharing the joy and peace that you, yourself, have come to know through the Lord.) Pray, and invite. 

In our modern American society, which has such a high degree of consumerism, I fear that people sometimes apply the same standards to their religion as they would to Wal-Mart. "Is my parish giving me a good deal, a good package? Is the celebration of Mass on Sunday always exciting or fulfilling for me, or is there something else more attractive?” (For instance, going to the lake on a hot summer day.) One of the errors in this thinking is to view our religion as merely "what I get out of it". In fact, it is just as much "what we bring to it". The Lord, and the values of His Kingdom, should be the underlying element behind all that we do and experience throughout the week. We then can bring all our joys—and difficulties—from the week into focus when we celebrate the Lord's love on Sunday. 

We aren't at Mass just to receive, but to give. We give the Lord praise. We give each other encouragement. We give public worship, which is the Lord's due. In short, we give of ourselves as the Lord has given Himself to us. That's the opposite of consumerism. When we give of ourselves, we find ourselves blessed, in turn. However, as I said above, it’s important to recognize those blessings, and then joyfully give thanks! By the way, the word Eucharist is a Greek word that actually means to joyfully give thanks!

Have a blessed summer!



In Jesus,

Fr. Michael