Weekly Update from Fr. van Dooren 8.28.26
Dear members and friends of our beloved parish,
I would like to begin my update with a beautiful hymn recording by Dolly Parton, “In The Sweet By And By.” It is a hymn I grew up with, and I can’t think of a more fitting tribute to Dolly, who embodied true Christian faith. Her life reflected the words of St. Francis, who is reported to have said on his death bed to his disciples, “Go and preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words.”
We return to the conclusion of the story of St. Peter’s Confession in this Sunday’s Gospel passage, but with a dramatic twist! Following Peter’s recognition and confession of Jesus as being the “Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus, in this Sunday’s passage, continues to teach his disciples what “Messiah” would be. He must undergo suffering and death. In reaction, Peter rebukes Jesus saying, “God forbid it, Lord! Then Peter receives the harshest rebuke ever given by Jesus to a disciple, “Get behind me, Satan!” Jesus then informs his disciples that they too would be expected to experience sacrifice if they truly expected to follow him.
Since I couldn’t find a guest preacher….smile, I will do my best to dedicate the sermon to our Lord’s sharp response with the belief that it truly came forth from his loving heart!
We have been working to upgrade the sound and lighting for the church this week, and we hope to see and hear improvements this Sunday. Fingers crossed and prayers ascending that our hard work and joyful spirits will out-maneuver Murphy’s law. It might take a couple of Sundays to work out any difficulties, so thank you for your understanding.
Please join us for a special Christian Education Hour on Sunday, September 27th at 1:00pm in the Family Chapel featuring a talk “How do I follow Jesus?” in which Rick Hamlin will explore ways in which we can embody Jesus’ invitation to follow him in our 21st century, and how we hear His blessed advice in today’s world.
Rick Hamlin is the author of numerous books on prayer, including Pray for Me, Ten Prayers You Can’t Live Without, Finding God on the A Train (a Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection) and novels such as Reading Between the Lines and Mixed Blessings. A long-time editor at Guideposts magazine, he’s written several op-eds for the New York Times and the Washington Post. His wife, the writer Carol Wallace, wrote the book To Marry an English Lord, which became the inspiration for the series Downton Abbey. His most recent book is Everlasting Jesus: 40 Days of Divine Wisdom for Modern Living.
Thank you so dearly for the outpouring of generosity and response to our restoration of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Chapel. New churches have mortgages, and old ones have restorations. How privileged we are to have stewardship of this treasured and historical space! Click here to read more about this current project.
We only have a few weeks before the return of our boys and girls choirs, but it’s not too late to join our volunteer summer choir for the three remaining weeks of Summer! If you love to sing and enjoy the camaraderie of a choir, it is a beautiful way to learn and participate in the worship life of the parish. We sing most Sundays through mid-September at the 11am service. We rehearse prior to that in the church from 9:30 to 11:00am. For some special feast day services, we have a Saturday morning rehearsal. Please click here to contact Claudia Dumschat for more information.
The Holy Rosary will be prayed in the Family chapel at 9:30am this Sunday. We will pray the Sorrowful mysteries this summer in inflection of our Gospel text for this Sunday.
We continue to live-stream each Sunday’s mass at 11:00am, and a link is sent out each Sunday morning at 8:00am. We live-stream on Facebook and YouTube. Click here to email the parish office if you would like to pray the morning and evening offices with us by Zoom.
Thank you for your continued faith, support, and love for the parish.
Fides Opera
With loving wishes,
Fr. van Dooren