Social Distance Confessions by Appointment
text me 706-267-1073
or in the Meeting Room at 5pm on Saturday
 
Mass for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Livestreamed at 9am on Sunday, July 12th
Followed by drive through Communion at 10am
(drive South on Lovell Ave from 7th St. to the front of the Rectory)
This Mass will also be simulcast to the carport.
 
Praise and Worship on Sunday at 5pm
Via livestream
 
School for Disciples on Wednesday
Join us with social distancing in the Churchyard at 5:30pm for Prayer and Cocktails
We share our experience of Week #10 of the Ignatian Adventure
 
I come to you with three concerns this week:
 

1. I was thrilled that 4 people celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation last weekend.  My being thrilled is a concern because it means that folks haven’t been taking advantage of this sacrament of grace during the pandemic.  You can’t be spiritually healthy if you are not coming before God with a humble heart.  I’ll address this in future bulletins.
2. I am concerned that we’ve started out the new financial year so poorly in terms of the offertory.  One week isn’t reason to panic, but even as I am being overly cautious in our worship options during this month of July because of the current spread of the Covid-19 virus, I hope folks will continue to be good stewards and support our faith community as they have done over the past few months.
3. We are often unaware of the influences of the world on our choices.  So, I have to ask myself am I primarily influenced by the Gospel of Jesus Christ when I stand at the pulpit.  I certainly hope so.  But I am aware that at times what I say from the pulpit, especially on hot topic issues like racism or being concerned for the common good by following public health restrictions is not always well received by everyone.  I humbly admit that I don’t own the truth but I believe that it can be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it is the values found in the Gospel that I hope most influences the way I live my life.  And I am grateful to the parishioner who gave me wise counsel in telling me that I am “not doing my job, if I am not ticking some people off, every once in a while.” 

 
So, I find it to be a great spiritual exercise to examine one’s opinions and choices in life in the light of God’s Word.  You need not take my words from the pulpit as Gospel truth, but I would suggest that on a regular basis you work into the rhythm of your prayer life what a particular scripture passage is saying to you about your life as a follower of Jesus Christ.  You might start by prayerfully reflecting on the following questions from this Sunday’s Gospel:
 
 
Matthew 13:1-23
1. Jesus says that the “cares of the world and [the] lure of wealth” are rocky ground and thorns that keep the seed from taking root. What is your “rocky ground”? Are you a busy pathway where the Word is sown but then is trampled? Can the thorns of worldly anxiety choke the Word when it comes to you?  How can I be more receptive to God’s word, like rich soil?  What specific action can I accomplish this week to bear fruit?
 
2. According to Pope Francis, what do we do about receiving the “seed” if we know our soil or field is a place filled with stones and thorns?
 
A field is a place for sowing seeds. … When we accept the word of God, then we are the field of faith! Please, let Christ and his word enter your life; let the seed of the Word of God enter, let it blossom, and let it grow. God will take care of everything but let him work in you and bring about this growth.
-- Pope Francis, Prayer Vigil with Young People, Para 1                                                                                                         
July 12, 2020: Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time by Sr. Mary M. McGlone, SSJ
 
Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm 65
Romans 8:18-23
Matthew 13:1-23
 
It happened on Broadway, in 1957. A guy named Tony was trying to escape gang life and he took a break from delivering Coke (the real thing) to sing. Standing amid tenements, surrounded by drying lingerie, he poured his whole heart into Stephen Sondheim's lyrics: "Could it be? Yes, it could. Something's coming, something good." Alas, "West Side Story" tells a tragic 20th-century rendition of "Romeo and Juliet" and in spite of his hopes, Tony couldn't escape fate. He died in the cycle of violence he tried to halt.
 
The theme of the futility of trying to do good is as old as storytelling and usually rings truer than the assurance that the heroes in white hats always win. The best dramas, and even the best comedies, engage us in ambiguity; they portray the struggle to discern and practice genuine goodness in the midst of confusing and competing circumstances and philosophies.
 
One wonders what St. Paul would come up with if he were invited to write a few seasons of a contemporary TV drama. He's got ready-made themes in the epistle to the Romans, particularly Chapters 7 and 8. Chapter 7 is a discourse on the quest for freedom and human inconsistency. Chapter 8 entices the audience into believing in the certainty of God's future: the "glorious freedom of the children of God."
 
For Paul, even though our efforts may feel futile, all of creation is ultimately moving toward transformation in God.
With that as his interpretive key, Paul might model the plots of Season 1 on Jesus' parable of the sower and the seed. Being the sort of preacher, he was, Paul would spend ample time exploring the problems, starting with the seed that totally missed its mark and got eaten by the birds.
 
After doing his ecological research, Paul would cleverly lead his audience to realize that what we consider loss can bring hidden gain: Some seeds slip to good soil from the birds' beaks or fall after being caught in their feathers, others get dispersed through the birds' droppings. (In a couple of weeks, we'll hear him explain that all things work for good for those who love God.)
 
Elaborating on the rocky ground, Paul would tell stories about people who close themselves off, refusing to relate deeply or make commitments. He would dramatize their lack of concern for the others with whom they make up the body of Christ.
 
The thorns? He'd have a heyday with that! He has all the raw material he needs in his correspondence with those Corinthians he berated for putting up with rivalry, infighting, discrimination, and incest in their community.
 
The seeds on good ground would provide a subtle backdrop to every episode. They would be inconspicuous because they are planted deep and their progress is so slow that it's almost imperceptible. Not only that, but time and again, it would seem that the good seed sinks into the soil only to die, or as Paul says in today's reading, to be subject to corruption.
Paul's drama would not shy from showing suffering, but his depictions of pain and sorrow would be tinged with hope for something unimaginable, what he called the revelation of the children of God.
 
Of course, we don't need Paul to write this TV series. It's happening all around us. Our challenge is to discern the underlying plot in our own dramas and to decide how to play our roles so as to live into the unimaginable future we are offered.
 
Today's first reading assures us that, whether or not we see it, God's grace is at work in our world. Jesus elaborates on this in the parable of the sower, telling us not to worry about what seems to be wasted, but to concentrate on the seed in good ground.
 
If we take that as a Pollyanna approach to life, we're missing the Jesus' message. On the one hand, as we will hear more clearly in next week's Gospel, our ideas about how things should go are not necessarily the same as God's ideas. Plants that don't grow as we think they ought may become the seeds of transformation in a far-distant field. As Pope Francis so famously reminds us, "Who are we to judge?"
 
Secondly, if we choose to concentrate on what goes wrong, we'll miss the 30-, 60- and 100-fold that is proliferating all around us.
 
Real life is more ambiguous than the teenagers of "West Side Story" could understand. Not all of our projects will come to fruition as we hope, but neither are we ruled by fate. We believe that the story of the universe is one of transformation, not inevitable tragedy. That implies surprises. We never know when an unexpected seed will fall near and produce something very good.
 
[St. Joseph Sr. Mary M. McGlone serves on the congregational leadership team of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.]  
Through the end of July, I’d encourage you to receive our Lord in the Eucharist at 10am on
Sunday mornings in the Communion drive-by on Lovell Ave. in front of the Rectory.  Though it is only for a moment, I really enjoy seeing so many of you.  If you a brave soul, join us at 9am Sundays under the carport for a simulcast of the Mass.  And if those practices don’t feel safe or are not possible, do consider a spiritual Communion.
 
St. Jean-Marie Vianney (1786-1859), the famous country priest from Ars, France, once said “when we feel the love of God growing cold, let us instantly make a spiritual Communion. When we cannot go to the church, let us turn towards the tabernacle; no wall can shut us out from the good God.”
 
How might we go about making a spiritual Communion? St. Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868), the French “apostle of the Eucharist,” suggested the following format:
 
“If you do not receive (holy Communion) sacramentally, receive spiritually by making the following acts: conceive a real desire to be united to Jesus Christ by acknowledging the need you have to love His life; arouse yourself to perfect contrition for all your sins, past and present, by considering the infinite goodness and sanctity of God; receive Jesus Christ in spirit in your inmost soul, entreating Him to give you the grace to live entirely for Him, since you can live only by him; imitate Zacchaeus in his good resolutions and thank our Lord that you have been able to hear Holy Mass, and make a spiritual Communion; offer in thanksgiving a special act of homage, a sacrifice, an act of virtue, and beg the blessing of Jesus Christ upon yourself and all your relatives and friends.”
 
While there is no formula prescribed by the Church to make an act of spiritual communion, prayers composed by various saints are part of the Church’s rich treasury of devotions. One of the more popular acts of spiritual communion comes from St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787):
 
“My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.”