St Mary’s is looking for people who will help clean the church. In the past, two people have worked together and done it by the month.
Dusting, vacuuming, wet swiffering between the pews, cleaning the bathroom, and cleaning
the wood floor by the altar.
If you are able to help with this service to our church, please contact Linda Nott at 815-235-4575 or the church office, 815-232-8271. Thank you.
This second chapter deals with that wonderful gift of faith that is freely given to us by God. Before that gift, we are “…dead because of our sins and offenses” (v1). It is a kind of spiritual death. Sin holds us down. We cannot enter heaven with sin. Sin hurts people. It hurts God, our neighbor and ourselves. We have been enslaved by many spirits; Paul particularly lists the present age [worldliness] and the prince of the air. The prince of the air is an evil spirit that those who have ill will use as a curse to put on others. It still happens today.
Before we accept the gift of faith in Christ Jesus, we grasp on to the present age for wisdom and a guide for what to do. But the present age teaches us to lie, steal, be jealous, hold on to anger, to do violence when “necessary.” It uses control, manipulation, criticism, and is eager to use each other as objects. It demeans others and is quickly willing to relegate others as sub-humans, non-persons with no dignity. With such degradation of the human person, marriage has been degraded from a sacrament where the love of God is manifest in the gift of self of covenantal love to a mere contract of mutual use. I hope we have moved past such things; how many Catholics have not. Yet this is what marks a person of faith. In other words, if we have not moved beyond such sins, our faith is pretty thin.
Part of the slavery is our rebelliousness (2), and giving way to our passions (3) in the flesh. We rebel against God because we want our way, or we think we understand things better than God and the faith that was handed down to us. We hear it said that we deserve God’s wrath (3), but do we realize it? Have we stopped to think about how we have contributed to the suffering in this world by our sins? Yet while we still held and some of us hold on to sin, God still chooses to love us. He extends His grace to us each and every day (4-5). God comes to free us from such slavery to death. He does so freely.
But God did not just free us from slavery and the eternal death that is the fruit of sin. He is willing to lavish the ultimate grace of being with Him in heaven as a member of His own family (6-7). It is faith in Him that opens the doors of heaven for us. This has some common sense here. If you choose not to have faith in God as He has revealed Himself to be, why would you be in heaven? If you do not trust what He says, why would you want to be there? Thus, those who make the decision not to have faith will be in hell. It is illogical to believe otherwise.
Yet the faith we receive is a gift from God (8-9). We cannot save ourselves either. To believe we can save ourselves is to contradict this very reading in the Bible. To think we can save ourselves is to not trust in His word and thus deny The Word. It becomes a source of pride. For some, they think they can please God by good works alone. The issue at hand was, once again, circumcision. Some of the men thought that circumcision could buy them salvation. If I do this, God will give me that. Somehow, we feel more secure by proving ourselves to God. It becomes a subconscious way of making demands of God. A good act becomes quite evil. That is why some reject God when their plan is not accepted by God. Their hearts were never submitted to God in an integrated way. It was not a true submission to God. Thus, faith was not really exercised.
We have faith in Jesus, not the law
(13-15). He died for us so that we can benefit from a relationship with Him, not so that we can jump through the hoops of an obedience that is without love. We are no longer strangers with God (19)…are we? Examine yourself on this. Is God a stranger to you or a friend? God is continually offering Himself. Do you want Him to offer things or do you want Him? He is our capstone of our church as He built it upon the apostles and prophets
Father Barr
To benefit the Moms and Children at
in conjunction with the
Davis Mental Health Golf Outing
honoring the legacy of Pat and Carlotta Davis.
Come on out and watch the purchased/numbered golf balls as they are placed into a huge basket, lifted by a crane 60 feet into the air, and simultaneously dropped over a golf hole. After all the balls have been dropped, the 4 balls that land in or nearest the hole win!
Prizes
1st Place – $300
2nd Place – Airplane Tour of Stephenson County and
Dinner for 2
3rd Place – Food Feast- Gift Certificates from Area
restaurants
4th place – Residential Air Duct Cleaning Certificate
(Winners do not need to be present.)
Chances now on sale before or after each weekend Mass on August 7 & 8, 14 & 15, and 21 & 22.
Chances can also be purchased at Gemorifics, the IHM Sisters, MRC volunteers, and the business offices of St Mary/St Joseph and St Thomas churches.
Please contact Colleen at 815-275-6378 for further questions.
Please refer to these new changes from now on. Thank you~
Celebrating Marriage and Family
This last week has been a week of celebrating marriage and family. As I reflect on this past week, I cannot imagine life without family – without my parents to make sure I had food to eat, my health taken care of, a good education, and always caring for who I hung around with. They would teach me many life lessons on character, integrity, goodness, etiquette, how to balance a checkbook, and general hygiene. It is in the family that I learned how to get along and not to respond with fighting all the time. In the family I learned the dignity of every human being and that every human being is a human person, made in the image and likeness of God. Family does not just teach this, but puts the dignity of every human being into practice and gives us the tools to become citizens that contribute to the good for any person we may come across.
A good society starts with good homes where children learn these most essential things in life. The family is the domestic church where children learn to love one another and to grow in virtue. It is where we learn right from wrong, and it is a place where God’s love is experienced. That is God’s plan for marriage and the family. I hope all people can have this experience. This can be anyone’s experience, even when they are on their bumpiest roads in family life.
Family life has been so demeaned in these last years that many people treat the idea of family at best as a foreign object, and for many as an evil that one has to endure. Some of this is due to indoctrination by the popular culture in media and, sorry to say, some schools. Family is viewed in mere practical use, where appreciation for family is frowned upon. Parents are demeaned and grandparents are relegated as the inept and bumbling fools. Yet these parents and grandparents keep on their way, loving and being the backbone of their children’s and grandchildren’s lives. They continue to love as Christ has loved them.
Family is far too a precious gift. Each family is far too precious a gift. Every family is a community in itself that builds culture, learning and loving. No family is perfect, but in every family will be the perfect combination of personalities and diversity in character that can keep everyone challenged to grow in goodness and in good will for others. Siblings may not get along at times, but when push comes to shove, family is family, and family sticks together. I hope you can pause and appreciate the goodness of your family. I hope you can support them towards goodness as all Christians are called to.
Ultimately, God’s plan for marriage and family is that they would be an experience of God’s love for you. Are you willing to be a part of that plan for your family? I pray that all people are willing to accept God’s plan for families.
Father Barr
“To have … To hold … To honor, Natural Family Planning, Supporting God’s gifts of love and life in marriage” is the theme of this year’s National Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, an educational campaign of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to celebrate God’s vision for marriage and promote the methods of Natural Family Planning.
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a general title for ethical, natural, safe and effective methods for both achieving and avoiding pregnancy in marriage. NFP methods teach couples how to observe and interpret the wife’s signs of fertility and infertility. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, NFP methods “respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them and favor the education of an authentic freedom.” (CCC, no. 2370)
The Catholic Church invites all the faithful to embrace God’s plan for married love. Learn more about these beautiful teachings which support the use of NFP in marriage at usccb.org/topics/natural-family-planning/church-teaching.
Copyright © 2021, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved.
Today, June 25th, is the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly!
“It is important for grandparents to meet their grandchildren and for grandchildren to meet their grandparents, because – as the prophet Joel says –grandparents, before their grandchildren, will dream, and have illusions [great desires], and young people, taking strength from their grandparents, will go forward and prophesy.” – Pope Francis, January 31, 2021
When the grandparents, parents, and children have gathered, all make the sign of the cross.
Leader: Blessed be God, who is faithful through all generations.
R/. Blessed be God forever.
The leader introduces the blessing in these or similar words:
“Grandparents are cherished members of our family. They bring gifts of wisdom, experience, and love and share with us their life of faith. We thank God for their example and ask that he bless them with happiness and good health.”
Then the Scripture is read:
“Listen to the words of Psalm 128 : Happy are you who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; happy shall you be, and favored.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
May you see your children’s children . Peace be upon Israel!”
Reader: The Word of the Lord.
R/. Thanks be to God.
After a time of silence, all join in prayers of intercession and in the Lord’s Prayer. Then the leader prays:
Lord God almighty,
bless our grandparents with long life, happiness, and health.
May they remain constant in your love and be living signs of your presence
to their children and grandchildren. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/. Amen
All make the sign of the cross as the leader concludes:
May God bless us and keep us all the days of our lives.
R/. Amen
Prayer from: Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers ■
Catholic Current
Copyright 10 2020, U nited States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Wash ingto n, DC. All rights reserved.
PRAYER RESOURCE
Paul begins his letter introducing himself with a blessing, “…grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul gives a blessing as Jesus always does for us. This blessing is an act of love
for all those who would read these very words and those who would hear them. This love did not come
from Paul, though. It comes from Jesus Himself. Paul brings the love of God to everyone as Jesus would
have him do: to “love one another as [Christ] has loved [us]” (Jn 13:34). Paul knows God’s love for he has
been forgiven much (Lk 7:47). God’s mercy is the greatest reason for recognizing the gift of God as he
continues.
Paul can’t hold back his gratitude for all that God has done for him. He starts blessing God and, in
particular, Jesus. He knows how God did not need him. It was a pure blessing that Jesus chose him. Jesus
first chose him out of darkness of sin and death and into a life of grace, virtue and to do His holy will.
God adopted us into His own family to love one another and rejoice in each other as true gifts from God.
Our hope is to be a blessing to each other by serving each other and leading each other in faith. How
good it is to be that living blessing for all who may need that blessing. How good it is to be known by the
good done rather than the evil perpetrated. It is great when we can utter the blessings of God. How
much greater it is when our very lives become a blessing to others as the life of Christ has been to ours.
Paul carries on, “Therefore, I too hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and of your love for the holy ones
do not cease giving thanks for you….” (v15). Can you imagine somebody saying such things about you?
Have you ever felt that way about somebody else? I can’t imagine thinking such thoughts about anybody
without the reality of God’s love for us. Jesus has shown us such goodness first. As we see the world
around us slip away from faith in God, we see even families and parents not loving as they once did. We
see the cruelty of people that seemed unimaginable ten years ago, yet it has become a cold reality as
our culture forsakes God and His ways. How Jesus truly does hold this world from its blazing wrath of its
own design.
A world without God would be cruel indeed. But the love and mercy of God brings life, love and peace.
We thank God He cares so much to do so for us each and every moment of our lives. We thank God that
we have people in our lives that we can thank God for. How many people in our lives have helped us in
our darkest moments of despair? How these people in our own lives have been a source of blessing.
These may be people who have been a blessing time and time again. They may be people who have
been a constant trial, but have come through when needed. The blessing may even come from someone
we don’t even like. Who is the one you are most grateful for?
Have you become a blessing to others? How often do you think of helping others and being a blessing to
them? Have you helped your parents with chores or even told them that you love them, or thanked
them for the sacrifices they have made for you? Are there other people in the pew that have been a
blessing to you? How have they blessed you? How can you be a blessing to them? Maybe a phone call or
letter? How has the parish community been a blessing to you? Not sure if some of you can count the
times. You may have to go back quite a few years. Community means so much with so many individuals
as personal blessings. How good it is when we can praise God for such good friends in faith. How good it
is when others can rejoice in our efforts to serve one another and love one another.
-Father Barr
Virtual Run Week – August 21-28, 2021
In-Person Run Day – August 28, 2021
This year will be the celebratory last lap of the Colby Smith Memorial 4-Mile Classic. Proceeds from the race benefit the Colby Smith Memorial Scholarship Fund which provides scholarships for students to attend Aquin Catholic Schools. The race has awarded over $100,000 to students since 2010.
Register online today at: colbysmithmemorialrun.com
St Joseph and St Mary Parishes are looking for a part-time bookkeeper. Duties include the management of all monetary filings, check writing and payroll processing. Computer skills, including use of QuickBooks required. Budget planning for the fiscal year in coordination with the finance councils are also required. The bookkeeper will assist parishioners entering the office and answer phone calls in coordination with the secretary. If you are interested, please contact Father Timothy Barr at 815-232-8271, ext. 7.
We appreciate your support!
