Do This And You Will Live

Brothers and Sisters,

The scripture readings this week teach us that the key to living a fulfilled life depends on love. First, loving God and also loving our neighbor. Christ makes it clear that all who desire to inherit eternal life passes through love.

In the Gospel (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus’s response to the curious scholar who correctly answered his own question should fill us with hope. Jesus tells him, “Do this and you will live.” You will live a full life, a meaningful life, a fulfilling life. Isn’t that the deepest desire of every human heart? Isn’t that the desire we find at the core of every other desire? All the choices we make, all the decisions and the sacrifices we make in life are made because we think they will help us live life more fully, more satisfactorily, more happily. This core desire of ours is also Christ’s core desire for us. He tells us in John’s Gospel, “I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) He created us. He wrote this core desire into the depths of our souls. He wants to satisfy it. In fact, that’s why He came to earth, to give us the light and grace to know and to follow the path to a more abundant and more fulfilling life both here on earth and forever in heaven. All we need to do is follow that path which is Christ’s path. The path to eternal life goes through loving our neighbor, being marked by complete and total love for God. Let us live this love and experience the abundant, fulfilling life that we were created for. Nothing else really matters. How firmly do we believe that? How courageously are we willing to give that direction to our daily life?

God Bless,
Deacon Howard

Pastorate Plan For Evangelization

Dear Friends of our Pastorate,

This weekend, we finally return to the Sundays of Ordinary Time with our celebration of the Fourteenth Sunday. Our readings come from Cycle C which is the year we read through the Gospel of Luke. This weekend’s Gospel is the commissioning and sending forth of the 72 disciples to go out and proclaim the kingdom of God and to cure the sick. Jesus says the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.

We are in a similar place in our day where we have an abundant harvest of people who do not have a relationship or connection to the Lord, but we are always looking for more people to go into the community to proclaim the kingdom of God to them and offer them the gift of spiritual healing. This mission has been entrusted to us by Jesus himself who told us before His ascension to go and make disciples.

Over the past couple of years, I have been meeting with a dedicated group of parishioners from both parishes known as our Pastorate Mission Team. We have been discussing and reviewing the gifts and blessings our parishes have received over the years as well as the challenges and opportunities we are facing as the Catholic Churches of Pasadena. We are now in the final stretch of composing a Pastorate Plan for Evangelization that will guide us in our task of becoming missionary disciples. Our guiding principle is Archbishop Lori’s pastoral place called “A Light Brightly Visible 3.0” which can be found on the Archdiocesan website (archbalt.org). I invite you to review this document as we prepare to launch our pastorate’s pastoral plan in the coming months.

There is still time to make a donation to the Annual Appeal for Catholic Ministries. Your donations support the many charitable works of the Archdiocese, and a portion of your gifts are returned to our parish. Our parish goals (and donated to date) are as follows:

St. Jane - $57,782 ($44,837) and OLC - $60,379 ($38,690). To make a donation, go to www.archbalt.org and clink on the Giving link. Thank you for your support of the Annual Appeal for Catholic Ministries.

OLC is sponsoring a Men’s Breakfast on Saturday, July 26th at the Rumor Reel. This ticketed event will run from 8:30am to 10:30am, and our guest speaker will be Orioles legend, Scott McGregor. Scott will be sharing his inspiring story about how God and his faith shaped his life, both during his playing career and after retirement. All men of our pastorate (and your friends) are invited to attend. Tickets are $35 each, limited to 130 seats. Go to OLC’s website and click on Give Central to purchase your tickets or see the bulletin for more details.

Thank you for keeping our Pastorate of the Visitation—Our Lady of the Chesapeake and St. Jane Frances—in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Father Steve

Working Through Our Faults

Brothers and Sisters,

This week, we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. They are the big superstars of Christianity. Not only did they form the foundation and faith of the early Church, but they also gave us a model to follow in carrying out Christ’s mission in life. We need to ponder their example and imitate it in our own life circumstances. Like Peter, despite our sinfulness, despite our weak flesh, we’re called to confess Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah and Son of God and to follow him until death. Like Paul, despite our unworthiness or the things we’ve done opposed to the kingdom, we’re called to make up for lost time, to share with others as most important the “Good News” we have received, and to do all we can to fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith. Like both of them, we’re called to become pillars and determined leaders in the Church making it stronger, keeping it more united, through knowing, loving, and sharing the truth, and through knowing and loving and serving our neighbor.

We should never doubt the mission and plan God has called us to. As we look at the personalities of Peter and Paul, we see that God called them to use their personalities and talents to spread the Gospel. Peter to use his impulsive love to look after the flock, and Paul to use his training as a Pharisee and his strength of character to ensure that the non-Jewish people would be welcomed into the Church. It is a reminder to us that our talents and our weaknesses, too, can become God’s means of helping others, if we allow it. We don’t have to be perfect for God to work through us. God can work through us, faults and all, as he did with Peter and Paul, if we are open and willing.

God Bless,
Deacon Howard

Happy Corpus Christi Sunday!

Dear Parishioners,

Happy Corpus Christi Sunday!

Are you living liturgically?? In recent weeks, we have gone from Pentecost Sunday to Trinity Sunday to Corpus Christi Sunday today. Week after week, we have contemplated different mysteries of our Faith so as to get caught-up in God. Live liturgically! It’s fun! And, it grounds us in our spiritual lives in the midst of our business.

Today we meditate on the gift of the true presence of Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Holy Eucharist. Let’s consider the mystery of the Eucharist as friendship.

The gift of self to another—that is, charity or love—is a defining characteristic of true friendship. Friendship is charity, St. Thomas Aquinas taught. Whether it is friendship between spouses or between the best of friends, one desires to give their whole self to the other. Jesus is a true friend who gives us everything; nothing less than Himself. He says as much in John 15: “I have called you my friends… no greater love has one than this than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Having called us His friends and explained what the greatest love is, we come to realize just what He meant when we look at the cross. His love is revealed not just there, but in the Eucharist. He said that this greatest love is what the Eucharist is. Taking bread and wine, He said, “This is my Body which will be given up for you; this is my Blood which will be poured out for you and for many.”

This greatest Love is Who and what the Eucharist is. This Friend and His greatest act of friendship is Who and what the Eucharist is. We are so loved by our Eucharistic Friend and Lord.

May His love continue to heal and inspire us at each Holy Communion. May His friendship present in the Eucharist inspire our love for everyone God puts in our path. If you are not in the habit, I encourage you to make a weekly visit to Jesus in the tabernacle, whether at our churches or a church near your place of work. Friendship grows through quality time!

We are thankful to God for giving us five new priests yesterday, June 21, for service in our Archdiocese of Baltimore! Please pray for them!

We hope that all those who attended the bus trip to see the Noah production enjoyed their time. God’s promises are deeper than rising waters!

Over the next month, Father Steve and I both have time away. First, we will attend a retreat this week with the priests of Baltimore, and then we will each have time away for vacation. Please pray for us to have good prayer and good rest! We are grateful for the gift of serving you.

God bless you and thank you for keeping the Pastorate of the Visitation in your daily prayers!

Father John

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Dear Friends of our Pastorate,

This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This feast day, which always falls on the Sunday after Pentecost, reminds us of our one God who has revealed Himself to us in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is one of the most difficult dogmas of faith to comprehend and understand, because it speaks to the very nature of God Himself. How can human words fully explain our Trinitarian God? However, we continue to celebrate and give thanks to our God and worship and praise Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This weekend is also Father’s Day, so a very happy and blessed Father’s Day to all of our fathers, grandfathers, godfathers and the men who are like father figures for us. What a great God-incidence this year that we are celebrating both Father’s Day and Trinity Sunday on the same weekend.

Next weekend, our Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi Sunday. This feast day reminds us of our belief that the bread and wine offered at Mass, through the prayers of the priest and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, becomes for us the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Jesus instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper, when he told us to take and eat, this is my body, and take and drink, this is my blood. I don’t know how much clearer he could have been! Yet, studies show that many Catholics do not believe this dogma of faith that has been believed since the early days of the Church. If you struggle or wrestle with this, I would invite you to come and spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament in prayer and reflection and allow the Real Presence of Jesus to touch your heart and invite you into a deeper longing and love for his Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

Next Sunday, after the 11:30am Mass at St. Jane Frances, our Pastorate will be celebrating Corpus Christi with a Eucharistic Procession in the community around the Church. This would also be a great opportunity to deepen your faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist as well as give witness to the local community of our beliefs and faith.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore will be celebrating the Priesthood Ordination on Saturday, June 21st at 10am at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. There are 6 men being ordained to serve our local church. Please keep them in your prayer as they complete their final days of preparation for ordination.

Thank you for keeping our Pastorate of the Visitation—Our Lady of the Chesapeake and St. Jane Frances—in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Father Steve

Happy Pentecost!

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our celebration of Pentecost today commemorates the sending of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles and the birthday of the Church!

After the Ascension of Jesus, they gathered in the Upper Room and prayed earnestly for nine days for the gift of the Paraclete, Advocate, Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit who descended upon them giving them powerful gifts of speaking, praising, preaching, and witnessing. With this gift of the Holy Spirit, the Church is born, so today we can sing: Happy birthday Mother Church! Have some birthday cake today!

What happened on that first Pentecost is wonderful and amazing, but so is the ongoing event of Pentecost in the life of the Church—in your life and mine, in our life together in our Pastorate, and throughout the world. Pentecost continues every day for every one of us.

The unfailing prayer “Come, Holy Spirit” brings the reality of Pentecost into our own hearts, our Pastorate, our domestic churches, and wherever we find ourselves day to day. The Holy Spirit prompts us in many ways—sometimes quite clearly, sometimes more subtly—to welcome anew as well as to share the light and joy of Jesus and His Good News.

Do not be afraid to share and to witness to what you have received and to what you have seen. Trust and be confident! God the Holy Spirit is with us and in us. So, pray often this prayer “Come, Holy Spirit” so that the Spirit, Whom we call in the Creed “the Lord and the Giver of life” may reign.

In this month of June, we celebrate with special devotion the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Leo recently reminded us of Pope Francis’ final encyclical Dilexit Nos where the late pope meditated on the Sacred Heart: “[The Sacred Heart is] that stream which is never exhausted, never passes away… offers itself time and time again to all those who wish to love as he did. For his love alone can bring about a new humanity” (no. 219).

We urge our families to register for Vacation Bible School. You don’t want to miss it!!

Support our youth group by making dinner plans this Wednesday at Brian Boru in Severna Park. $10 of every fixed price $30 meal will support our youth group as they spread the Gospel in Appalachia this summer.

Let us continue to pray daily and fervently, “Come Holy Spirit! Renew your wonders in our hearts and in our Pastorate!” And to the Sacred Heart, “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like yours!”

God bless!
Father John

Our Lady of the Chesapeake Celebrates 45th Anniversary!

Dear Friends of our Pastorate,

This weekend, we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. Some of us remember when this feast was celebrated on a Thursday (40 days after Easter), but most of the US Dioceses now have transferred the celebration to Sunday, so that more people are able to attend Mass and commemorate this important feast day of the Lord.

This weekend, we welcome Archbishop Lori to our Pastorate as Our Lady of the Chesapeake celebrates her 45th Anniversary. The Archbishop will be celebrating the 4:00pm Mass at OLC on May 31st followed by a celebratory toast and cake in the Gathering Place. We will also be drawing the winning numbers for OLC’s 45th Anniversary Raffle. All are welcomed to attend the Mass and reception.

I wanted to inform everyone that our Director of Pastorate Operations, Mike Downes, has submitted his resignation, which was effective as of May 30th. Mike has been a tremendous help to me as we navigated through two major capital projects (SJF School Roof and OLC Church Roof) as well as helped us coordinate our two parishes’ pastorate offices and support staff. Mike and his family have decided to relocate to Delaware. We thank him and wish him well with his new endeavors.

We will be welcoming two seminarians to our Pastorate for their summer assignments. Nicholas Hays and Jordan Damewood will be with us for about 6 weeks this summer as they prepare to enter Major seminary this Fall. They both will be studying in Rome and have been assigned to the Pontifical North American College, the same seminary where Fr. John completed his studies. Nick and Jordan will be residing at the St. Jane Frances rectory while they are here with us. Welcome Jordan and Nick!

Please join us for our Pentecost celebrations occurring this week as we prepare to celebrate Pentecost Sunday next weekend. Information can be found in the bulletin. Also please remember to RSVP to Tracey Laber (410-255-4646) for our Pastorate’s Volunteer Appreciation Dinner which is being held this Friday, June 6th in the St. Jane Parish Hall starting at 5:30pm. All pastorate volunteers and their spouses are invited to attend, but please RSVP.

Thank you for keeping St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake—our Pastorate of the Visitation—in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Father Steve