Dear Friends of St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake,
This weekend we celebrate the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our Gospel passage this weekend from Matthew’s Gospel is with words that are meant to express God’s closeness and comfort to us (Mt 11:25-30). The coming of Jesus among us has revealed to us the living God in the flesh. God has come to his people and walked among us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. This great gift from God ought to give us an overwhelming reminder of the Lord’s care and concern for us. Wherever we are on our journey of faith or even how far we may have wandered away from the Lord, Jesus gently invites us to come to him, to rest in him, to learn from him, and to share our burdens with him. What more could we ask for from our God than his longing to join us and walk with us on this earthly journey. May you experience this warm embrace from Jesus during this coming week!
This Sunday, July 9th, we are welcoming Fr. Sampson Onwumere to the 10:45am Mass at Our Lady of the Chesapeake. Fr. Sampson was ordained to the priesthood on June 24th at the Cathedral and has been assigned to the Pastorate of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Clare. He will be celebrating Mass with us as we celebrate his priesthood with him. There will be a reception following Mass. Welcome Fr. Sampson!
Our Pastorate Synodal Listening Sessions begin this week. All parishioners and friends of the parishes are invited to join us at one of the four scheduled sessions. The session schedule is as follows:
- OLC (Gathering Place) Monday, 7/10 at 7pm
- OLC (Gathering Place) Saturday, 7/15 at 9:30am
- SJF (Parish Hall) Monday, 7/17 at 7pm
- SJF (Parish Hall) Tuesday, 7/18 at 9:30am
We will be using this time to envision what we would like our Pastorate to become in the years ahead as we continue to implement Archbishop Lori’s vision for the Archdiocese as outline in A Light Brightly Visible 2.0. Please join us for whichever session works best with your schedule, even if it is not at your home parish. I will also have a summary of the proposed pastorate names that I have received so far. If you have a suggestion for a name for our Pastorate, please send it to me at Shook@olchesapeake.org.
I would like to thank everyone who joined us for our Pastorate Fourth of July Mass at St. Jane Frances. I am especially thankful to Kevin Garner and the music ministry at OLC for supplying our music for the celebration.
Thank you for keeping our Pastorate in your daily prayers!
God Bless,
Father Steve
