Beginning: This Sunday’s first reading takes us back to the beginning—the fall of Adam and Eve through the temptation of the evil one. We desire eternal life. We desire to be with God forever, and God desires to be with us forever too. Jesus, in today’s Gospel, drives out demons. He defeats the evil one!
Encounters: This past week I was in Omaha for the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF). It’s a summer program for seminarians throughout the country. I want to share a couple of conversations that I had with a couple of seminarians (not from our diocese). The first was with a young man whom I met about nine years ago. I was serving at St. Robert’s in Flushing on a weekend while the priest there was on vacation. After Mass, two young men approached me. They were home for the weekend from attending Liberty University in Virginia. One was Catholic, the other Baptist (his father was even a Baptist minister). After talking a little bit, I asked them if they wanted to meet Steve Ray, a well-known Catholic apologist living in Ypsilanti. Steve was originally a Baptist minister who, at that time, tried to lead people away from the Catholic faith. I arranged a meeting with Steve, who knows the Catholic faith up and down. Lo and behold, that man who was once Baptist was now studying to become a Catholic priest. He converted to Catholicism shortly after his meeting with Steve. It was great to see him again. The other story happened at one of our spiritual conferences. Before the conference I saw a seminarian with a Michigan State jersey on. I went up to him and we talked about his experience at MSU. He sheepishly admitted that while he was there he never went to Mass one time! He went on to tell me that he got a job after college but was laid off shortly thereafter. He moved in with his parents—but his parents said that if he was going to live in their house he had to go to Mass. He begrudgingly did. But after a while his heart softened and he felt the need to go to confession. He went to a priest who lived about 30 minutes away. The priest said, “welcome home” and the rest is history. It’s great to see the faith of these men and all the seminarians during the week.
School news: This week is the last week of school. I want to thank all our teachers, administrators and staff, but especially our students and parents that make the school possible. I hope all of you have a wonderful summer break.
Boosters: I am so grateful to our Boosters Club. They do an incredible job of raising money for our school sports teams and facilities. They are having a little gathering this evening to thank everyone for their support.
Looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend after being gone this past week.
In Christ’s love and peace,
Msgr. Jerry
Saint quote: “Let us become saints so that after having been together on earth we will be together forever in heaven.”
St. Padre Pio