It is now officially summer, and I believe we have the weather to prove it. Summertime is a great time of the year when we can get out more and for some there seems to be a little less rushing around. We tend to spend more time with family and friends for cookouts and ballgames. Independence Day is right around the corner. Many are looking forward to vacations when things can really slow down. I hope and pray that everyone has a blessed and relaxing summertime. May God bless us with good weather both for our enjoyment and for an abundant harvest.
Summertime may be a time for vacations and “for getting away from it all,” but we never need a vacation from God or the Church. Many people often think that it is okay to take a little break from Mass on Sunday while they are vacationing, but if we stop and think about that we would conclude that a vacation from Holy Mass is rather foolish and childish. We need God every day of our life and every moment of our life. The more time we spend with God the more we become aware of His love and His presence in our lives. When we are more aware of God’s love and presence the more likely we are to make better decisions on how we live out our faith and our relationship with God.
I recently read an article on how easy it is to become resentful of God and how many already do resent Him. We can easily resent the time we take to go to Holy Mass, the time we take to prayer, or the time it takes to do works of charity or deeds of mercy. How often do we actually look forward to going to Holy Mass, spending time in adoration, praying with your spouse and/or family members, or being involved in some charitable work? Everything we do takes time. Where do we get the time we have? The answer to that is very obvious. Time is a great gift from God. He has given it to us in great abundance to do with as we choose. It would serve us all well to prayerfully consider what we do with our time. This does not mean that we have to be busy doing something all the time. There are many ways we can spend our time, but the first and most important way to spend our time is with God.
If we think about what heaven is going to be like we would arrive at the fact that heaven is simply being with God just like the time we spend at Holy Mass, praying in the chapel, or at home. So, if we get bored thinking about going to Holy Mass or spending time with the Lord living out our love for Him and our neighbor, then we run the risk of not really wanting to go to heaven. Maybe this is part of the reason we fear death or why we are sometimes so overwhelmed with sadness when someone we love dies. I do not mean this to sound simplistic. I am trying to help us all go a little deeper concerning the time we spend with God and how we can adjust our attitude of the time we spend with God. Give it some prayer and thought. When we go to Holy Mass, we are not just doing something that we decided to do. We are responding to God who is calling us to prayer. We need to teach this to our children and grandchildren as well as share it with others. You can be the instrument of God by inviting someone to Holy Mass.
When you are traveling and need to make plans to go to Holy Mass, just go to masstimes.org and fill in the zip code of where you are going, and you can find schedules of Holy Mass in that location.
Rocked the Rectory, that is what we did last Friday with the Predictables. It was a very delightful and entertaining evening and also a very pleasant evening. The whole event came together beautifully, and everyone had a great time. I am very grateful to Joe McNeill, Chris Serger, and Josh Watson for their time and effort in putting on a great show, including their first ever performance of Don McClean’s AMERICAN PIE, a classic hit that goes all the way back to my college days, and that’s going back quite a way. It was a great evening, and we hope to do it again. Thanks to all who came and shared in the fun.
Thank you all for your greetings, prayers, and cards for my Ordination Anniversary and Father’s Day. Your kind words and prayers are greatly appreciated.
