A word from Pope Francis ~ “In the face of so many wounds that hurts us and could lead to a hardness of heart, we are called to dive into the sea of prayer, which is the sea of the boundless love of God, in order to experience his tenderness.” Today we celebrate the 16th Sunday in the Ordinary Time of the Year. During this year, our Sunday Gospel readings have been primarily coming from the Gospel of Mark. One of the unique aspects of Mark’s Gospel is its length. Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, and probably the first one that was written. It is brief and to the point. This weekend we pick up where we left off last Sunday when we saw Jesus sending the disciples out on a mission to announce the Kingdom of God. Today we see them return to report their missionary activity to Jesus. And we see how Jesus responds when his plans are interrupted and things do not turn out as he expected. Next Sunday we will begin a five week break from our reading of Mark’s Gospel as we begin hearing from John’s Gospel, Chapter 6. This is the great Bread of Life discourse. This will give us an additional opportunity to spend some time reflecting on the great gift of the Eucharist. We return to Mark’s Gospel on September 2nd. Some great things are coming! This weekend we are happy to welcome our annual July mission speakers. This year’s charity is local – The Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans, located in Wheaton. They are a non-profit agency founded in 2007 that provides housing, supportive services and community outreach to help homeless and at-risk veterans. They operate on a vision of no veteran left behind due to homelessness, joblessness, poverty and /or mental health issues. Their representatives are speaking at each Mass. They will help us become aware of their work and provided us with opportunities to assist them. Please join me in welcoming their representatives to our parish this weekend. Thank you, in advance, for your generosity in supporting their cause. As many of you know, we have an Emergency Line connected to our main parish telephone line. Should someone call after office hours, the recorded greeting gives instructions on what to do to access our Emergency Line mailbox. When an emergency message is left in that mailbox, we are immediately alerted through a message to our cell phones. One of the priests is “on call” and receives Emergency Line messages through his cell phone. Wherever we are, we can call in to the parish mailboxes, retrieve a message from the Emergency Line mailbox and respond as soon as possible. We’ve recently had a number of last minute calls from Hospice Chaplains asking us to come and anoint a parishioner in Hospice care. In most cases, one of us arrives in time, but not all. Whenever a family member begins hospice care, please call for the Sacrament of the Sick immediately. Do not wait until the last minute. We try our best to respond immediately to requests for the Sacrament of the Sick. In situations like this, earlier is better than later. Thank you to all who have pledged to the 2021 Joliet Diocesan Catholic Ministries Annual Appeal. Our pledges support the work and charities of the diocese, our larger church. Thank you to the 651 households who have pledged $151,496 towards our parish goal of $167,300. Your generosity is deeply appreciated. Please continue to make your monthly payments on your pledge. We are now half way through the 2021 Appeal Year and have not reached our parish goal in pledges. No doubt the pandemic is a cause of this, especially since we were unable to conduct an in-pew Commitment Sunday. If you haven’t had a chance to respond to the 2021 Joliet Diocesan Catholic Ministries Annual Appeal, please do so as soon as possible. Every contribution counts towards our parish goal. Again, thank you for your support of our larger diocesan church. We are now past the mid-point of July, the middle of the summer months. Unlike the winter months, the summer days are quickly flying by. We waited for these long summer days to arrive. They are God’s gifts to us following the dark months of the pandemic. Let us continue to appreciate and enjoy the blessings of the summer. May God continue to bless us with all that we need, and more. Father Jim Murphy