A Letter from Fr. Paul - June 7

Friday should have been our graduation from Wauwatosa Catholic.  Congratulations to our graduates.  We  accompany you into the future with our prayers.

Please watch for a mailing for our national combined collection to support Black and Indian Missions, Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic  Communication Campaign, Catholic University of America, and the Fund for Religious Retirement.  Over the years there were many complaints from parishes around the  United States about all the second collections, so these collections were combined. They are all very worthwhile causes. Please be as generous as possible. Information on how it will be handled this year (by mail and online) can be found elsewhere in the bulletin.

Please remember that each day there is an UPDATE on our website, my effort to keep you informed of what is  happening as we move into the future.

This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This is one of the greatest mysteries of our Faith, one that we accept in faith, knowing that we can’t understand it logically.

This feast underscores two important realities for me.  First, God is community.  While God is one, God is also a  community of love.  One way of understanding this is that the Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son. Second, this “community of love” had to reach out in love, creating us, redeeming us, and sanctifying us.  True love is not able to be self-contained but HAS to reach out. 

What does this say to us?  We, also, are a community, a community that is called to love.  We are called to love each other, to support each other, to be there for each other. Hopefully, we are doing this, especially for those members of our community who are home bound or isolated.

But true love also reaches out to others and, as a  community of love, we must do the same.  We do that in many ways: our Living Waters Campaign helps those who need safe water in Africa; our special needs fund supports many worthwhile causes; our support of food pantries feeds the hungry; the annual Combined Collection (which will be announced next week), a diocese wide collection that helps the most needy; etc.  Our Justice and Peace Commission is constantly educating us and calling us to express our love in action.  We thank them for their dedication and ministry. Hopefully, each of us is reaching out in love to others,  mirroring the love of the Trinity.

We begin every prayer in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I invite us this week, every time we say in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, to be aware of and reflect on the love these three Persons have shown to us, asking ourselves how we can better reflect that love to the world around us.  And let us support each other in prayer.