Blessings for this Memorial Day weekend. We remember in our prayers all who have given their lives in service of our country. Prayers too for all our veterans and those who continue to serve our country. Mass for Memorial Day will be Monday morning at 8:30 at Our Lady of Peace Church.
With Gratitude and Honor
Gracious God, on this Memorial Day weekend, we remember and give thanks
for those who have given their lives in the service of our country.
When the need was greatest, they stepped forward and did their duty
to defend the freedoms that we enjoy, and to win the same for others.
O God, you yourself have taught us that no love is greater than that which gives itself for another.
These honored dead gave the most precious gift they had, life itself, for loved ones and neighbors,
for comrades and country – and for us.
Help us to honor their memory by caring for the family members they have left behind,
by ensuring that their wounded comrades are properly cared for,
by being watchful caretakers of the freedoms for which they gave their lives,
and by demanding that no other young men and women
follow them to a soldier’s grave unless the reason is worthy and the cause is just.
Holy One, help us to remember that freedom is not free. There are times when its cost is, indeed, dear.
Never let us forget those who paid so terrible a price to ensure that freedom would be our legacy.
Though their names may fade with the passing of generations, may we never forget what they have done.
Help us to be worthy of their sacrifice, O God, help us to be worthy.
– J. Veltri, S.J.
Thank you to the members of the Knights of Columbus Peace Council 4518 for their Mother’s Day brunch on 11 May at Nelson Hall. The Knights arranged a beautiful setting with pastel tablecloths decorated with aromatic flowers. They prepared and served a hearty meal of eggs, pancakes, potatoes, breakfast meats, and breakfast pastries along with coffee and orange juice. Thank you again gentlemen for your thoughtfulness and a fitting way to honor Mother’s Day.
Pope Leo XIV recently met with the College of Cardinals who selected him to be our Holy Father. He concluded his remarks describing why he chose Leo as his name. Finally, at the close of his remarks, he reiterated words spoken by his predecessor Pope St. Paul VI.
“I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, from which I would like to highlight several fundamental points: the return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation; the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community; growth in collegiality and synodality; attention to Sensus Fidei most especially in popular piety; loving care for the least and the rejected; courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities.”
“These are evangelical principles that have always inspired and guided the life and activity of God’s Family. In these values, the merciful face of the Father has been revealed and continues to be revealed in his incarnate Son, the ultimate hope of all who sincerely seek truth, justice, peace and fraternity.”
“Sensing myself called to continue in this same path, I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”
“Dear brothers, I would like to conclude the first part of our meeting by making my own – and proposing to you as well – the hope that Saint Paul VI expressed at the inauguration of his Petrine Ministry in 1963: “May it pass over the whole world like a great flame of faith and love kindled in all men and women of good will. May it shed light on paths of mutual cooperation and bless humanity abundantly, now and always, with the very strength of God, without whose help nothing is valid, nothing is holy.”
“May these also be our sentiments, to be translated into prayer and commitment, with the Lord’s help.”