Welcome to June. It is a month of weddings, graduations, and a celebration of fathers. Congratulations to all. We pray at this time most especially for our graduates at the collegiate, secondary, and primary levels.
Almighty God, we thank you for your gift of wisdom and perseverance that have enabled our graduates to trust in themselves and in their God given gifts, especially the gift of your abiding presence in their lives. We, as a parish community, acknowledge their achievements and celebrate their accomplishments.
May they trust in the encouraging support of their family and friends and see the Holy Spirit as the source of strength, goodness, and generosity. May they use their talents to advance your Kingdom of grace and offer simple, loving service modeled upon the love and mercy of our Savior.
May they be lifelong learners, filled with curiosity and inquisitiveness. May they never fear to ask themselves: “What if.” And may they courageously and confidently give its answer. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Congratulations and God Bless you!
“Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates. Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water. The one who gives this testimony says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:14, 17b, 20-21)
“Let the one who thirsts come forward.” Sixty years ago, the Second Vatican Council recognized that many people were indeed thirsty but the means to quench that thirst was unattainable. The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, from its inception by our Savior, was always intended to be a Sacrament for those who are seeking the gift of life-giving water. Yet, in the ninth century the Sacrament was reserved to only those who were in imminent danger of death. The title “Extreme Unction” was associated with this Sacrament for well over a millennium.
Unction indicates an anointing with oil, and the word extreme obviously shows that a dire necessity required the intervention of the holy oils. Yet if there was an extreme unction that would say that an ordinary or a moderate unction would be possible. Sadly, for over a thousand years that was not the case.
The Second Vatican Council in its document: The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy writes: “Extreme Unction, which may also and more fittingly called “anointing of the sick,” is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as any one of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time for him to receive the sacrament has certainly arrived.” (paragraph 73)
The Council established these new understandings of our sacramental life, and it was the responsibility of Pope St. Paul VI to formulate these rites for the universal church. He writes: “The reality of this sacrament is the fact that the grace of the Holy Spirit, whose anointing takes away sins, and the remnants of sin, if any still need to be taken away. The sacrament also relieves and strengthens the soul of the sick person, arousing in him a great confidence in the divine mercy, whereby being thus sustained he more easily bears the trials and labors of his sickness, resists temptations that lie in wait, and sometimes regains bodily health, if this is expedient for the soul,”
The Holy Father continues: “By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of her priests, the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, asking that he may lighten their suffering and save them.” (On the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick).
We continue to offer our prayers for the health and wellbeing of all in our community. With the loss of both Crozer and Taylor we pray to Pope St. Paul VI for solutions to our healthcare needs, and we pray to St. Joseph the Worker for the unemployed.