Category: From the Pastor’s Desk (Page 5 of 61)

Prayer for Priests

Gracious and loving God, we thank you for the gift of our Priests.
Through them, we experience your presence in the sacraments.
Help our priests to be strong in their vocation.  Set their souls on fire with love for your people.
Grant them the wisdom, understanding, and strength they need to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  Inspire them with the vision of your Kingdom.
Give them the words they need to spread the Gospel.
Allow them to experience joy in their ministry.
Help them to become instruments of your divine grace.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns as our Eternal Priest.
Amen.

Dear Parishioners and Visitors: 

Cast thy bread upon the waters:  for thou shalt find it after many days.  If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there shall thy bread be (Ecclesiastes 11:1-3).

As we continue with Sunday readings from St. John’s Bread of Life Discourse, especially the multiplication of the loaves the fish and the feeding of the multitude, it’s a good time to thank all those who give so generously and regularly to the poor box in the church. It sits under the sign, “Remember God’s Poor” and just below Heinrich Hofmann’s painting, “Christ in Gethsemane.” With the donations – from checks to crumbled dollar bills to spare change – many members of the local community are fed.

Because of your generosity, at last week’s meeting of the St. Joseph’s Parish Outreach Committee, funds were set aside to continue our participation with the Rotary’s “Community Chest Program” by ensuring that the elderly and needy of the area will receive food and toys at Thanksgiving and Christmas. In addition, funds were disbursed to Haven Pregnancy Center to foster pro-life programs for young women and men, to The Vets Rest Stop to say thanks to our local military veterans, to The Bridge Project as they purchase bookbags and school supplies for area children and help with domestic  violence issues and the local unsheltered population,   and to the Knights of  Columbus Tootsie Roll Drive in support of their donations to those who suffer from intellectual  challenges in the Linwood Community.  Your poor box donations helped us to purchase gift cards from local markets to help the hungry and thirsty in surrounding towns with groceries.

Much like the little boy with the five loaves and two fish, your contributions, no matter how large or small, have yielded a fruitful harvest from thy bread cast upon the waters.

With prayerful best wishes,

Fr. John Mahoney

Dear Parishioners and Visitors: 

Each year, Bishop Libasci asks that parishes throughout the Diocese of  Manchester welcome a missionary to speak on behalf of the USCCB’s “Mission “Cooperative Appeal.”  Next weekend, August 10 and 11, please join me in welcoming Father Michael Semana to St. Joseph Parish. Father is a priest of “The Lamb Shall Lead” international missionary community from the Philippines. The goal of the ministry is outreach to grassroots communities, designed to empower the poorest of God’s poor to evangelize their territories.  Funds from this mission appeal will be used 1) to replicate sustainable livelihood in urban and rural areas through livestock and organic farming, 2) to establish a training center for  the education of lay missionaries, 3) to provide resources and medical care for the elderly and malnourished children, and 4) to rehabilitate economically deprived individuals impacted by relocation and natural calamities.  Fr. Semana will share his experience of the liberation of the poor who are caught in the cycle of dependency and survival, as well as his efforts of empowering families and youth to achieve a better future, full of hope.

  Father Semana will celebrate weekday Masses on Wednesday (no Adoration), Thursday and Friday, August 7, 8, and 9, while I am out of town pursuing continuing education credits for renewal of my professional licensure and visiting family.

With prayerful best wishes,

Fr. John Mahoney

We are most grateful to the two skiers who volunteer so much time and care into making the parish property look like the gardens of paradise!
 

Dear Parishioners and Visitors: 

Pope Francis has instituted the fourth Sunday in July each year as “World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.” To show our love and appreciation for those in that category, the Parish Outreach Committee is making available at the doors of the church this weekend small bottles of holy water. Please take one for yourself or for your grandparent(s) or an elderly friend. 

Holy water is one of the Church’s most essential sacramentals. We most commonly dip our fingers into the holy water font when we enter a church. It reminds us of our baptismal cleansing and our incorporation into God’s holy household. But we should also use it to bless our homes, our families, our workspaces, and anything that we use with the goal of glorifying God in our daily lives.

God bless all the grandparents and the seniors of our parish community and our visitors to St. Joe’s!

With prayerful best wishes,
Fr. John Mahoney