June 14 2022 - St. Anthony of Padua - Patron of Lost Things

 Saint Anthony of Padua has been honored since the 11th century by Catholics around the world. Anthony belonged to that first generation of the followers of St. Francis of Assisi known as the Friars Minor. 

In 2010, Holy Father Benedict XVI gave a beautiful summary of Saint Anthony’s life and spirituality.  He said, “Anthony, in the school of Francis, always put Christ at the center of his life and thinking, of his action and of his preaching.”

Franciscan, doctor, preacher, priest. Yet, St. Anthony is of course widely invoked as the patron saint of lost things. The little jingle goes like this: "St. Anthony, please look around; something is lost and must be found." This attribution comes from an incident from Anthony’s life.

As the story goes, Anthony had a book of psalms that was very important to him. Besides the value of any book before the invention of the printing-press, the psalter had the notes and comments he had made to use in teaching students in his Franciscan Order.

Upon realizing his psalter was missing, Anthony prayed it would be found or returned to him. A novice who had decided to leave religious life had stolen the psalter. But after Anthony’s prayer, the thieving novice was moved to repentance. He returned the psalter to Anthony and returned to the Order, which accepted him back.

St. Anthony is invoked as patron of lost things, however more importantly is a patron of lost souls— those who have fallen to mortal sin, have abandoned the Church and have grown apathetic to the practice of the faith. And for this we should invoke him more often than we lose our car keys! When your heart is grieved over family members who have left the Church, pray to St. Anthony! For those young people who seem to be lost in a sea of sin, pray to St. Anthony! For those who are angry at the Church or preach a false Gospel, pray to St. Anthony!

Maybe some of you here were at one point lost—apathetic or hostile to religion, dabbling in the new age, or diving head over heals into sin. The Church was praying for you, the saints were praying for you. And thanks be to God, what was lost, has now been found. Stay that way!

In a sermon, Anthony said, “If you preach Jesus, he will melt hardened hearts; if you invoke him, he will soften harsh temptations; if you think of him, he will enlighten your mind; if you read of him, he will satisfy your intellect.”

May Saint Anthony always help us to find Christ: in the poor, in one another, in our Sacred Worship, in our prayer, that we may know God’s help in every trial and faithfully follow the teachings of Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Trinity Sunday 2022 - God revealed in Creation, Cross, & Church

 Throughout the Church year, the feasts and solemnities of the liturgical calendar celebrate different dimensions of our Catholic faith. We celebrate events from the life of Jesus: like his joyous birth at Christmas, his salvific death on Good Friday, his glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday. We also celebrate the feast days of the saints, typically on the anniversaries of their martyrdoms or natural deaths – like the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch on October 17.

But today, on this solemnity of the Holy Trinity, we don’t celebrate an event from the life of Jesus or one of his holy saints, we celebrate the nature of God, who God is, and what God has done.

And as a way of gently handling this most august and mysterious of topics, I’d like to reflect on three C’s. Three C’s. Creation, Crucifixion, and Church.

In the first reading, we heard of the glories of Creation: mountains, hills, fountains, fields, earth and dirt, the heavens and skies, sea and water. God Created all these things and therefore must have pre-existed all of these things. God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has existed from all eternity—and the three divine persons, working together, have brought all aspects of creation into being. 

What is the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited? A mountain top, the grand canyon, the ocean, a lush forest, a secluded lake? I’ve been blessed to have been able to travel to a lot of different locals. I remember vacationing in Canada one year, up in the Kawartha Lakes of Northern Ontario and waking up one early morn and seeing the first glimmers of sunlight on the glassy lake, the morning mist just gently hovering over the waters, the calm ever-green forest lining the shores of the lake, just being moved to tears at how grateful I was to take in the beauty of Creation.

Creation is beautiful-- because God—the Creator—is infinitely beautiful—and He has made creation very good. Pope Pius XII back in 1955 reflected upon how finite Creation hints at God’s infinite beauty. He said, Creation, “which offers itself to the inspection of the attentive observer, reveals an inexhaustible wealth of goodness and beauty, reflecting back with transparent sincerity the infinite superabundance of the perfection and beauty of nature's Creator.”

“Sometimes one is enchanted and overcome by the majesty of towering mountains, at other times by the irresistible fury of the ocean tempest, the solitude of polar glaciers, the vast stretch of virgin forests, the melancholy of the desert sands, the loveliness of flowers, the limpid quality of water, the violent rush of waterfalls, the distinctive beauty of the Northern Lights... Greater astonishment and wealth of knowledge are offered by... the secrets of the animal kingdom... in forests and in inhospitable deserts, on rivers and in the depths of the sea. What a testimony to the richness and manifold variety of nature... to soothe, recreate and refresh the spirit."

So, on this Trinity Sunday, reflect, perhaps on the beauty of nature, tell someone about the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited. Thank God for his beautiful creation. And endeavor to be a good steward of that creation.

The first C—Creation. The Second C--The Cross. The Cross too reveals something about God to us, it reveals God’s love. On the Cross we see the love of God made visible. The Father so loved the world, that he sent his Son to suffer and die to redeem us. God is love, and there is no greater love than one who lays down his life for others. Creation was a labor of love, well, so was the cross, the greatest labor of love: the labor that saved us from the grasp of hell. 

And through the Cross, through the Crucifixion, the Holy Trinity has transformed the ugliness of suffering into an instrument of human sanctification and redemption. Suffering now has meaning and redemptive power, so much so that we can say with St. Paul in our second reading: “we are able, now to boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

On this Trinity Sunday, turn to a crucifix, contemplate the love of God for you, in suffering for you, dying for you, you a sinner, loved with love beyond all telling. Ask the Father to help you to love as much as he does, Ask the Son to help you to love as much as he does, as the Holy Spirit to help you love as much as He does.

Creation, Cross, and finally, Church. The Church also reveals something about God—she reveals that God is still at work. The Church’s very existence is willed by God, she is sustained by God, animated by God, taught by God, directed toward God, protected by God, ordered by God, sent out by God. The Church reveals that God involves us in His work—to save souls. 

Also, St. Basil the Great, the fourth century doctor of the Church, taught that the Church has the duty to reflect God’s nature. The world is to know that God is a Trinity—a Communion of Love—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—through the way we worship and treat each other.

The Trinitarian nature of God is certainly seen in the way we worship. In the celebration of Mass, we unite ourselves to the Son, who offers Himself to the Father, that the grace of salvation may redeem the human race through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our sacred hymns today especially invoke, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. Sins are absolved in Sacramental Confession in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. The dying are comforted and the sick are brought healing and strength in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

But the nature of the Triune God is not just revealed by the Church’s worship and sacramental life, but the Church acts in his name out in the world. We seek to be faithful to the Commands of the Father, as Christ was obedient. We seek to imitate Christ’s goodness, his self-sacrifice, his self-donation, his endurance, his love for sinners. And we seek to be animated by the gifts of the holy spirit and the fruits of the holy spirit for the building up of the church and the mission of spreading the Gospel. Just like the beauty of God can be detected in creation, just like the love of God was revealed on the cross, the truth, goodness, and beauty of the living God—Father, Son, and Spirit, are to be manifest in the life of the Church.

So, on this great Solemnity consider how your life is called to mirror, reflect, make manifest, make known the Triune God—His Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Love for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

10th Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Friday - Inner Transformation

 Since the beginning of the week we’ve been reading from Jesus’ most famous sermon, his sermon on the mount. He has taught his followers to be salt and light, not to lose our saltiness and not to hide our light, and of keeping God’s commandments, the smallest letter, the smallest part of the letter of the law of God.

Today the Lord singles out two of the commandments of the law of Moses regarding adultery and divorce, and by doing so, illustrates a grander point.

Not only are Christians to refrain from activities prohibited by God’s laws—for example adultery and divorce—Christians are to root out the attitudes that lead to sin. 

True external conformity to the laws of God is only possible when we have also sought internal conformity to the heart of God.

Two people are standing in the same line waiting for the cashier at the grocery store. One stands quietly, one angrily complains. One approaches the cashier with gentleness, the other rudely belittles the cashier. 

We must root out—or at least control—those internal dispositions to rudeness, anger, complaint, adultery, divorce, and so on, and desire to remain patient in the face of inconvenience, to remain chaste in the face of all lust.

When the Lord says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away” he is speaking hyperbolically. In other words, if you possess some license within yourself, that in some circumstance it is okay to belittle a cashier, get rid of it. If you possess some license within yourself, that in some circumstance it would be okay to commit adultery or some other sexual sin get rid of it, tear out, throw it away.

And if that’s not possible, develop, nurture and grow the ability to practice “self-control” in all circumstances. 

Well, I’m just a little hot-headed sometimes, I’m only human. No. Grace wants to transform those parts of us that are fallen, and bring them under the dominion of God. And the failure to cooperate with transforming grace is our own fault, our own most grievous fault. 

May we seek to cooperate with God’s manifold grace with as much effort as we can possibly muster, for the healing and transformation that God wants for us, God who love us despite our faults, but who seeks our redemption and conversion from sin, and so come to the Beatitude God has planned for us for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the preaching and teaching and charitable works of the Church will inspire all people to seek to radical holiness and obedience to the commands of God.

That those in public office may govern with wisdom, put an end to all political corruption, and work for a society of authentic justice and peace with special care for the most vulnerable.

For an end to oppression, racism, hatred, addiction and injustice. For the healing of all the sick. 

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, for a strengthening of marriages, for all single people who strive to follow Christ, and for the grace to utilize our spiritual gifts for the building up of the Church.

That those who have died may share in the joy of life-everlasting; for our deceased family members, friends, and fellow parishioners, for all the poor souls in purgatory…

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

 

Monday after Pentecost 2022 - Mary, Mother of the Church and the fruits of the Holy Spirit

 

Though Our Lady has been referred to as the mother of Christians and as the mother of the Church since ancient times, the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, celebrated on the monday following Pentecost Sunday, is the most recent addition to the liturgical calendar, instituted by Pope Francis in 2018 in his decree Beatae Mariæ Virginis, Ecclesiæ Matris.

The idea of Mary as Mother of Christians is found in the writings of St. Augustine, who explains that Mary is the mother of the members of Christ, because with charity she cooperates in the rebirth of the faithful into the Church. St. Leo the Great, Pope just about a decade after the death of Augustine says that the birth of the Head is also the birth of the body. Mary is Mother of Christ, the Son of God, and also mother of the members of his Mystical Body, the Church. 

“Mother, behold your son” we hear in the Gospel for today’s memorial. Holy Father Pope Francis explains, “Indeed, the Mother standing beneath the cross (cf. Jn 19:25), accepted her Son’s testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple as sons and daughters to be reborn unto life eternal. She thus became the tender Mother of the Church which Christ begot on the cross handing on the Spirit. Christ, in turn, in the beloved disciple, chose all disciples as ministers of his love towards his Mother, entrusting her to them so that they might welcome her with filial affection.”

“As a caring guide to the emerging Church Mary had already begun her mission in the Upper Room, praying with the Apostles while awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit (as we heard in our first reading today).”

This connection with Pentecost is surely why the Holy Father placed this memorial on the Monday after Pentecost. Mother Mary prayed with the Apostles, teaching them to be open to the Holy Spirit, as she was at her annunciation, where the Holy Spirit overshadowed her, and through whom she conceived the Christ. 

When we pray, Mother Mary is always praying with us, she is praying for us, even before we have the inspiration to pray. She is praying that we may be open to the Holy Spirit’s gifts. She is praying that the fruits of the Holy Spirit may grow in us like the Christ-child grew in her holy womb: gentleness, patience, self-control, chastity, and joy. 

Let us honor her with this tender title, Mary, Mother of the Church, today and always, that all Christians may be open to the new life of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostles on Pentecost, for the mission of the Gospel, and have the strength to remain faithful to the commands of Christ as we carry our crosses, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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To the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, we recommend ourselves and the entire Body of Christ.

Mary, Mother of the Church: Guide and assist our Holy Father and our Bishops in their apostolic mission, and aid all who help them in their work.

Mary, Mother of the Church: Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, hope and love! You were given to us as a mother by your Divine Son at the moment of his redeeming death.

Mary, Mother of the Church: Remember us your children, support our prayers to God. Preserve our Faith, strengthen our Hope, increase our Charity.

Mary, Mother of the Church and Immaculate Heart: Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today.

Mary, Mother of the Church: From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, and from every kind of war, deliver us. From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us. From every kind of injustice in the life of society, deliver us.

Mary, Mother of the Church: From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us. From attempts to stifle the very truth of God, deliver us. From the loss of awareness of good and evil deliver us. From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us.

Mary, Mother of the Church: That those who have died may share in the joy of life-everlasting; for our deceased family members, friends, and fellow parishioners, for the repose of the soul of Mr. Joseph Malesic, 104-year old father of Bishop Edward Malesic, who died this week for all the poor souls in purgatory and for N.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.

Pentecost 2022 - Unity

 

On Friday, the Holy Father, met with a delegation of young priests and monks from the Eastern Orthodox Churches—so the Greek Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and so on. And that is quite the feat, as the Orthodox Churches, historically have not always had the most cordial of relationships with Rome nor with each other. So to get everyone in a room together, in Rome, is already a Pentecost miracle. But then the Holy Father took the opportunity to speak to this disparate group, about one of the important themes of Pentecost: unity. “Strive to preserve the unity of the spirit” St. Paul writes to the Ephesians. The Lord himself prayed for the church’s unity at the Last supper, “I pray Father, that they may be one, as you and I are one.”

The Holy Father offered four insights about what Pentecost teaches us about unity. 

Firstly, the Holy Father said unity is a “gift…a fire from on high”. Unity is a gift from God. With all of our divisions in the human family and even in the Church, the Holy Father says, yes, we need to take great efforts to work for unity: prayer, dialogue, disposing ourselves to what God wants for us, but unity, says Pope Francis, is primarily “not a fruit of earth, but of heaven. It is not primarily the result of our commitment, OUR efforts and OUR agreements,” he says, “but of the working of the Holy Spirit, to whom we need to open our hearts in trust, so that he can guide us along the path to full communion. Unity is a grace, a gift.”

So, yes, we need to do our part, but in the end, all human efforts fail, they are insufficient, for the unification of divided humanity is ultimately the work of God. Jesus came to reconcile us to one another and to the Father, something that we could not and cannot do on our own. No amount of secular human progress will create unity. We need God if we hope to live in unity.

A second lesson that Pentecost teaches us is that unity God wants for us is not necessarily uniformity,” he said, “much less the fruit of compromise or fragile diplomatic balances of power. Unity is harmony in the diversity of the charisms bestowed by the Spirit. For the Holy Spirit loves to awaken both multiplicity and unity, as at Pentecost, where different languages were not reduced to one alone, but were taken up in all their variety. Harmony is the way of the Spirit, for, as Saint Basil the Great says, the Spirit is harmony.”

One of the things I love about St. Ignatius is our harmonious  and diverse unity. On any given Sunday we have folks from the neighborhood, folks who’ve moved away, life-long parishioners, and neophytes, catholics from various ethnic backgrounds, economic strata, and professions. Parishioners with so many different gifts. And we offer two forms of the holy mass, the ordinary form in English, and the old rite, both in harmony, hopefully mutually enriching each other, teaching each other, both bringing about a diversity of charisms from the Holy Spirit. 

A third lesson of Pentecost, the Holy Father explains,  is that unity is a journey. “Unity is attained along the way” he says, “it grows by sharing each step of the journey, by facing its joys and struggles, and experiencing its unexpected surprises. As Saint Paul told the Galatians, we are called to walk by the Spirit. In the words of Saint Irenaeus, whom the Holy Father named as the Doctor of Unity, the Church is tõn adelphõn synodía, in the Greek, “a caravan of brothers”. In this caravan, unity grows and matures: a unity that – in God’s quiet way – does not suddenly appear as an overwhelming miracle, but quietly emerges in the patient and persevering progress of a journey made together.” What a beautiful image. A caravan wherein each of the members are seeking growth in our unique virtues, but growing in holiness, together.

Are we here at St. Ignatius, or in the Diocese of Cleveland, “perfectly one”, as the Lord, prayed for at the Last Supper? Not quite. Are we “of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing” as St. Paul taught the Philippians. Not quite. But Paul said, strive to be of the same mind, meaning, it is an effort, a journey, as the Holy Father says.. As I preached about last week, our unity comes from our personal assent to the truths, the dogmas of the faith, and our worship of the one true God. But we have some ways to go, don’t we.

Lastly, the Holy Father explains that unity “is closely tied to the fruitfulness of the Christian proclamation: unity is for mission.  Jesus prayed for his disciples that they “may all be one… so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). At Pentecost, the Church was born as a missionary Church. Today too, the world is waiting…to hear the Gospel message of charity, freedom and peace. It is a message that we are called to bear witness to with one another, not against one another or apart from one another.”

Unity is for mission. St. Ignatius of Antioch has a mission to the neighborhood, to the fallen away Catholics, and angry or hurt Catholics, the unchurched, the drug-addled, the freemasons, the protestants, the muslims. It’s not just my mission folks. It’s our mission. Our communal mission from God. And I pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to send us insight into how to fulfill that mission, and strength for that mission. 

Please pray for your parish throughout the week. If you cannot come to daily mass throughout the week, make sure you lift your parish up to God, and your pastor. These are complex times aren’t they? Confusing times. But God chose us to be here now, in 2022, for the work of the Gospel. May we be one in our mission.

The Holy Father concluded his thoughts, “Dear brothers, may the cross of Christ be the compass that directs us on our journey towards full unity. For on that cross Christ, our peace, reconciled us and gathered us into one people” 

May we draw close to the cross of Christ every day, to be set alight with spiritual fire, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

June 03 2022 - St. Charles Lwanga - Love of Chastity

 o many of us, the name of the Ugandan Martyr St. Charles Lwanga is unfamiliar.  But, he is well-known and revered in much of tropical Africa and is honored throughout the universal Church as a patron saint of young people and chastity. 

Evangelization of Uganda only began in the mid-1800s by the Society of Missionaries of Africa (known as the White Fathers because of the white cassock they wore). At that time Uganda had a very vicious, lustful king named Mwanga who forced himself on the young boys and young men of his court.  Charles Lwanga, who had become a Catechist for the Christian community, encouraged the young boys to preserve their chastity. For opposing the King’s lusts, Charles was arrested and burned to death on June 3.

St. Charles Lwanga’s witness reminds us that chastity is part of God’s plan for all people, but the culture is not always receptive to that message. Especially as “National Pride Month” is celebrated by many in our land, Christ’s call to chastity needs to joyfully resound in his Church.

Chastity involves self-mastery, self-control, self-knowledge, developing the virtue of temperance, and learning to rely on God’s grace in times of temptation. Chastity brings freedom from our baser, fallen, and disordered impulses, and the joy of bringing one’s life more under the dominion of the Holy Spirit. Chastity is largely a personal journey, though Christian parents certainly have a pivotal role in protecting the innocence of their children from the perversions of the culture. Indeed, the Church has a role in promoting chastity in the larger culture. 

The proliferation of pornography, the confused gender ideologies which are pushed in public schools and in the media, the cultural-acceptance of sex before marriage, are certainly signs that we have a lot of work to do in this area. 

In the Gospel for today’s feast of St. Charles we heard the Lord’s beatitudes, in which he proclaims, “blessed are the pure of heart.” The “pure of heart,” according to the Catechism, “refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith."

Through the intercession of St. Charles Lwanga and his martyred companions, may we seek that purity of intellect and will, that chastity, and the love of the truth that St. Charles lived and died for, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the witness, sufferings, and death of the  martyrs may bring about rebirth of Christianity and civilization, in those places where faith and morals have diminished.

Through the intercession of St. Charles Lwanga, patron of youth, may our young people be protected from the perversion of our culture and be infused with virtue.

That religious indifference in our country and around the world may be transformed to radical commitment to the Gospel of Christ.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and…

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

June 01 2022 - St. Justin Martyr - Seeking Truth and Holiness

 

The story of St. Justin’s conversion is well known.  

Justin was born around the year 100 in the Holy Land, and was the son of pagan nobles, so he was not raised in the faith.  But he was very well educated, studying poetry, history and science, and he was deeply schooled in the ancient Greek philosophers, but the Truth of God eluded him. 

One day, Justin was walking by the sea near Caesarea and there he met an old man.  And they began to walk and talk together about philosophy and truth. When the man revealed himself to be a Christian, Justin argued vehemently against Christianity. But finally the old man curtly cut him off, saying "You are a mere dealer in words, but no lover of action and truth; your aim is not to be a practiser of good, but a clever arguer, a cunning sophist." And when finally Justin put the question to the old man: "Where then is truth?" the old man replied, "Search the Scriptures and pray that the gates of light may be opened to you, for none can perceive and comprehend these things except God and His Christ grant them understanding."

Justin writes about what happened when he took up thr old man’s challenge: “A fire was suddenly kindled in my soul.  I fell in love with the prophets and those who loved Christ.  I reflected on all their words and found this philosophy alone was true and profitable.”

The old man, a simple Christian, was able to point this young person, Justin, with his superior education, to the Truth---to not love just words, words, words, but action, truth, goodness, and beauty.

Saints are not just born saints. They encounter Truth and goodness and beauty in the witness of the Church first. You don’t have to have a doctorate in theology to win converts, you just have to practice the good and tell the truth when it is your turn to tell it.

That old man set Justin on the path of holiness. And yes, Justin would certainly go on to use his tremendous intellectual gifts in service of the Church. Justin was one of the greatest apologists of his time: defending the faith against its enemies and explaining the faith for believers. 

In Rome, he was arrested for practicing Christianity.  Before the judge, Justin was asked, "Do you think that by dying you will enter heaven and be rewarded?" "I don't just think so," the saint answered. "I am sure of it!"  He was given the opportunity to renounce the faith and save his life; instead he defended the faith and clearly explained it, with his dying breaths.  He was put to death as a martyr by beheading along with six of his students, five men and one woman, in the year 166.

There are times when each of us will be called upon by God to defend our faith and clearly explain the faith.  In the early days of the Church, God chose Justin to spread the truth of the faith. He fearlessly defended the gospel of Christ before the powers and principalities and rulers of the day.  Through his prayers may we be bearers and defenders of the Christian faith to all we meet, witnessing to the saving power of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

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For openness to the Holy Spirits gifts, that we may be always bold and clear in spreading and defending the Gospel.

That the faith of the martyrs may give us courage in times of persecution.

For our young people beginning summer vacation, that they may be kept close to the truth and heart of Jesus.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.