Earlier this week we celebrated the memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest of the Franciscan Order. In 1941 he was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Some months after his arrest, he volunteered to die in place of a fellow prisoner, a man who had a family. St. Maximilian was executed by lethal injection on August 14, 1941. He was canonized a saint by Pope St. John Paul II in 1982.

By the end of August, the parish year will restart and things here will get busy again. That includes the start of CCD (children’s religious education) and OCIA (through which adults convert to Catholicism). So now’s the time to start enrolling your children in CCD and asking people who should become Catholic, or adult Catholics in need of confirmation, to sign up. Just contact the parish office for details.

The Fall parish season is coming quickly, which means the beginning of OCIA and CCD. OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults) is the program for those who wish to convert to Catholicism, or for adult Catholics who are either uncatechized (ie: have never learned the Faith) or have not yet received the sacrament of Confirmation. If you or someone you know would like to become Catholic or is yet to receive Confirmation, please contact St. Joseph’s to join this year’s OCIA class.

Fr. Jonah here, filling in for Fr. Boniface while he’s away (though by the time you read this, he’ll be back and I’ll be away for a bit, recording an album with The Hillbilly Thomists).

I want to ask all of you to pray for the upcoming OCIA class: as of now we have close to 30 people who have expressed interest in being baptized, received into full communion with the Church, or confirmed. Praise God! Please ask the Lord to send even more people to the Church this year.

One of the daily Mass Gospel readings this week came from Matthew 11, where Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt 11:28-30).

Frankly, that doesn’t always sound like Christian life.

Fr. Jonah here, filling in for Fr. Boniface while he’s away.

The Master of the Dominican Order, Fr. Gerard Timoner III, visited St. Joseph’s last month. One of his main responsibilities as Master of the Order is to visit all of the communities of Dominican friars around the world. This means that he is on the road about 8 months out of the year! 

We’re now firmly in summer, as the heat reminds us. The friars here are in and out of town as we try to see family and take a break when we have the chance. I’ll be out of town the next couple weekends, but Fr. Jonah will be here to keep the parish running. I hope all of you have a wonderful summer and some time to recharge!

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, instead of our regularly scheduled Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Saints Peter and Paul both helped found and build the Church in Rome and both endured martyrdom there, and so the Bishop of Rome, the pope, is their successor and shares in their apostolic authority.

This Sunday we celebrate Corpus Christi, or the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. We celebrate Christ’s gift of Himself—feeding us on His own Body in the Eucharist. In honor of Christ’s Most Holy Body and Blood, we process with the Eucharist on Corpus Christi, at our 11:30am Mass. Just as the Eucharist strengthens us to live our Faith in the world, so we take Christ, present in the Eucharist, into the world, praying that His salvation be accomplished.

I pray that all the fathers at St. Joseph's will have a blessed Father’s Day! Our patron, St. Joseph, is the model father and we have a special connection to him! May all our fathers be models of God the Father’s love, as exemplified in St. Joseph. 

Blessed Pentecost! Today the Holy Spirit comes down upon us, leading us to the Holiness He calls us to, to the eternal life He wants for us. Let’s follow His lead!

This week St. Joseph’s will become a Franciscan parish. Frs. Francis and Ignatius, CFR Franciscans, will be here to celebrate Mass and hear confessions this Monday through Thursday.