Announcements: 18th Sunday Ordinary Year A

Dear Holy Rosary Mission Parishioners: Here are a few announcements.

Fantastic Send Off: Thank you all for raising money for an airplane ticket for me to fly back to Holy Rosary in the future. I was so happy to see everyone at Mass and to partake in the wonderful potluck afterward. Jacob Belleque knew I was leaving and asked his grandmother if I was going to Heaven! I hope so Jacob, I am definitely leaving Heaven on Earth.

Finances: Angie Venua will be taking care of the finances, i.e. paying bills and keeping an electronic check book in Quicken. Diana Swaim will continue to count the Sunday collection and make the deposit. Fr. Nelson (with help from parishioners) will count, collect, and deposit the water money.

Telephone: The parish phone number is forwarded to our parish cell phone. Angela Clark has volunteered to answer the phone while Fr. Nelson and I are in transition. She will be answering calls and returning messages from July 26 to August 16, 2011.

My Schedule: I hope you visit me in Wasilla at Sacred Heart. There will be a few weeks when I will be traveling and will be having Fr. Stan fill in for me. Fr. Stan is retired and an IFR and commercial rated pilot and lives in the Sacred Heart Rectory.

July 26: Leave for Anchorage
July 27-29: Work on Canon Law cases for Fairbanks, Juneau, and Anchorage dioceses.
August 1: First Day at Sacred Heart in Wasilla
Sep 5-15: Wilmington, North Carolina vacation
Nov 7-17: Oregon, my cousin's wedding and visit family

When you come to Anchorage please come and visit me!!!

Gospel: The readings point to the importance of charity. Please see homily and readings below.

Have a fantastic week and thank you for letting me serve you for the past six years (August 5, 2005 to July 31, 2011).

Homily and Readings:

18th Ord A DLG 2011 Charity, Isaiah 55::1-3; Romans 8:35&37-39; Matthew 14:13-21

When I go into a village, someone always meets me and picks me up on a 4-wheeler. During the summer, Karen brings fresh flowers and puts them below the Mary statue. When my mechanic changes the oil on my airplane, he usually donates it. Pat goes out and mows the cemetery.

These are all acts of charity. Saint Paul tells us that when it comes to faith, hope, and charity, the greatest is charity.

Charity resonates through the readings. Isaiah says, “All you who are thirsty, come to the water. You who have no money, come receive grain and eat.” The second reading from Romans tells us that we can never be separated from God’s charity.
All through history god has been charitable.

To help the Israelites reach the Promised Land, God showered them with, mana, which was bread from heaven.

Through God’s help, the prophet Elijah multiplied flour and oil to save a widow and her son from starvation.

Elisha did a bit better than his master, multiplying 20 barley loaves so as to feed 100, with some even left over.

According to our Catechism, “The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy” (Catechism 1829).

“Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God (Catechism 1822).

The Apostle Paul also wrote that beautiful quote from Corinthians, "Charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.

Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (Catechism 1825).

Today’s gospel gives us several examples of charity. After hearing about the death of John the Baptist’s death, Jesus wants to be alone. He wants to get away and just make sense of it all. Have you ever felt like that...get away, leave me alone! But that does not stop him from being charitable.

In a state of grieving, Jesus performed three acts of charity. While still grieving, Jesus (1) healed the sick, (2) preached all day, and (3) fed 5000. The Little boy (4) gave up loaves and fish.

Today God is charitable. He will continue to be charitable in the future. He does that through the Eucharist.

Here are a few quotes about charity. I ask that you all try to perform one act this week.

Pope Saint Clement I: “Charity unites us to God. There is nothing mean in charity, nothing arrogant. Charity knows no schism, does not rebel, and does all things in harmony. In charity all the elect of God have been made perfect.”

Bob Hope: “If you have not got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.”

Mother Theresa: “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love” (Words 507).

Isaiah 55::1-3
All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.

Romans 8:35&37-39
What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 14:13-21
When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." (Jesus) said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." Then he said, "Bring them here to me," and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking 5 the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.