Thank you to Fr. Jerry Feierfeil, retired priest, who covered me this weekend while I am at Steubenville North youth conference.

This weekend I am with thirteen [13] youth and six [6] adults from the WFCC at the Steubenville North youth conference in Rochester, Minnesota. Around 2000 youth and adults are participating this year as we pray, celebrate, sing, dance, listen to dynamic speakers, and celebrate the LIMITLESS love of God. Thank you to everyone who has assisted and supported our youth to make this 6 ^th annual trip possible including parents, parishioners, parish staff, and donors. I am also grateful to Jeana Hamman [parishioner at St. Michael] who participated in Steubenville North LEAD week this past week.
Please consider the following comments from Pope Francis made at a General Audience on 27 August 2014: “…And let us consider not only the schisms, let us consider the very common lapses in our communities, ‘parochial’ sins, those sins in the parishes. Sometimes, in fact, our parishes, called to be places of sharing and communion, are sadly marred by envy, jealousy, antipathy.... And gossip which everyone passes on. There is so much gossip in parishes! It is not good. For example, when one is elected president of that association, they gossip about him. And when another is elected president of Catechesis, the others gossip about her. But this is not the Church. This is not what one should do, we must not do it! We must ask the Lord for the grace not to do it. This happens when we aim for first place; when we place ourselves at the centre, with our personal ambitions and our ways of seeing things, and we judge others; when we look at our brothers faults instead of their talents; when we give more weight to what divides us instead of to what we have in common....
“In the face of all of this, we must make a serious examination of conscience. In a Christian community, division is one of the gravest sins, because it makes it a sign not of God’s work, but of the devil’s work, who is by definition the one who separates, who destroys relationships, who insinuates prejudice.... Division in a Christian community, whether in a school, a parish, or an association, it is a very grave sin, because it is the work of the Devil. God, instead wants us to develop the capacity to welcome, to forgive and to love each other, to be ever more like Him, who is communion and love. The Church’s holiness consists in this: in recognizing herself in God’s image, showered with his mercy and his grace.”
Today is the Fifteenth (15 ^th) Sunday in Ordinary Time. Jesus sent the Apostles forth to proclaim the Good News. Each of us is called to testify to this love by proclaiming the Gospel with our words and in our deeds.
Pray for the consecration of Russia to Mary by the pope.
May God bless you.