Happy Pentecost to all of you, sometimes called the birthday of the church!

Happy 75th Anniversary to Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish Community! and thanksgiving for those original 16 brave and Spirit-filled Black Catholic founders who dreamed of a parish where they could worship in truth and dignity!

And Happy Birthday to the Spiritan Community who along with those first 16 Black Catholics helped found this parish. The Spiritans were founded on Pentecost Sunday in 1703 and so it is no coincidence that Fr Joseph Hackett chose that the first Mass was held on Pentecost Sunday in 1945 at the home of Lawrence and Jessie Butler. And from that small Spirit-filled group of Black Catholics, Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Parish was born and today we celebrate our 75th anniversary!

Congratulations to all of you, our current parishioners and to all of those who came before us who have all opened themselves to be led by the Spirit and join together as a family of faith and live our discipleship of Jesus Christ by living out Jesus’ clarion call to love one another as I have loved you. And we are able to do that because we are filled with the Holy Spirit!

St. Augustine said that the Spirit blows where the Spirit wills…not exactly comforting if you are someone who likes things neat and orderly or if you prefer to have life all figured out and neatly pack-aged. Most of us would prefer to see life’s decisions as right or wrong, good or bad…as if everything in life were black and white. The problem with life is that most of the time we are living in the grey, everything is not black and white! This is where the Holy Spirit offers counsel, the challenge is to be open to The Spirit’s counsel! The Holy Spirit blows where it wills and inspires and guides whomever it chooses, whenever and wherever S/he chooses. Most of us get use to a particular routine and we find comfort in doing things in a particular way and we find discomfort when our routine gets changed by outside influences or when we are forced to do things in a different or new way. It is no different in the church, we all get comfortable in the way we worship, in the way we pray, in the way we sing, in what we sing, and then when change comes we suddenly are set off center and we feel “off balance” at the change or new ways. We are experiencing it right now, this is different, this is not the normal way we “gather” to celebrate Eucharist.

I am sure that many in the church today see the Pope’s challenge to live a radically gospel centered life as a change from what they were used to. In answering the Gospel’s call, Pope Francis has called us out of the church buildings and into the streets to be a “field hospital” where binding up the wounds of the poor and brokenhearted is a priority. The Pope is following the call of Christ, who calls us to be a welcoming presence to immigrants and refugees, to seek out the lost and forsaken and to “be” the word of peace in the presence of war, to “be” the word of love spoken to the lonely and marginalized of the world, to “be” the word of justice and equality spoken in the midst of injustice, racism and exclusion.

What word of justice and equality do we speak in the face of the horrific, brutal killing of George Floyd by a white police officer? And just weeks before, the shooting of another unarmed black man, the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery by two white vigilantes. What words do we speak and what actions do we take? President Obama wrote on Friday “This should not be normal in 2020 America. It can’t be normal. If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must do better”… “but it falls on all of us, regardless of our race or station – including the majority of men and women in law enforcement who take pride in doing their tough job the right way, every day – to work together to create a “new normal” in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts”!

​As well, we are called to be part of the solution, in our local community, nationally and internationally. While all of this can all seem overwhelming, we need to remember that we are not called to do all this by ourselves but rather it is in and through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit within us and around us that we are able to do all good things! As we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost let each of us ask ourselves to where and to what is the Holy Spirit calling me in my life?

Easter Blessings,
Fr Tim

As we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord I cannot help but reflect on the many ideas and concepts that swirl around this feast…some with unintended consequences! The word “ascension” itself conjures up images of Jesus rising up into the clouds to join the Father and the Holy Spirit somewhere “up there”…far, far away. The problem with this is it can lead us to believe that heaven is “up there” and we are “down here” and that God is far off and distant from us and from our lives. This is in stark contrast to the heart and soul of the meaning and significance of the incarnation. The truth of our God having become “incarnate” (in the flesh) in Jesus means that God is with us…not some remote deity watching us from afar. We need to recall Jesus’ promise “I am with you until the end”! These simple words are most profound…there is no need for us to stand gawking skyward with our jaws hanging open. While the physical presence of Jesus Christ as a singular human and divine presence no longer walks the earth, Christ is here…as close as our own breath, keeping us alive to be his presence in our world.

As we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus let us celebrate the presence of the Risen One in our midst! Before his ascension Jesus gave a clear command and mission to his disciples…to us. We are charged with preaching the “Good News” of Jesus Christ and to be that healing, loving and welcoming presence in a world filled with sickness, hatred and exclusion. Filled with the “real presence we are sent forth to stand up and be the voice of the voiceless, to speak out on behalf of those who are silenced or ignored, to make sure that hatred, racism and bigotry are not left unchecked. Filled with the Spirit we speak the truth of the Gospel to power, whether convenient or inconvenient, whether garnering us friends or marginalizing us, it is our call as disciples of Jesus Christ! How might I be a “healing, loving and welcoming presence”? How can I “stand up” for the Gospel, in the public arena and in my personal life? How do I experience the real presence of God in my daily life?

Easter Blessings,
Fr. Tim

Pretty much everyone has felt lonely, rejected or abandoned by friends or loved ones at some point in their lives. Most of us have felt fearful; wondering how we will make it through rough times with our children or parents, siblings or friends. We suffer personal loss or illness and wonder if we will be able to go on. And certainly as we find ourselves trying to navigate this strange new world of the coronavirus we need today’s Gospel message that tells us in the midst of our “lost-ness”…in the midst of our suffering…in the midst of fear or sense of abandon that we are never truly alone, we are not abandoned, we are not orphans….for the Risen Christ remains with us.

When I was little I used to think that Christ was with me...but only when I was doing something good or only in holy or sacred places. Oh how wrong I was! In today’s Gospel Jesus tries to help his disciples understand that no matter what they “feel”….no matter where they go, he will be with them…and even more….the Holy Spirit will be given to them and find a resting place within them. We are the inheritors of this same promise. We are never alone, never abandoned! Our God is always with us, even when we can’t feel that presence or sense it…God is with us. Even in the midst of our worst moments, our most selfish actions…even in the midst of our greatest sin…God is present and loving us through that dark moment. And of course that means that God too is present in and with “the other” in their worst moments, in the midst of their most selfish actions! God’s presence is not dependent on our actions, we do not control God’s presence! No matter how desperate our situation is, God is with us…loving us in the midst of it all.

The real question then seems to be…so what will my response to that loving presence be? How do I respond to “the other”, who also, is so deeply and passionately loved by God? How do I share God’s love with the immigrant, the refugee, the marginalized, the one who is hated and despised because of the color of their skin? How do I share God’s amazing love with the one who is “other” to me? What is the Holy Spirit calling me to…or away from?

Easter Blessings,
Fr. Tim

Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers and to all the women who mentor and care for us and create opportunities for us to grow into the fullness of our potential, may God’s most abundant blessings be upon them today and all the days of their lives!

In today’s readings, in the First Letter of Peter we are reminded that we are chosen and precious in the sight of God and in the Gospel Jesus tells us not to let our hearts be troubled, to have faith in him and in God, that he goes to prepare a place for us and will return to take us to him so that we might be where he is! These readings today offer us a wonderful opportunity reflect on God’s love for all of us, thus a diversity of dwelling places for us, a place for each one of us, no one excluded by God, because of his great love for all of humanity. Jesus tell the disciples that he is the way, the truth and the life, and we know God and see God through him.

Pope Francis reminds us that “Jesus is the face of the Father’s mercy”, an incarnation of God’s mercy, an incarnation that we are called to become as disciples of Jesus. Jesus tells his disciples that through their belief in him they will be able to do what he has done and even greater! Perhaps that “even greater” is allowing the risen Christ, who dwells within us, to transform us into the presence of God’s mercy in the midst of a wounded and suffering world, even in the midst of the suffering and fear of this pandemic. Perhaps the call of the Gospel is to allow ourselves to become “the face of the Father’s mercy”, to take on the mantle of mercy as his disciples. To be willing to make meaningful changes to our lives in order that we might better show forth God’s mercy in word and action, to reach out to all the lonely and frightened and offer a word of hope and encouragement, a word of care. To reach out to those in need, less fortunate than ourselves, to stand together even while we isolate for the sake of others! How can I be more merciful in my words? What specifically can I do to be more merciful in my actions? Who in my life right now is most in need of being shown mercy?

Easter Blessings,
Fr. Tim

This weekend is traditionally known as “Good Shepherd Weekend”. And so we might ask ourselves how good are we at recognizing the voice of the “Good Shepherd” in our lives? Does it come through loud and clear, or is it distorted by the noise and franticness of our lives? Are there too many other competing voices…of work, anxiety and worry, or family and commitments for us to hear God’s voice speaking to us? Or are we able to hear those whispered words of God in and through our work and family and daily living?

In today’s gospel, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, says his sheep know his voice and follow him. They are not fooled by the voices of strangers, with bad intentions, calling out to his sheep…but listen only to his voice and seek to follow him. But this takes attention and listening, one thing that often seems in short supply in our modern stressed out life, especially now in the midst of this pandemic. But now even more we need to listen for that voice of the Good Shepherd. The life that Jesus calls us to is by its very nature countercultural; it runs against the grain of much of what our modern society values. While, as Americans we love to wrap ourselves in our flag and the bible…we rarely actually follow Jesus’ clarion call to create a loving, inclusive, peaceful and just society…at all costs…and to be single-mindedly focused on building up the Reign of God.

While many in our society are quick to call us to war against “the godless” are we really building a society that actually follows the call of the “Good Shepherd” to bind up the wounds of the poor and discarded, to reach out and heal those injured by injustice and indifference, to stand up against racism, bigotry, misogyny and all forms of decimation that demean the dignity of the human person? Whose voices are we listening to in our national discussions on topics like care for the earth, civil rights, education reform…and as we debate healthcare reform, whose voices are we really listening to…the Good Shepherds? Would Jesus recognize us as his disciples, from the fruit our work? How do I listen for God’s voice in my life? What do I need to do to make more time to listen to the words God speaks to me in and through the people, places and events of my daily life? When was the last time I heard God calling me to something…and to what was it? In the midst of crisis do I find myself listening for the healing voice of the Good Shepherd?

Easter Blessings,
Fr. Tim