Dear Friends,

The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle which Jesus performed that is recorded in all four of the gospels. In each account the focus is on Jesus blessing, breaking and distributing the loaves to the crowds. Jesus is concerned about responding to their needs. Jesus meets them where they are at, responds to their needs and then desires to fill them not only in a physical but more so a spiritual sense. We are to grow in our trust that Jesus is our daily bread and every need and desire we experience is fulfilled in Him. 

    A unique dimension of the Matthew account is that the disciples are involved in a dialogue with Jesus. They want Jesus to dismiss the crowds to go into the villages and buy food for them. The disciples fail to understand that every need is provided for in Jesus and more so that there is no need to "go and buy” anything.  Break the power of greed in your life by learning to be content with what we have, trust that in Jesus we have all our deepest desires met and let go of the habit to "go and buy."

  Our summer projects have picked up speed this week. Thanks to Frank Silha and his machinery in removal and repositioning of some trees on our campus as well as some stones for the Marian Hall flower garden. 

A new flagpole will be added near the Church and we will soon have the Papal flag as well as the American flag flying each day. 

   Our new electronic sign along Racine Street is under construction. The base of the sign will include the stone from our old sign that was damaged in the one car accident recently. We will also have the memorial plaque from the old sign mounted on the new base. The electronic sign will allow us the opportunity to communicate parish happenings to the larger community as they pass by on Racine Street. One of our calls as followers of Jesus is to continuously reach out and invite people into life within the Church. The electronic sign allows us a way to reach out to those who are not attending Church.  

  Thank you again for your participation in the recent collections for flood victims. The Diocesan Flood Relief Assistance coordinators will soon be in Janesville to provide initial relief and assistance to those affected by the flooding. The Diocese has been coordinating efforts in Sauk and Jefferson Counties most recently and will soon arrive in Rock County. The details of time and place are still underway but please spread the word to those affected that some financial assistance and initial needs assessment is expected. 

  As we celebrate our patron feast day we are aware and ever grateful to God for the gifts entrusted to us. I trust we will always be aware of the gifts entrusted to us and more so our need to share, particularly to those in need. Our matching fund collection for ECHO is underway and I invite your participation. Our goal for this year is $22,000 and have confidence that it will be met. Thank you to Mary Mueller and the Religious Education Board for providing the picnic after Mass on Saturday. 

May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today!

Peace,

Father Randy

Love of our Neighbor

All of our Religion is but a false religion and all our virtues are mere illusions and we ourselves are only hypocrites in the sight of God if we have not that universal charity for everyone, for the good and for the bad, for the poor people as well as for the rich, for all those who do us harm as much as for those who do us good.

No, my dear brethren, there is no virtue which will let us know better whether we are the children of God than charity. The obligation we have to love our neighbor is so important that Jesus Christ put it into a Commandment which He placed immediately after that by which He commands us to love Him with all our hearts. He tells us that all the law and the prophets are included in the commandment to love our neighbor. Yes, my dear brethren, we must regard this obligation as the most universal, the most necessary and the most essential to religion and to our salvation. In fulfilling this Commandment, we are fulfilling all others. St. Paul tells us that the other Commandments forbid us to commit adultery, robbery, injuries, false testimonies. If we love our neighbor, we shall not do any of the things because the love we have for our neighbor would not allow us to do him any harm.

—St. John Vianney

Why do I need to go to church to pray?

One day four of your people came to ask me whether they could save their souls if they stayed away from church but prayed at home. ‘My friends,’ I replied, ‘what would you think of a child if it were to say: ‘I love my father dearly, but as for my mother, I have no wish ever to see her again?’

—St. John Vianney

Private prayer resembles straw scattered here and there over a field, if it is set on fire, the flame is not a powerful one; but if you gather those scattered straws into a bundle, the flame is bright and rises in a lofty column towards the sky: such is public prayer.

—St. John Vianney