Beloved Family:
“If Jesus can turn water into wine, imagine what he can do with you and with me.” - Bishop Michael Woost
While I was sorry not to be able to participate in the Pre-mission brunch and talk by Bishop Woost, held last Sunday in our activity center (gym), I am delighted that approximately 200 persons from the community were in attendance. A parishioner sent me a few photos, showing the group assembled and Bishop Woost presenting. In one, a slide carried the following words: “What life does the Spirit give: God’s life…fully, abundantly, lavishly, gratuitously.”
Take a moment to register those words in your heart. Are you experiencing the lavish flow of gifts from the Holy Spirit? How is that manifesting? If I am not experiencing this, why might that be? What— or who— is hindering the experience of that flow? Could it be that I am trying to figure this out— discern it— by myself rather than in the context of community?
This Sunday’s second reading is once again drawn from 1 Corinthians. Paul writes: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). I believe this indicates that it is actually ONLY IN THE CONTEXT OF COMMUNITY THAT WE CAN FULLY IDENTIFY AND REALIZE THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS WE HAVE RECEIVED. We need each other in order to know abundant life in the Spirit!
Here are “thoughts from the trailer”— that is, Fr. John Riccardo’s podcast:
To be a member of Jesus’ body, that is, the Church, is not like being part of a club, or a team, or even belonging to the same ethnic group. It transcends every known division or barrier. “Whether Jew or Greek, slave or free.” We might add, “Whether Democrat or Republican or Independent; whether for Notre Dame or Ohio State; whether American or Russian.”
The Church, that is, you and me, would do well to remember that over and over again in the course of history people who were once divided, fearful and hateful of each other, actually became united. Not around a cause or a movement but in the person of Jesus. As they came to see one another as brothers and sisters, they were in powered by the Holy Spirit to love one another, and often laid down their lives for one another. And people noticed. And rushed to join them. (Thoughts front the Trailer, Episode 104, “Can Unity Actually Happen,” January 22, 2025)
Let us invoke the Holy Spirit to draw us more deeply in union with one another. Let us assist each other, in our prayers and in our actions, to drink in more fully the one Holy Spirit.
Let His Peace be with you,
Fr. Stephen
