Dear parishioners,

The Saints of God, the Lord be with you!

Today’s first reading from the book of Genesis (18:1-10) recounts the story of Abraham and Sarah giving hospitality to three strangers. In the ancient world, the gift of hospitality was
the norm, not the exception.

On reading this story, I couldn’t help but gaze on one of my favorite icons by the 15th century Russian master Andrei Rublev, who depicts this scene as Three divine beings, pictured as angels, seated around a table. At the head of the table to the left, is God the Father, in the center, the Son, and to the right the Holy Spirit, with the wings of all three forming an open circle, which may symbolize spiritual unity, peace, and mutual love.

What’s interesting is that the circle is not closed, but open, and some art historians suggest that the small rectangle on the side of the table facing the viewer may have held a mirror, thus making the viewer part of the scene. This first reading, as well as the Rublev icon, pairs well with today’s well known Gospel reading (Lk 10:38-42) of Martha and Mary, offering hospitality to Jesus.

Martha takes on the burden of doing all the serving, while Mary sits at the feet of Jesus listening to Him speak. Despite the protestations of Martha, Jesus will not require Mary to leave her place and help her sister since, “Mary has chosen the better part.”

I don’t know about you, but often I come to Mass burdened with my own personal struggles, family issues, ministerial demands, or worrisome world and national issues facing all of us. The worst thing I can do is to feel so overwhelmed that I begin to skip my morning private prayer, the friar’s communal morning and evening prayer, or the celebration of the Eucharist. I’ve discovered that when most burdened by whatever, the Lord kindly offers me the opportunity to spend time in His presence.

Though my burdens don’t magically disappear, prayer seems to sanctify them, and they seem to lose some of their heaviness. By responding to the Lord’s invitation to spend time with Him, I am given renewed strength as well as the understanding that I am part of a holy community that will help carry what I cannot carry by myself.

As we celebrate this weekend’s liturgy, whether in person or via the live stream, let us remember that the God of holy hospitality invites us to come even with our burdens and sin. Let us remember that our encounter with Christ today can change us more and more into His image if we let Him. Then, to imitate that great open circle of holy hospitality in the Rublev icon, let us offer and invite someone to share and sit at our table to be refreshed, restored, and renewed.

Peace and all good,
Fr. Steve

Dear parishioners,

This week’s Gospel delivers a branched or layered look into the principles of our faith, wherein Jesus provides us with tenets through the Greatest Commandment, and backs it up through parable with the Good Samaritan. It’s so fitting that the law scholar approaching or questioning Jesus calls him “Teacher,” because that is exactly the way anyone in that selfless profession would approach their student. They would explain the necessary information, then work them through a hypothetical or real-world scenario in which they could apply the information they just learned.

It’s so simply applied, yet so poignant, to see Jesus readily act as a teacher. He provides the scholar the tools for which to achieve his end goal of salvation, but He does not go so far as to over explain or provide too much context. I’ve always admired how casual this scripture reading ends, as if He were to shrug His shoulders when telling the scholar, “Go and do likewise.” I’d half-expect that Luke left out the part where Jesus patted the scholar on the back, saying, “Go get ’em, kid!”

We have a very good opportunity within our parish community here at Sacred Heart to embody that line: “Go and do likewise.” Many of us on the staff are doing just that, taking the relative downtime of the summer months to prepare the parish for larger aspects of the liturgical and event calendars following the season’s conclusion, working to ensure you can join us in the “likewise.”

It’s no secret that so much of a Catholic parish’s calendar is dictated by the school calendars of their local area. This gives our Faith Formation staff the opportunity to plan their programs for the upcoming 2022/2023 catechetical year. Much of what they hope to accomplish with their students and catechumens is already ready to go. Registration for Family and Adult Faith Formation, sacramental preparation, and RCIA was made available recently through the parish website.

Event planning is working at a breakneck pace, with the addition of our new event coordinator. The staff is reinvigorating several events that were discontinued in the face of the pandemic, including “new parishioner welcome” meals, ministry fairs, volunteer appreciation luncheons, and new offerings, like “Theology on Tap.” An event planning committee is being reinvigorated as well. Those wishing to assist with events like our Fall Festival and Cookies with St. Nick, among others, will have the opportunity to reengage with the parish in this new group via monthly meetings starting in late August.

Our event and communications staff are working in concert to finalize details for parish listening sessions, alongside the friars and members of our parish advisory board. In a previous letter, I mentioned the need to provide a platform for parishioners to directly engage with our friars regarding long range plans and vision, and these sessions will provide that and more. Invitations for specific sessions will be released this month, with multiple sessions being hosted throughout August, culminating in an open session in late August and the launch of a parish-wide survey. We hope to have as much participation as possible in this endeavor.

Many ministries are also preparing their new offerings. A new women’s prayer group is being formed. A new racial justice committee has held their initial meeting, and are gathering a plan for programming as the friars continue to assist the implementation of a broader JPIC ministry within the parish. Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation being a principle tenet of the Franciscan charism, it will be great to see where this new group takes their ministry.

While this summary of our parish’s current objectives is just a small glance, I hope this is enough information for you, our parishioners, to “do likewise” alongside us.

Peace and all good,
Rob Boelke