Saints of God…

…the Lord be with you!

In this weekend’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (20: 10-13), he cries out “I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side!’. As I write this, not much has changed in our country or our world. There is terror, and many are frightened. But as every good prophet does, Jeremiah does not leave us with this bad but all too real news. He adds, “But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion…Sing praise to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked.”

This same message is given to us in today’s Gospel according to Matthew (10: 26-33). Three times Jesus says to the Twelve, “Fear no one; do not be afraid; do not be afraid.” Why? To return to the text, “you are worth more than many sparrows” two of which were sold for two small coins. In other words, in the eyes of our Heavenly Father God, we are of supreme, infinite value.

Perhaps today is a good time to take stock of what or who we are afraid. In my experience as a confessor, I’ve come to understand that most of the time we show our fear through anger (since adults, especially men are taught we should not be afraid). I think the one thing we are all afraid of as human being is death. But even death should hold no fear for us. St. Francis called Death his sister. And through the Resurrection, Jesus destroyed death and shows us the glory of eternal life. As I often remind myself, we don’t stay dead. As Preface 1 for a funeral states, “For your faithful Lord, life is changed, not ended.”

President Franklin Roosevelt stated, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” But fear doesn’t have to have the final word. Today’s readings remind us that “the antidote to fear is faith.” And the fruit of faith is charity. This week let us remind ourselves and others that our Lord Jesus is with us as our champion. He is rescuing us from the powers of all that is wicked. So let us laugh in the face of fear.

– Fr. Steve

The Canticle of the Creatures
by St. Francis of Assisi

Most High, all-powerful,
good Lord,
yours is the praise,
the glory and the honor and every blessing.

To you alone, Most High,
do they belong,
and no one is worthy
to speak your name.

Praised be you, my Lord
with all your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
who is the day through whom
you bring us light.

And he is lovely, shining
with great splendor,
for he heralds you, Most High.

Praised be you, my Lord,
through Sister Moon and Stars.
In heaven you have formed them,
lightsome and precious and fair.

And praised be you, my Lord,
through Brother Wind, through
air and cloud, through calm
and every weather by which
you sustain your creatures.

Praised be you, my Lord,
through Sister Water,
so very useful and humble,
precious and chaste.

Praised be you, my Lord
through Brother Fire,
by whom you light up
the night, and he is
handsome and merry,
robust and strong.

Praised be you, my Lord,
through our Sister, Mother Earth,
who sustains us and directs us
bringing forth all kinds of fruits
and colored flowers and herbs.

Praised be you, my Lord
through those who forgive
for your love
and who bear sickness and trial.

Blessed are those
who endure in peace,
for by you, Most High,
they will be crowned.

Praised be you, my Lord,
through our Sister Bodily Death
from whom no living being
can escape.

How dreadful for those
who die in mortal sin!
How blessed are those she
finds in your most holy will
for the second death
can do them no harm.

O praise and bless my Lord,
thank him and serve him
humbly but grandly!

In an article published recently by Our Sunday Visitor, Deacon Jim Grevenites, chairman of the executive committee of the National Association of Diaconate Directors, and director of deacon personnel for the Diocese of St. Petersburg said our diocesan staff looks for the moment “when we see the heart of the deacon developing,” and when “you know they can work themselves into any circumstances and be a presence of Christ.” When reflecting on the last nine years Deacon Ray Ferreris has spent with us at Sacred Heart, there is no better summary. From the moment he began training under former pastor Fr. George Corrigan, OFM, to his ordination with Bishop Gregory Parkes, and throughout his time serving as our parish’s first permanent deacon, Deacon Ray has sought to help whenever and wherever he can, bringing the presence of Christ along with him.

“Being a deacon, and being married with children, having multiple vocations like that, you may think that is a lot to handle,” Deacon Ray said when asked to reflect on his time with our parish. “But it wasn’t. It gave me a chance to meet our parishioners wherever they were, whether I was assisting at Mass, with marriage preparation, faith formation, or comforting folks at wakes.”

Ferreris has said that Baptisms were among his favorite duties as deacon here at Sacred Heart, getting the chance to usher in new Catholics from infants to adults. “I love to see the joy on the faces of the converts at the Easter Vigil, or think of the future calling those children might have.”

Deacon Ray similarly indicated the importance of those following God’s calling throughout the parish as catechists, volunteers, liturgical ministers, and the like. “The involvement of parishioners and laity in taking up a role in the parish is not to be taken for granted, and that certainly is something I have always admired about Sacred Heart.”

Sunday’s 7:30 and 9 a.m. (6/21/26) Masses are set to be Deacon Ray’s last at Sacred Heart ahead of his transfer to Incarnation Catholic Church in the Town N’ Country neighborhood of West Tampa. Incarnation was Deacon Ray’s home parish when his family relocated to Florida from the northeast in 1997, so his new appointment is something of a homecoming. “Our family has celebrated many important moments at Incarnation, so I do not take lightly just how special this new opportunity is for them and my ministry.”

“[Sacred Heart] was my first assignment,” Ray concluded. “I learned so much and I met so many wonderful people. I want to thank you (our parishioners). I love you all. I won’t be a stranger, as Barbara, my wife and your faith formation director, will still be here, and I’ll becoming to help her out every now and again. But you can always visit me at Incarnation, as well. God bless!” A reception for Ray will follow this Sunday’s 9 a.m. (6/21/26) Mass in St. Francis Hall. Please join the friars and staff in wishing Ray well, and thanking him for his time at our parish.

Below is farewell letter to parishioners from Deacon Ray Ferreris:

As my time at Sacred Heart comes to a close, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of the parishioners who have been such an important part of my journey over the past nine  years. From the very beginning, you welcomed me with open arms, surrounded me with love, and cared for me as part of your family. The support and encouragement I received from this parish made my formation into the diaconate so much easier and more meaningful. I will be forever grateful for the prayers, friendships, and kindness that each of you shared with me.

I would like to offer a special thank you to Fr. George Corrigan, O.F.M. After my ordination, he took a chance on me and blessed me with the opportunity to become the first permanent deacon assigned to Sacred Heart. He was more than a mentor; he was a trusted friend whose guidance and support helped shape my vocation and ministry. I will always be thankful for his confidence in me and for the example he set through his faithful service.

I also want to thank the many volunteers who faithfully support the many ministries of Sacred Heart. Your dedication and commitment are a living example of what it means to be the Church. As we are reminded in Matthew’s Gospel, the people are the Church, not the building. It is through your service, generosity, and love that the Gospel is brought to life each day in this parish. My prayer is that all of your ministries continue to blossom and grow for many years to come.

To my beautiful bride, your director of faith formation, it has been an honor and a blessing to serve God’s people alongside you. Watching the Holy Spirit work through your life and ministry has been inspiring. I now understand why so many people speak so highly of you and the impact you have on our parish family. I will always treasure the moments we shared in ministry together.

Finally, thank you all for allowing me the privilege of serving you, the faithful parish community. Sacred Heart will always hold a special place in my heart. Although my parish assignment may change, my commitment to serving God’s people remains the same. Please know that wherever I may be called, I will always be at your service.

May God continue to bless each of you, your families, and the entire Sacred Heart community.

Peace of Christ,
Deacon Ray Ferreris

My Good Friends,

One of the things I love about today’s readings is that they remind us that God doesn’t wait for perfect people before He calls them.

In the first reading, God tells Israel, “I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.” Before Israel accomplished anything, before they proved themselves, God loved them and chose them. The same is true for us. Our relationship with God doesn’t begin with our achievements. It begins with His love.

St. Paul takes that idea even further. He says that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Not after we got our lives together. Not after we figured everything out. While we were still struggling. God’s love always comes first.

Then we come to the Gospel. Jesus looks at the crowds and sees people who are exhausted, confused, and searching for direction. In other words, He sees people a lot like us. And His response isn’t frustration. It’s compassion. He doesn’t shake His head and walk away. He draws near.

What’s surprising is what happens next. Jesus doesn’t solve everything Himself. Instead, He calls ordinary people—the Twelve—and sends them out. These weren’t experts. They were fishermen, tax collectors, and people with plenty of flaws and weaknesses. Yet Jesus entrusted them with His mission.

That should be encouraging for us. Sometimes we think God can use everyone except us. We imagine that holiness belongs to people who know more, pray better, or have fewer problems. But the Gospel tells a different story. God calls ordinary people and then gives them the grace they need.

St. Francis understood this well. He wasn’t trying to be famous or important. He simply wanted to follow Christ. When he encountered a leper—someone he would normally avoid—he allowed God’s compassion to change his heart. That encounter transformed his life. Francis learned that the Christian life begins when we start seeing others the way Jesus sees them.

The harvest Jesus talks about is still abundant today. All people need encouragement, forgiveness, friendship, and hope. We all are carrying burdens that no one else sees. Most of us won’t be asked to preach to crowds or travel the world. But all of us can offer a kind word, a listening ear, a prayer, or an act of mercy.

The good news is that Jesus isn’t looking for superheroes. He’s looking for disciples, ordinary people. People willing to receive His love and then share it with others.

So the invitation this week is simple: ask Jesus to help us see people with His eyes. If we do that, we may discover that the harvest field is much closer than we thought—in our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, and our parish. And we may discover that the ordinary people Jesus is sending into that harvest are us. Amen.

Peace and All Good,
Fr. Zack

Saints of God…

the Lord be with you!

In today’s Collect (opening prayer), the Church prays, “Gladden us with holy joys, almighty God…for the Ascension of Christ your Son is OUR Exaltation.” As I often say in O.C.I.A. classes, “Christianity is the most optimistic of all the world’s religions.” There is no greater optimism than believing that the Ascension of Christ is OUR exaltation because human nature, creation, the fully human One is now part of the Godhead. This is our identity and our destiny.

But today’s first reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles (1: 1-11) confronts us with a challenge. “He (Jesus) was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. (When) two men dressed in white garments stood beside them (and said) ‘Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?’”. Where do we look for Christ?

Years ago, in the 1970’s, I remember reading a book of theology which said, “If Jesus ascended anywhere, He ascended into the heart of the Church.” That always struck me, and I’ve come to the conviction that we are not to look up to find Christ, but to look for Him still alive, albeit in a new and mysterious way, and active in the world around us particularly in we who are the Church.

Baptized into the baptism of solidarity of Christ, we have received an identity and a mission. Our identity is that we are other Christ’s, and our mission is to live as Christ in the world through acts of charity, forgiveness, and reconciliation. The Spirit given to us at Baptism and in Confirmation gives us power and enables us to live as we should.

By cooperating with the Holy Spirit, we can and do live as Christ more often than we sin. Every time we take care of our family, are kind to the homeless, help the people we work with or our classmates are once again giving Christ flesh in our little corner of the world in 2026.

You, the parishioners of Sacred Heart Parish, embody Christ in so many ways: your generosity in the Catholic Ministry Appeal does good throughout the Diocese. When you support the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Bikes from the Heart, the good deeds of our Knights of Columbus, share your time with Hands of Hope or donate to Giving from the Heart, or offering a smile and a greeting to our homeless men and women, you are being Christ for someone. Today we celebrate that our God in the flesh has mounted His throne. We shout and sing with joy and works of charity!

– Fr. Steve

My Dear Friends,

The readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter this year take on a beautiful simplicity when seen through a Franciscan lens: God is not distant, and we are never alone—He is near, dwelling within us and all around us. In the Gospel of John, Jesus promises, “I will not leave you orphans,” and that assurance echoes the spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi, who saw God’s presence not only within his own heart, but reflected in all of creation—brother sun, sister moon, even in suffering itself. The Holy Spirit is not an abstract idea; it is the living presence of God, quietly guiding us toward love, humility, and peace.

Franciscan spirituality invites us to receive this presence with simplicity. We don’t have to strive for greatness or control every outcome. Instead, we are called to be attentive—to notice God already at work in the ordinary: in a morning walk, in a kind word, in the rhythm of breath and prayer. The Spirit forms in us a gentle way of living, where love becomes visible not in grand gestures, but in small, faithful acts. This is how we “keep His commandments”—not through rigidity, but through a life shaped by love.

There is also a quiet courage here. Like the early Christians in the Acts of the Apostles, we are sent into the world not with force, but with peace. A Franciscan heart does not argue loudly; it witnesses softly. It trusts that the same Spirit dwelling within us is already moving in others. This frees us to live with humility, reverence, and a deep respect for every person we encounter.

Ultimately, this Sunday reminds us that God’s presence is not something we chase—it is something we awaken to. And when we do, like Francis, we begin to see the world differently: not as something to grasp or fear, but as a place already filled with God’s love, waiting to be recognized and returned.

Peace and All Good,
Fr. Zack

Saints of God…

…the Lord be with you!

“They (the disciples) stopped, looking downcast.” We find these words in today’s Gospel according to Luke (24:13-35). As we are in the midst of the Easter Season, it might do us well to recall times and circumstances in our own lives that “pulled the rug out from under us”, made us stop, and caused our hearts and spirits to be downcast. What most of us can, or will at some point experience, is the death of a loved one. And this is what the two disciples are experiencing on their journey away from Jerusalem towards Emmaus.

Jerusalem, the place where Jesus the Nazarene was handed over to death by the chief priests and rulers of the people. Jesus the Nazarene, “a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.” Jerusalem the place they now associate with pain, grief, suffering, cruelty, their own cowardness, and death. No wonder they wanted to get out! To be honest, I would have too.

Yet through an encounter with the Christ they do not recognize, through their offer of hospitality, and the sharing of a meal in which “he took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them.” Their eyes were opened; Christ is no sooner recognized that He vanishes. Their “hearts burn within them”, their fear is gone replaced with courage and conviction. Grief dies to joy and the two “set out at once and return to Jerusalem” where they hear “the Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”

To be honest, we live in uncertain times (but isn’t every time filled with uncertainty). Sometimes I am worried and afraid. But I don’t try to run away (for there is nowhere to run). Instead, I am reminded of the words of St. Peter in our first reading, “God raised Him (Jesus) up, releasing Him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held by it.”

We may not be able to control the events around us. But we do have control over how we respond. When in the grip of fear, guilt, pain, depression, or distress, let us turn to our God in faith and recall that because death could not hold Jesus, fear, guilt, pain, depression, or distress does not have the final and ultimate hold on us. Christ does! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

– Fr. Steve

My Good Friends,

We often remember Thomas the Apostle by a single phrase— “Doubting Thomas”— but the Gospel reveals something far deeper and far more human. Thomas is not weak in faith; he is honest in it. In John 11:16, when Jesus sets His face toward danger, it is Thomas who speaks with striking resolve: “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” This is not hesitation but courage. He does not fully understand what lies ahead, yet he remains with Christ. And that is where faith so often begins—not in clarity, but in fidelity. Especially as life unfolds and brings its share of uncertainty—health concerns, changing seasons, unanswered questions—faith is less about having everything explained and more about choosing to stay.

In John 14:5–6, Thomas again reveals his honesty: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” He gives voice to the confusion the others carry but do not express. And because he asks, he receives one of the clearest and most profound revelations in all of Scripture: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Thomas teaches us that God is not threatened by our questions. In fact, sincere questioning—rooted not in pride but in a desire for truth—can become the very path by which deeper faith is formed. There is a quiet humility in admitting, “Lord, I do not fully see—show me,” and that humility opens the heart.

Then we come to the passage most associated with him: John 20:24–29. Thomas is absent when the Risen Christ first appears, and when the others tell him, he resists accepting their testimony: “Unless I see… I will not believe.” Yet, this is not a rejection of Christ; it is a refusal to build his life on something he has not personally encountered. And notice the response of Jesus. He does not rebuke Thomas harshly or cast him aside. Instead, He returns—specifically for him—and meets him exactly where he is: “Put your finger here… do not be unbelieving but believe.” Christ enters directly into Thomas’s doubt, not to condemn it, but to transform it.

What follows is remarkable. Thomas does not offer a cautious or partial response. He proclaims, “My Lord and my God.” This is the highest confession of faith in the Gospel of John. The one who struggled the most now sees the most clearly. This reveals a profound truth: when doubt is carried honestly into the presence of Christ, it can become the doorway to the deepest faith. The journey matters. The wrestling matters. What matters most is that we do not turn away.

Jesus then speaks words that reach beyond Thomas to every generation: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” That is where we live. We do not place our hands into the wounds as Thomas did, but we encounter Christ in other real and sacramental ways—in Scripture, in the Eucharist, in prayer, and often in the quiet places of our own wounds, where His grace meets us.

Thomas shows us that doubt is not the opposite of faith—distance is. If we remain, if we bring our questions honestly before Christ and stay long enough to listen, He will meet us there. And in time, what begins as uncertainty can be transformed into a steady, mature faith—one capable not only of understanding, but of surrender. A faith that speaks not just with words, but with the whole of one’s life: “My Lord and my God.”

Peace and All Good,
Fr. Zack