Dear Parishioners and Friends of Holy Family Parish:

In today's Gospel, we hear of the very familiar rejection of Jesus. The community who knew Him cannot take Jesus seriously due to their blindness... Moreover, we encounter the blindness and lack of faith of many who were with Him in the Synagogue. Their blindness is a result of their rejection of the power and authority of Jesus. The people of Jesus’ own hometown reject His message. They consider Jesus too much as "one of them" to be taken seriously. They are too obsessed with superfluities -- occupation, ancestry, origins -- to realize God present in their midst and to be bothered by Him. The deeper question for us here is who is Jesus for us? Do we take seri-ously His message of discipleship, forgiveness, mercy, and love only to live as lukewarm Christians? Is our 'Christianity' merely a convenience for us? It is amazing how little faith we often have in Jesus... We seek signs and wonders, and yet we do nothing for ourselves, our families, and our parish community to live in and through Christ as His people. So who is the authority of your lives? We are called to be either hot or cold, but lukewarm, we will be spewed from His mouth... Perhaps we should take stock of our lives and take an honest look at how we live out our Christian calling.

I would like to express my sincere thanks for all your prayers for the men's Cursillo weekend. We had thirty-five men who lived their Cursillo and each one had a profound experience of the Lord. Moreover, these men were energized and came to the realization that they had not been truly living out their faith as God has called them to. These men are more committed to living out of their faith and will be making profound life changing decisions to ensure they remain connected in the Lord. Again, thank you very much for your prayers. Please continue to pray for the Cursillo as I will now be with the women this weekend. Pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon these women. God bless.

I know that I mention in a few past bulletins that we were getting a statue of Our Lady of Life and well, it was delayed in getting here. However, she has finally arrived here and we will be having some guest speakers to talk with us regarding Her significance. Moreover, they will be here to answer any questions you might have after all the Masses. Additionally, there will be some things that can be purchased. All the proceeds will go to assist with the materials used to create Our Lady of Life prayer garden.

Lastly, I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July. We celebrate our freedom and independence from tyranny and an oppressive government. It is a marvel to recognize that the human person is free. However, freedom is a gift and requires discipline, responsibility, and accountability. When we truly live as a people free from self-ishness, bigotry, pride, vainglory, lust, violence against the unborn, and all that destroys the human soul, it is then we can truly say that we are a free people. May we exercise our true freedom and follow the designs of our Lov-ing God, who is freedom itself.