ALL SET FOR SUNDAY

The readings for this Sunday can be found here.  Anyone who ever tells you that the life of the disciple of Jesus is without trails, struggles, pain, difficulties, persecution or the like is lying to you.  Even when we invite Jesus into our lives, our homes, our parish community, our Church, the waves of this world will crash against our boat.  The stresses of life will try us.  We will feel overwhelmed.  The disciples in the Gospel reading today certainly did.  After the Resurrection, they faced all sorts of difficulties.  The truth is that while there are not guarantees of wealth, easiness or anything like it, Jesus does promise that He will be with us.  If it feels like He is sleeping, we have to take the initiative to cry out for help.  He has the power to calm the seas with a single word but we need to place our trust in Him.  He will get us through it, but we need to choose to believe.

NEWS FROM THE PEWS 

This week we took an important step in our Blessed Sacrament Chapel project.  With the help of a few folks, the tabernacle, with diocesan approval, was moved into the sanctuary until we can build the platform for the permanent placement of the tabernacle in the Chapel space.  In the mean time, we will partially close the doors to allow the chapel space to be a bit more private for prayer and to accentuate the tabernacle in the sanctuary.  The proper sign of reverence for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is to genuflect on the right knee when entering and exiting the nave of the church.  Once Mass begins, our attention is properly directed to the altar.  Lectors and other ministers will bow during Mass to the altar.

Please join us in praying the Memorare, asking our Blessed Mother to pray that the Lord will send right person to us to lead our Worship Ministries.  Our Worship Ministries include all of our liturgical ministries—sacristans, cantors, lectors, choirs, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, servers, accompanists, ushers, greeters, church environment and many others.  

Bishop Joensen ordained two new priests on Friday, June 21: Fathers Luis Cabrera and Mike Mahoney.   Father Cabera is assigned to Corpus Christi in Council Bluffs and Father Mahoney is assigned to Saint Theresa’s in Des Moines.  Please pray for our new priests.

Thank you to the Holy Name Society, our Outreach Committee and our Friday morning Men’s Group who supported Iowa Catholic Radio’s effort to include Saint Pius in the daily Mass broadcast.  Our daily Mass will be included in a rotation with those from other parishes as the morning Mass broadcast on ICR.  We are grateful for their support and ministry among us.

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is in Council Bluffs, Glenwood & Imogene, and Shenandoah June 23–25.  Each day includes a Mass, a procession with the Blessed Sacrament, prayer, exposition and fellowship.  The recent edition of the Catholic Mirror has more information.

Father Daniel and I are grateful for your prayers and your support of us.  We know the Father has a plan for our Church, and Saint Pius has a role in His plan.  We are excited to see how our small role will develop in these coming years.  Each day we ask the Holy Spirit to show us how we can better cooperate with Him and be better priests and shepherds of this community.  Thank you for every choice you make to surrender yourself and your family into His hands.  None of us are in control.  We simply have to choose to follow Christ each day.  We have to choose daily to love God with all our hearts, mind and strength, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to trust that He is restoring all things in Christ.  God bless you.