Dear Parish Family,

We have come to the end of the Easter season with this celebration of Pentecost. We embark now on the longest period of the liturgical year, that of Ordinary Time. Taking our inspiration from the name of the season itself, we look to order our lives around Christ. He is the source and center of all creation. Allowing him to be the influence of our lives in every aspect will make for peace, harmony, and joy.

We are capable of living a life in relationship with and in conformity to Jesus by the gift of the Holy Spirit that we celebrate today. The Holy Spirit within makes us each children of God. We remember Jesus’ words, “I will not leave you orphans.” Indeed. By his Ascension, as we celebrated last week, Christ now sends the Spirit to make us members of the household of God, opening us up to the greatest inheritance a Father could leave – everlasting life in Paradise. But it begins now! As we receive the Holy Spirit, we are already sharing in the inheritance as if by an initial deposit, as St. Paul writes in Ephesians.

So, rejoice! Today is our birth into the life of grace, mediated through the ministry of the Church that Christ established. Tomorrow we will celebrate Our Lady as Mother of the Church. As Christ and the Church cannot be separated, so our rebirth through grace in the Church by baptism and the other Sacraments in Christ, mysteriously comes through Mary. As she is the model disciple of her son, let’s ask for her intercession over this period of Ordinary Time in which we endeavor to follow Jesus more closely and learn from him.

Peace and good.

-Fr. Kennell

‍