We continue to pray for those affected by Hurricane Harvey who are in the midst of rebuilding and getting back on their feet and we pray for those in the path of Hurricane Irma.

There are collection boxes in the church marked for Hurricane Harvey Relief Donations. The boxes will be available for several weeks for you to o er donations for the relief efforts.

Thank you for your generosity.

The response to the rst reading today is: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart.” This ts in well with today’s Gospel about forgiveness and dealing with difficult situations. Forgiveness is not easy and from hearing confessions, I can tell you that many people confess this frequently. Many times were are victims of someone’s thoughtless behavior or someone’s loose tongue. You can’t take back what slips out of your mouth and this tends to hurt. If you have been a victim of this or something similar, it is not easy to move on. The hurt possesses you. It is at this time that you need to try to listen to the Lord’s voice. Forgiving does not mean the other person was correct or what they did or said was okay, forgiveness helps us move on; otherwise, we are letting the other person continue to possess us – our thoughts, our dreams, our conversation. All of this takes time and happens slowly, but it is worth listening to His voice.

Get ready for the Ministry Fair next Sunday! Make it a point to stop over at San Damiano Hall after the 11:00, 12:30, 5:00 or 6:15 Masses and see the various displays of the ministries here at St. Francis. Information will be given out at the various booths and you might nd a way to get more involved here at St. Francis. Refreshments will be served and it is a good way to meet people that you might see here at St. Francis, but don’t know their names. Mark the date on your calendar!

-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M

Let us ask the Lord to help us understand the law of love. How good it is to have this law! How much good it does us to love one another, in spite of everything. Yes, in spite of everything! Saint Paul’s exhortation is directed to each of us: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” And again: “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right.”

We all have our likes and dislikes, and perhaps at this very moment we are angry with someone. At least let us say to the Lord: “Lord, I am angry with this person, with that person, I pray to you for him and for her.” To pray for a person with whom I am irritated is a beautiful step forward in love, and an act of evangelization. Let us do it today! Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the ideal of fraternal love.

We need to learn to help others to realize that the only way is to learn.. to encounter others with the right attitude, which is to accept and esteem them as companions along the way… Better yet, it means learning to  find Jesus in the faces of others, in their voices, in their pleas…There indeed we  find true healing, since the way to relate to others which truly heals instead of debilitating us, is a mystical fraternity, a contemplative fraternity. It is a fraternal love capable of seeing the sacred grandeur of our neighbor, of  finding God in every human being, of tolerating the nuisances of life in common by clinging to the love of God, of opening the heart to divine love and seeking the happiness of others just as their heavenly Father does. Here and now, especially where we are a ‘little flock’, the Lord’s disciples are called to live as a community which is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are called to bear witness to a constantly new way of living together in fidelity to the Gospel.  Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of community.