Jesus says to us: “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.” He has great confidence in us to be ‘salt’ and ‘light’ because we are sharing in his being ‘salt’ and his being ‘light.’ Sometimes, we may doubt our value and our worth, but this tells us clearly who we are and what are meant to be. How have you experienced being ‘salt’ and ‘light’? It may not be the easiest way to be in certain circumstances and with certain people, but don’t put your “light under a bushel basket.” We can be easily intimidated in today’s world, but no one can take from us what the Lord has given to us.

Please keep in your prayers our Parish Retreat for those who volunteer in the various ministries. We are at Loyola Retreat Center in Morristown, NJ for the weekend. It is good to get out of the city and have time to be refreshed and renewed during a retreat. The theme for the retreat is “our thirst for God” and in the days that we have away, we will have many opportunities to allow God to satisfy our thirst.

Our Franciscan Brother, Roberto Gonzalez, Archbishop of San Juan, stayed at our Friary last week. He had been invited by Cardinal Dolan to preach at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on behalf of the earthquake victims in Puerto Rico. This gave me the chance to present to him a check for $3,000 that was collected a few weeks ago at Masses here. He was very grateful for our thinking of his people.

-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M.