Today we hear Jesus say: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot
be my disciple.” Many of Jesus’ words are challenging and can easily upset us, but after you
think about them for a while, they begin to make sense. Each of our lives has many crosses
and rather than let them conquer us, with Jesus we can reach goals that we may never have thought that we could achieve. In the previous sentence, when we hear Jesus saying about “hating” certain people, we need to look at what Jesus “means” by this. He wants us to have priorities in our lives- everything does not have the same value. Jesus wants us to have him as the center of our lives. He realizes that we are people pulled in many directions and it is important for us to continue to refocus ourselves to what is important and life giving. We always need to keep in mind that, whenever we encounter Scriptures that may seem strange, we
should ask ourselves “what does this mean” and not take them “literally.”

Today is the annual Walk in Memory of Fr. Mychal Judge. We are grateful for the many people who have travelled distances to join in this walk. On September 11th we will have our annual Mass for the 9/11 victims; many of whom are still dealing with health situations. Please join us in this tribute to all those who suffered from this tragic event in our history.

September 8th is also the commemoration of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary!

-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M