Hello everyone! I am back from my much-needed vacation in Alaska. It was quite beautiful! Everywhere we went, there were mountains in the background. Some of the highlights of my trip were an airplane tour around Mt. Denali with a glacier landing, a wilderness bus tour around Denali park seeing animals including two bear, caribou, Dall sheep, and two foxes fighting off a wolverine. We saw lots of moose throughout our trip. We went deep-sea fishing catching halibut and rockfish. We took a sight-seeing tour on a boat seeing otter, humpback whales, orca, porpoises, Stellar sea lions, puffins, seals, and then stopped at a glacier to see some minor calving. We were grateful to have such great weather throughout both with temperature and clear enough views of the mountains. An unexpected highlight was my 10 yr old nephew praying the Office of Readings with me. On an early morning when we had some downtime, I asked if he wanted to pray with me. He immediately put down his video game and said, “Yes!” and enjoyed praying the psalms, an Old Testament reading, and a reflection with me. At another point of downtime during a long drive, I asked if he wanted to read the Bible with me. He was excited and enjoyed reading it himself. I then explained a bit of it afterwards. He really loves the Old Testament for all of its action. For someone who does not go to church, he is really eager to learn about the Bible. At the end of the trip, he asked when we would be meeting again to continue his religious education over Zoom. Never discount a child’s interest in learning the faith! On the trip were my oldest sister from California and her two teenage boys and my other sister who is local, her husband, and their 10 yr old son. 

There is something so good about getting away. Jesus would often get away from the crowds to a deserted place or a mountain to pray. He would take the disciples away after they had gone out to do ministry. If you take a vacation, please consider getting away to a different place rather than staying home if you are able. There is something so enriching and renewing about being among different peoples, different scenery, different cultures, even if it is an hour or two away from home. Being in nature is also an incredible way to encounter God. John Paul II loved to snow ski and in a 2000 address said that creation has its own “gospel.” He said that creation helps us to “contemplate and rediscover wonder…For the believer, to contemplate creation is to hear a message, to listen to a paradoxical and silent voice.” Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati loved to climb mountains. As a student, before dying at age 24, he wrote to a friend, “If my studies permitted, I would spend whole days on the mountains admiring in that pure atmosphere the magnificence of God.” Pope Francis said that as Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountain during his transfiguration, it showed the importance of “disengaging from worldly matters, in order to make a journey toward heaven and to contemplate Jesus…In this spiritual ascent, in this disengagement from worldly matters, we are called to rediscover the peaceful and regenerative silence of meditating on the Gospel, on the reading of the Bible, which leads to a destination rich in beauty, splendor, and joy. When we meditate in this way, with the Bible in hand, in silence, we begin to feel this interior beauty, this joy that the Word of God engenders in us. In this perspective, the summer season is a providential time to cultivate our task of seeking and encountering the Lord. In this period, students are free of scholastic commitments and many families take their holidays; it is important that in the period of rest and disengagement from daily activities, we can reinforce our strengths of body and soul, by deepening our spiritual journey. May our Mother and the Mother of God help us to be in harmony with the Word of God, so that Christ may become light and lodestar throughout our life. Let us entrust to her the holidays of all, so that they may be peaceful and fruitful, but above all the summer of those who cannot go on holiday due to impediments of age, to reasons of health or of work, to economic restrictions or other problems, so that it may be a time of eased tension, gladdened by the presence of friends and of happy moments” (reprinted from July 2021 issue of Magnificat magazine, pages 6-7.)

Happy Independence Day to all this weekend!

Thanks to Fr. Jeffrey for saying all four Masses the past two weekends.

We will have a First Saturday Mass tomorrow morning, July 3^rd, at Immaculate Conception. Mass is at 9am, followed by exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and confessions from 9:30-10:30am ending with Benediction. 

We are beginning confessions again at ICC 30 minutes before each weekend Mass starting this weekend. It is for both Saturday and Sunday Masses. 

Thanks to Patty Warner and Chris Spiese at ICC and OLL, respectively, for the short summary of the parish survey they gave at last weekend’s Masses. I will send out a more detailed summary next week. It will look similar to the diocesan results that you have seen in the bulletins. 

The following is a diocesan announcement regarding the Real Presence, Real Future initiative (which is the overall initiative that includes the DMI parish surveys):

Join CLI and Diocesan leaders to learn more about the Real Presence, Real Future initiative at Information Sessions throughout the summer. Each session will be similar consisting of an overview of the Real Presence, Real Future initiative, and the opportunity for your questions and comments. We want to hear from you! What are you hearing about RPRF? What is it? Why are we doing this?

Registration is required for each session, so sign up today at www.RealPresenceRealFuture.org .

The livestream of the Mass for this Sunday, July 4th, will be from OLL at 11am.  

Attached are the bulletins, the worship aid, and Fr. Ferguson’s cat column.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!      

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, pray for us!   

God bless!      

Fr. Ed