A Message from Fr. Ben Keller, OP
This weekend’s Gospel shows the beauty in Jesus’s plan. He sends His disciples out two by two and tells them to “take nothing for the journey.” Really, Jesus? Nothing?
What will the disciples do when they get hungry? What will they do when they need more money? These may have been the questions that were running through the disciples’ minds too. They were real people who were also struggling to figure out who Jesus was and what He was doing. Jesus had given them parables, taught them, performed miracles where he drove out demons, healed the sick, and calmed the storm at sea, but in these events, the disciples were mainly witnesses.
Now Jesus is asking the disciples to trust Him a little deeper. They have seen and heard, but He wants them to experience the love and care He has for them. However, this type of experience only happens when we put ourselves outside of our comfort zones when we are not in control and know that only Jesus can come through for us. Jesus invites the disciples to place all their trust in Him and His Father and let go of the things they usually rely on for comfort because He wants to show them just how powerful He is.
One person who did this so well was Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa is one of my favorites. She so beautifully trusted the Lord in all things and simply surrendered to wherever He was guiding Her. When starting the Missionaries of Charity, she came up with the Spirit of the Missionaries of Charity. The Spirit of the MCs is “Total Surrender, Loving Trust, and Cheerfulness.” These are three characteristics of our Blessed Mother and three characteristics that Jesus desires to give all of us. They can be difficult, though. It can be hard to trust that the Lord will provide and that the Lord still loves us when we lose our job, a family member dies, or we encounter an unexpected difficulty. These are the precise moments that the Lord is inviting us into, though. They are the moments where he invites us to let go of the things we look to for comfort, place all of our trust in Him, and experience His love, care, and will for our lives.
I am so excited to be here with all of you at St. Tom’s. I am having so much fun getting to know all of you and am incredibly excited to walk with you for however long I am here. My deepest hope is that you will fall deeper in love with our Lord through total surrender, loving trust, and cheerfulness and that I will do the same. It is incredible what the Lord does in our lives when we surrender to Him and trust that He will provide, that He will somehow help us love Him more amid a struggle, and that He is with us and loving us every moment of every day.
God bless you! Have a wonderful week!
Fr. Ben Keller, OP
Parochial Vicar
Fr. Ben Keller, OP
Mass Resources:
Livestream Mass @ 9AM (Note: Livestream Mass is NOT recorded for later viewing.)
Sunday Bulletin (PDF)
Readings: Fifteenth
Sunday in Ordinary TimeFaith Direct e-giving
Announcements
"World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly" on July 24-25
Pope Francis decided this year to institute a Church-wide celebration of a “World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.” It will take place each year on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the liturgical memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus. At St. Tom’s, we encourage you to bring your grandparents to Mass the weekend of July 24-25. We will have a special blessing for them and complimentary coffee and donuts on Sunday morning after Mass.
Save the Date for Blockbuster Weekend - August 27 to 29
Be sure to save the date! Blockbuster Weekend returns this year with a dinner and dance, ministry fair, Mass on the Grass, and a parish picnic. Events begin on Friday, Aug. 27and end on Sunday evening, Aug. 29. More details are forthcoming.
Switch to "boilercathiolics.org" email addresses
If you have been corresponding with someone at St. Tom's using the "@sttoms-purdue.org" email address, you'll want to change it in your contacts to "@boilercatholics.org" due to our recent change from Google G Suite to Microsoft Office.
Subscribe to St. Tom's New YouTube Channel
St. Tom's recent office technology changes also required a change to our setup on YouTube AND a NEW channel with a NEW URL. Follow this link or the link on the “Announcements” section of www.boilercatholics.org to subscribe to our new channel. By subscribing, you’ll be sure to get the latest Livestream and recorded St. Tom’s video content, AND you will help us to obtain a custom (more intuitive and shorter) URL like our old one. YouTube requires a threshold of channel subscribers before they allow a custom URL.
"Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church's Opposition to Hitler" Presentation slated for July 22
A presentation titled “Pius the 12th and Catholic Opposition to Hitler’s Third Reich” by Ronald Rychlak, Distinguished Professor and Jamie L. Whitten Chair in Law and Government at the University of Mississippi, is scheduled for Thursday, July 22 in Room 3. Although Pope Pius instructed the Catholic Church to shelter and help the Jews, he did not publicly denounce Hitler, which remains controversial. Professor Rychlak, a native of Lafayette who attended McCutcheon High School and nearby Wabash College for undergraduate studies, will discuss the evidence and the campaign that flipped Pius the 12th's reputation. Read page 3 of this weekend's bulletin for more information.
To provide a one-time or recurring gift to St. Tom's, visit our FaithDirect giving page. We are grateful for your generosity to our mission and ministries.
