In the gospel story of the loaves and fishes, emphasis is often placed on the abundance of the meal – the twelve baskets of food left over.  But perhaps an equal emphasis should be placed on the fact that this is a simple meal.   Jesus did not concoct an elaborate banquet to dazzle the followers with divine opulence; rather the opulence lies in the very simplicity, consciously and gratefully shared.

A young disciple came into the desert one day bringing a bunch of grapes to his hermit teacher.  The teacher accepted them gratefully, but then remembering another hermit a few miles away who might be hungry, he took only one grape and sent the bunch on.  The second hermit did the same, taking one grape and sending the rest on to yet another hermit, and so on…. until finally, throughout a whole region of the desert a bunch of grapes had been so magnanimously shared.  Each grape became a beautiful symbol of the love and caring that bound these solitary souls together in their desert wilderness.

Matthew says they had only “five loaves and two fish.”   This says something significant to each of us.  Individually, we don’t have a lot to offer, when it comes to hunger within our own community as well as in foreign lands.  The point of the gospel is that when we offer what little we have in the spirit of Christ’s love, a multiplication of gifts happens.  Christ transforms our individual gifts into a collective outpouring of caring and helping.

The fact is that many of you have demonstrated many times that you have heard the gospel with your hearts and hands as well as with your ears.  The charitable outreach of our parish is amazing.  Look what your sacrificial generosity has done for Birthright, Veterans, Grocery gift cards, Food pantry, Christmas gift drive, so on and so forth.   The way you have shared your “five loaves and two fish” has proved again and again that the Spirit of Christ lives in your hearts, opening them up in response when you hear of the hungers of others in our community, and in the world.  It is another telling example of how Christ’s miracle of multiplication occurs today when his disciples hear with a compassionate heart and respond with spiritual and financial generosity to the command to “give them something to eat yourselves.”

Our next Baptism Class will be held on September 20th at 1pm in the parish office.  Please call the office if you would like to attend.  

The Diocesan Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism will be hosting an important series of webinars that will focus on racial challenges and the Church.  The series will held on Thursay's  at 1:00 P.M. beginning July 30th.  These webinars will also be replayed at 7pm each night.  For more information click here.  To register for the series click here.  Please note: you only have to register once in order to attend the entire series if you wish.

We wish to thank all of our parishioners who have been mailing in or dropping off their donations, and those who have signed up for Online Giving.  We appreciate your generosity and desire to continue to support the parish.  

Please note that we have upgraded our Online Giving Platform.  It is very user friendly.  If you shop or do your banking on-line please consider this format for your donations.  You have the option to make a one time gift or set up a recuring cycle that suits your timing and budget  You can visit the site by clicking the button below.