1171 NE Sand Hill Rd | Belfair, WA 98528

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Pastor's Page 2019-10-13

Dear Parishioners:

 

  • Today’s readings are about remembering, thanksgiving, healing and salvation. In the reading from the Old Testament, Naaman the Syrian remembers to thank Elisha for his cure.  Naaman, the foreigner, is not a member of the Chosen People.  That God’s mercy is to be extended to all the nations was a notion difficult for Israel to accept.

In the reading from the Second Letter to Timothy, Paul asks Timothy and perhaps, for all of us, to remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.  

In today’s Gospel, one of the ten lepers cured by Jesus remembered to return and thank his healer.  Today’s Gospel is about a foreigner with two counts against him. By his plea he is made clean, by his faith he is saved.  The man was a Samaritan, a social outcast and a religious heretic suffering from leprosy.  In the presence of Jesus, only the foreigner receives the full blessing of Jesus’ ministry.  

Thankfulness is much more than saying “Thank you” because we have to.  It is a way to experience the world, to perceive and to be surprised.  Thankfulness is having open eyes and a short distance between the eyes and the heart.

Grateful hearts are the hallmark of authentic Christians. Those who possess the virtue of gratitude are truly rich.  They not only know how richly they have been blessed, but they continuously remember that all good things come from God.

  • We are called to this Eucharistic celebration – along with Catholics in every parish and the whole church through the world – to fulfill the call we first heard at Baptism, the call to be missionaries, to share our faith. “Mission is a passion for Jesus and at the same time, a passion for his people” Pope Francis said in his Pentecost remark.  In Jesus’ command to “go forth”, we see the scenarios and ever-present new challenges of the Church’s evangelizing mission.  All her members are called to proclaim the Gospel by their witness of life.
  • So, World Mission Sunday will be celebrated next weekend (October 19 & 20), we are invited to “celebrate the hope that saves” through prayer and participation in the Eucharist for the work of the whole church. Please generously support the Mission of the Church next weekend.
  • Saturday, October 12, our parish community celebrated an annual “Living Rosary” in month of Our Lady of Rosary. What a special event to gather to pray at our parish with other parishioners from our neighboring parishes joining us, as we ended this event at the newly blessed Marian Garden.
  • A “Big Word of THANK” to the Knights of Columbus, St. Monica Guild, St. Gabriel parishioners and many parishioners from our own parish and from the surrounding areas of Kitsap and Mason Counties, who have come to honor our Blessed Mother Mary in this special “Living Rosary”. May the month of the Rosary” continue to help us to pray always (pray without ceasing and persistence in prayer) as the Lord Jesus commanded.

Christ’s Peace,
Fr. Phuong Hoang

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