Hello everyone. I hope you are well and staying safe. Today is Fr Rafferty's birthday. Enjoy the day Father many more years of good health and happiness.
Also, it is nice to have Deacon Luis Silva back from his priesthood retreat. He now awaits a date for his ordination to the priesthood. Please keep him in your prayers.
May I also ask for prayers for my classmates and myself as today we were ordained 28 years ago. The years pass! It is very humbling to look back and see how many graces and blessings God has given me through God's holy people.
At our ordination Mass, the late Cardinal O'Connor enjoined on us to trust God's people, really trust them because they trust us! I want to thank my mom and family who have always had a deep respect for the priesthood and have strengthened me in this vocation in countless ways. I am so grateful to all the families and friends who over the years have made me part of their families. And I am very grateful to you the parishioners of IHM, for your kindness, patience, love and support. I thought I would leave you with a prayer for priests written by Fr Karl Rahner, S.J.
The priest is not an angel sent from heaven
He is a man chosen from among men,
A member of the Church, a Christian.
Remaining man and Christian, he begins to speak of you the Word of God.
The word is not his own.
No, he comes to you because God has told him to proclaim God’s Word.
Perhaps he has not entirely understood it himself.
Perhaps he adulterates it.
But he believes, and despite his fear he knows he must communicate God’s Word to you.
For must not some of us say something about God,
About eternal life; about the majesty of grace in our sanctified being?
Must not some one of us speak of sin, the judgement and mercy of God?
So, my dear friends, pray for him, carry him,
So that he might be able to sustain others by bringing to them
The mystery of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ.
Amen