Dear Brothers and Sisters of St. Andrew the Apostle,

For all the parish news and events, please read the bulletin or our parish website. Here's a glimpse of what is coming up:

• The second collection this weekend supports our Guardian Angel Fund, helping students in need receive a Catholic education here at St. Andrew the Apostle. All donations will go to the children of St. Andrew's families who need financial aid to attend our National Blue Ribbon Award-winning parish school.
• This Sunday is Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. We will end the 12:30 PM Mass tomorrow with a Eucharistic procession that will take us to four altars found at the Compton Road Entrance, the Union Mill Road Entrance, outside the Holy Family Chapel, and in front of the school. The procession will end back inside the church for benediction. Come and worship our Lord in the Holy Eucharist with your fellow parishioners!
• Vacation Bible School will take place from July 21 to 25 for all rising Kindergarten to 6th grade students. Information on how to register your children for a week of faith, fun, and friendship is on our website.

On behalf of Fr. Sina and the parishioners he and Fr. O'Donoghue serve in the Dominican Republic, I thank everyone who donated to support the diocesan mission in Banica. Your generosity will make a great difference in the lives of thousands of people in spiritual and material need.

... Priests are coming and going here at St. Andrew's. Fr. Joseph Townsend will arrive at the parish this coming Thursday, June 26. His first Sunday Mass will be next Sunday, June 29, at 12:30 PM. Please pray for Fr. Townsend, that his transition may be peaceful and that his many gifts will be a blessing to our parish as he serves us as a shepherd of our souls.

Fr. Nicholas will be moving from the rectory at the start of July as his assignment as pastor of St. Jude Syro-Malabar Catholic Church has ended. He has been such a help with the ministry at our parish when we have needed an extra priest and I am sad to see him go after four years. Fr. Nicholas will celebrate the 7:30 AM Mass next Sunday, June 29.

... This Sunday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, also called Corpus Christi. It is a reminder of the supernatural gift of the Eucharist, the Real Presence of Christ that is made present to us at every Mass and remains with us in the tabernacle and in the monstrance so that we may worship the Lord who remains with us in sacramental form until He comes again.

The temperature on Sunday at 1:30 PM is predicted to be 94°F (with a heat index of 98°F). It will be hot! Please take this into account if you are planning to walk the processional route with us. There will be water in the middle of the walk and after the benediction, but you may want to bring your own as well. Also, protect yourself from the sun. In the end, use prudence to determine whether you may spend an extended period outside walking in the extreme heat.

... The gift of the Eucharist - Jesus Christ's presence in the form of bread and wine - shows the humility of Our Lord. It also expresses His desire to walk with us and nourish us on our journey to heaven. Pondering this reality of our God dwelling with us to nourish us is vital to our faith. Because of his Real Presence in our church, we genuflect to the tabernacle when we enter the church, we kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer when the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, and we make a sign of reverence (bowing, genuflecting, or kneeling) before we receive the Eucharist.

These gestures and postures are signs of our belief in Christ's presence in Holy Communion, but it is easy for them to be ingrained as habits we do without thought. We may have had the experience of fighting the urge to kneel in the aisle before taking our seat in a movie theater or any place in the shape of a church with pews. It is a good sign that we have that urge, but as always, we want to truly be aware of the presence of the Lord so that we can encounter Him with open hearts and deep faith. We want our actions to be worship, not just a habit we do without thought.

This is why the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is so vital. The Church throughout the world has a Feast Day to remind us and refocus us on the reality that Jesus gives us this unimaginable gift of remaining with us in the Eucharist to nourish and transform us. The infinite grace of the Eucharist can change our lives, our families, our parish, and our world. So let us never receive our Lord half-heartedly or unworthily. Let our postures and gestures come with the awareness of God in our midst, and not simply be routine or habit. Let us receive the Lord in the Eucharist with reverence and awareness of what we are doing when we are approaching Him at Mass. Our humility, reverence, and faith will open the door to receiving the graces we need from Christ to draw us into his divine love and lead us further along the path of sanctity. This is the purpose of the Eucharist: to get us to heaven. In receiving the Eucharist, may we become Christified and live more and more in the manner Christ calls us to.

Be assured of my prayers for you and your intentions. Please pray for me as well!

In Christ,

Fr. Wagner