Awaiting official word for when
we can attend Mass in person again!
Pray for no further delays!
As the Church began, the First Reading reveals how it became evident that following Jesus' example included care for those in need - the widows and orphans. Those ordained to preach and consecrate bread and wine to become Jesus' Body and Blood needed help.
"Regular" people were commissioned to officially assist,
with the aid of others, to fulfill this need.
The Church is not just a place to pray...
But God's family in community, caring for one another while living in the world with those who don't follow God; However, those in the world be converted through our prayers and actions.
The Psalm celebrates the joy that comes from knowing of God's active care and justice. He does not just love His "Own," a favored few,
but He loves each and every one of us as favored.
 
Filled with words of meaning for the Jews of this time, the Second Reading encourages the conversion needed to gain fortitude for facing the world's rejection, alongside Jesus' rejection.
We'll be rejected if we try to ensure that those in our care, our children - will see the light of the true reality -
God exists, loves, cares, and knows what type of living is needed
to bring us out of the darkness of self-service
and into the light of authentic love - love that finds its heart and center in God and then... can do anything!
 
In this Gospel , Jesus makes clear that He, His Father, and the Holy Spirit have provided all that is needed for us to move into the mansion He has prepared for us. Philip speaks for us all, asking how will we know the way, can't we have things made simpler, more direct?
Jesus answers that knowing Him means knowing God the Father, and then everything else will fall into place and not be unclear.
The key is knowing Christ!
Does not life simplify when one priority becomes clear?
A family crisis clarifies all of life's responsibilities, with the crisis at the top and everything we do viewed through the reality of that crisis.
So too should be our faith - at the top, through which everything we choose to do is viewed,
both for its value and in choosing the means by which we should accomplish what lies before it.
Newsy Notes

First Communion Families
The First Communion Mass fall date
will be provided as soon as it can be determined.

Confirmation Families
8th grade: Patron saint names are needed - Send to Linda!
Encourage your youth to be researching his or her saint.

7th grade: Continue watching Decision Point videos online
and conversing with your youth through the assigned chapters.
It is a gift for opening dialogue with them!
Participate in Mass on Sundays and weekdays too!
Join with our Lord through the Spiritual Communion Prayer during the online Mass's reception of Communion.
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AN ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION

My Jesus, I believe that You are
present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things and
I desire to receive You into my soul.
 
Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You were already there
and unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.
EASTER SEASON OPPORTUNITY CONTINUES!
Adoration before the Tabernacle
St. Thomas More Church is open from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
or View Perpetual Adoration from home at Marytown Chapel in Chicago.
Meditation

“My Son so loves those who assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that, if it were necessary He would die for them
as many times as they’ve heard Masses.”
- Our Blessed Mother to Blessed Alan
* "those who assist at Mass" are those who attend and participate
Greetings Parents!

         Sitting on the grass this week, watching the boys see how far they could push the limits of the Stomp Rockets, movement in the grass caught my eye. Tensing, my first thought always being spiders, it became apparent there were no insects involved. It was the grass (and weeds) standing up, a little at a time, in jerking stops and starts, after having been trampled on by our shoes. After a brief tinge of guilt for having interfered with this other life, rationality took over - the grass was made for others to walk on it. Because that was its purpose, God gave it the ability to survive the encounter, and spring back uninjured.
 
           Perhaps the COVID isolation was a factor, but I found it a bit mesmerizing to watch a general area, eyes jumping to a motion, sometimes catching a blade or stalk as it unbent, straightening up, with no other force apparent. Still, it got me wondering what mechanism within the plant was at work. Some blades seemed to gradually uncurl while others were stiff stalks that jerked upward like a second hand on a clock, clicking into place, each time a little higher, but with unpredictable timing.
 
           A force unseen, and built into the plants themselves, was restoring order, overseeing and caring for them, all prepared in its DNA long before ancestors of its seed came to be - a Providential force designed it for the "life" it would have and the purpose it would fill. Naturally, God came to mind. How are we like this blade of grass, God? Since you have me mesmerized, is there a message you want me to glean? Perhaps to remember that while God made us only for good, He knew we would face trials and sufferings. At times we would be battered to the ground, feeling beaten and a missed thought to the world. But we're not forgotten to God. In fact, He had in place the healing even before the hurt began. He had our restoration designed into our DNA - we are spirit and body and our healing comes through and for both. Jesus Christ, true man and true God is one of us and thus we can suffer as did He, and we can be both restored and be active in our own restoration - as well as the restoration of others.

            We recall in May how true this is in Mary. She was granted this insight and she lived it, with Joseph. Accepting temporary exile and a series of unplanned life events, even when her heart was certainly weighed down at times by the sorrows around her, she remained steadfast - and through her intercession, an abundance of graces comes to us all. She loves her Son perfectly, and thus wants every person to love her Son as well. Ask her for help, and Mary will always act to bring you aid from her Son, her Father, and her Spouse.
           
             Hug your children tight - remind them that Mary is their mother, loving them perfectly, and that they should ask for her guidance to
learn to love her Son and others as God led her to do.

-- Linda Bader, Coordinator of Religious Education

P.S. Did you know... As Queen of Heaven and Earth, Mary, the mother of the King, Jesus, reigns over even the most powerful of Angels.