This Sunday is the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time. In today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 21:28-32), Our Blessed Lord calls the chief priests and elders of the people to task. He tells them, "What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, 'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.' He said in reply, 'I will not, ' but afterwards changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, ‘but did not go. Which of the two did his father's will?" They answered, "The first."

This Sunday is the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Gospel comes to us from Matthew 20:1-16a. Jesus tells his disciples a parable about a generous landowner. He hires laborers at dawn, at nine o’clock, at noon, at three in the afternoon and at five o’clock. At the end of the day, he pays all of the laborers the same wage. Those hired first were not pleased with this. The landowner, however, has cheated no one. Those hired first agreed to work for the usual daily wage. They received the agreed upon wage. The landowner is free to do as he wishes with his money. He is free to be generous to those hired later in the day.

The Annual Blessing of the Animals will take place on Sunday, October 4th at 3:00 p.m. here at St. Mary's. According to the Roman Calendar, October 4th is traditionally the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Please bring your pets to the west parking lot near the recycle bins. The blessing will take place in the athletic field where the field meets the parking lot. Animals unable to be removed from cars or trucks will be blessed as well. The wearing of masks and social distancing will be observed. All are welcome!

   The 2020-21 Life Teen Kickoff will happen on Sunday, September 27, 2020, 6:00-7:30 pm. Anyone in 9th through 12th grade is welcome to attend and please plan on wearing clothes that you do not mind getting dirty because if the weather is sunny, we will be outside. Please bring a mask with you just in case we end up being inside for the Kickoff. RSVP to Sherry Loxterman at lifeteen@stmarychardon.org by Friday September 25th.

   This Sunday marks the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The first reading from Sirach (27:30 – 28:9) and the Gospel reading from Matthew (18:21-35) both speak to us of the need for forgiveness. More specifically, we cannot ask the Lord to forgive us if we are unwilling to forgive others.

This Sunday is the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. All three readings speak to us of the need for us to care for one another. The prophet Ezekiel (33:7-9) is called to speak God’s word to “the house of Israel.” Some will accept it and others will not. Nevertheless, Ezekiel’s mission is to “warn them” and “speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way.”

  Faith and fear. We are called to live by faith and not by fear. Faith liberates and fear paralyzes. Simon Peter would go on to give his life for his Lord and Savior. Still, he would  deny three times that he even knew Jesus. If we reflect on our lives, we find that faith and fear are in constant tension. We profess our faith in every Sunday Mass, yet can be afraid to live our faith boldly in our daily lives. It can be a fear of “offending” others or fear of non-acceptance (by friends or co-workers).

Good day everyone, Life Teen will start meeting in-person at the end of September. So please watch the bulletin and our parish website for additional information. We are looking forward to seeing you in-person with safety guidelines to ensure the safety of our teens.

This weekend, August 22nd and 23rd, our parish is very happy to welcome a Priest from the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus. They will speak at all the Masses about the work that they do in over thirty countries of Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia.

As some of you know, we Sisters of Notre Dame will be moving out of our convent home in early September. The three of us will be relocating to our provincial center property on Auburn Road, joining the 168 Sisters who currently live there. As we move, we recall that the first four Sisters of Notre Dame moved into this convent on August 14, 1962. Since then, about 67 Sisters have called St. Mary Convent home. A total of 160 Sisters have served here both in the school and in the CCD/PSR programs.

“O Woman, great is your faith!” These are the words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ to the Canaanite woman in the Gospel for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Matthew 15:21-28). She is a Canaanite (part of the pagan people to the west and north of Israel).

How often does the Lord speak to us in unexpected ways?  So often in Sacred Scripture we see God choosing the unlikeliest of people and working in the unlikeliest of ways to fulfill His purposes.  God’s ways are not our ways.  God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to save us from our sins.  The Son of Man came not in glory, but in humility, so as to reconcile us to the Father by His life, death and resurrection.

The Gospel for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time is from Matthew (14:13-21). It is the account of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and the fish. Our Blessed Lord not only fed the multitudes, but there were twelve, full wicker baskets left over.

Just what you need….We all need a day of hope and inspiration!!! Join us next Sunday, August 9, 2020 for The FEST@Home. It’s going to be an amazing day of faith and family, uplifting music and messages of hope and inspiration all from the comfort of your home.

On Saturday, August 15th, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. Although this feast is not a Holy Day of Obligation this year because it falls on a Saturday, we will have a Mass at 8:30 AM for the feast. This Mass will NOT be live-streamed.

"The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.”" Solomon answered: “O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong...”

Dear Friends and Fellow Parishioners,  we are urgently but humbly appealing to your generosity to support our newly established NICARAGUA COVID EMERGENCY FUND.   We all know that the Covid-19 crisis has caused stress, disruption and tragedy here at home.  However, the situation is even more frightening in Nicaragua, where suffering is widespread, information is limited and resources are scarce.

Silver Rose Prayer Service will be sponsored by the Knights of Columbus; for Life in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This will be held on Monday, July 20th at 7:00 PM in the Church. This event will be Live-Stream on our Facebook site, www.fb.com/stmarychurchchardon.

This Sunday is the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. In the shorter form of the Gospel of Matthew (13:1-9), Jesus shares a parable about a sower who went out to sow seed. Of course, we know that the seed is the word of God and Christ is the sower.

This weekend, our nation celebrates its Independence. While the 4th of July falls on a Saturday, the entire weekend offers us an opportunity to reflect on the gift of freedom. From a Catholic perspective, true freedom allows us to do that which is right. Liberty can often be misunderstood for license. We are not free to do whatever we want. Our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles that presumed that there is objective right and wrong.