Happy Father's Day! God our heavenly Father has made the gift of fatherhood precious as He has called our earthly fathers to be like Him in every way. He calls us fathers, married men and priests, to grow in our fatherhood by making a generous gift of ourselves for the building up of our families, our society, and our Church. We need good fathers in our world today: men who are present, who do not turn away in anger or fear from problems, but who show up and step up to the noble task of building God's kingdom of love; men who are vulnerable and tender in their love for their spouse and children, who seek to live from Christ's own spousal heart for His Bride, the Church; men who recognize that their strength comes from the Lord and not from themselves to lead their lives and families in holiness and grace. Fatherhood is a great blessing for our world. Fathers need our prayers and support, our encouragement and thanks, for rising up to meet the neeeds of our broken world.

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi. St. John Paul II defines love as the sincere gift of oneself, and there is no greater love than Jesus' Eucharistic gift of His Body and Blood for the salvation of the world. This Corpus Christi Sunday is a great opportunity for us to renew our devotion to Christ's Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist.

First and foremost, renew your personal and familial commitment to come to Mass each and every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation. There's no summer break from Mass since God doesn't take a break from making a gift of Himself to us! Neither can we step away from Sunday Mass without doing spiritual harm to ourselves and to the community to which we belong. As your shepherd who loves you, I miss you when you're not here, and I want you to be present and active in the life of our community of faith to watch how the Lord continues to challenge and shape you as you grow in spiritual maturity. We are better together. We need each other and we need our Lord to become the people God has called us to be.

Second, renew your devotion to the Eucharist by spending time with Jesus each week in times of Eucharistic Adoration and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Our parish is open daily for you to come and pray. Spending just 5 minutes in church near the tabernacle can be absolutely life-changing! I invite you to come to St. Mary's weekly on Wednesdays for Mass at noon with Eucharistic Exposition following the Mass until 6:45 p.m.. St. Patrick's also has a period of Eucharistic Exposition on the first Thursday of the month from 7 - 8 pm. The Lord is eager to work powerful miracles and healings in your life, so add it to your calendar and make the commitment to spend time with Him each week in church.

Finally, consider coming to daily Mass at least once a week. In addition to our daily Masses listed in the bulletin, there are a number of parishes in our area that have daily Masses morning, afternoon, and evening during the weekdays and Saturday morning.  Check out www.masstimes.orgto find the list of Masses in our area. Daily Mass deepens the graces we receive on Sundays by putting us in touch with daily Scripture readings and daily reception of the Eucharist. Daily Mass offers a valuable spiritual rhythm to our day.

Keep in mind some upcoming changes to our daily Mass schedule. Starting the week of July 4th, Tuesday daily Mass will change from 7:30 am to 8:30 am, and the Friday daily Mass will change from 1:30 pm to 7:30 am. These changes will reflect our new School Mass time which will move to the new Tuesday time for the upcoming school year. All are invited to come to Mass whether school is in or out of session.