Sixth Sunday of Easter
From The Font
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him… the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.”
Obedience is not the same thing as love, but the two are connected. Obedience is a function of trust first and foremost. Love is, by definition, willing the good of the beloved. So, if someone gives me an instruction and I trust that person to 1) know my best interest and 2) desire the good for me (aka to “love” me), then the most rational thing I can do is obey that instruction. It would be childishly willful to reject what’s best for me just so I can have my way!
And so it is that obedience to another person is contingent upon that person actually knowing and willing what is best for me, but obedience to God is an act of Faith and Hope. Obedience to another person may or may not be an act of love, but obedience to God is absolutely the same as loving God.
Jesus actually adds the little caveat on the end just to drive things home: “the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.” He wants to make it crystal clear that obeying God’s commandments is synonymous with love because God, in the person of Jesus, IS the one and only “way, truth and life.”
As modern Americans, the idea more than almost any other Christian idea is hard to take and accept. Our culture, especially our local culture, is built on self-determination and on self-sufficiency. We praise those who make their own way and who refuse to accept uncritically the experience of others. We are happy to accept that God knows best, but we tend to reject the idea that we should just do what He says. Rather, we have the sense that earned wisdom is fundamentally better than inherited wisdom. The idea that holiness and greatness come from simple obedience seems downright un-American…
This way of thinking was so prevalent and so bluntly stated, that there is an official Catholic heresy called “Americanism” which teaches that simple obedience to God isn’t as holy as figuring things out on one’s own and coming to personal understanding of religion…
Obedience isn’t the same thing as love, but when it comes to God’s love and God’s commands, they are all but inseparable!
Thoughts from Fr. Ryan
Summer is here! We’ve graduated everyone, Confirmed everyone, First Communioned everyone and now it’s time to shift into low gear at the Church. Many of you will be seeing much more of Fr. Taylor Reynolds, our neighbor to the south and the great high priest of the Catholic Churches of Tensas. While you’re there, please be sure to congratulate him on being officially named the Pastor of the parishes and not just the administrator. He is rightly very excited and he’s doing an AMAZING job!!!
Earlier this year, our plan had been to be very busy this summer with some improvements in and around the Church. You’ll certainly see some work, but we had to scale it back for a number of reasons, not least of which was that I didn’t know if I would be reassigned to St. Edward for another six-year term. In the coming months, we’ll have a town hall to discuss what has been a more contentious question than I would have expected: the interior ceiling of the Church. I suppose it just goes to show how much our Catholic community loves and cares about St. Edward Church! A little conflict is a small price to pay for passionate and enthusiastic parishioners like you!
Even though we are in lower gear over the summer, we will have our usual Wednesday morning talks on the Books of the Bible. I’ll be around most of this summer with a handful of exceptions during the week as I visit family outside of Houston. If you need anything or if you’d like to drop by and visit, I’m available on my mobile phone.
There’s a great need in our human nature for this summer break - even if it’s not all that much of a break for some of us! Our minds need to organize life into chapters with beginnings and ends. We have an emotional need to anticipate and prepare ourselves for change.
In the world of psychology, the role of recreation and leisure is well understood. It lowers chronic stress. It provides the mind time to consider, sort and forget (an important part of sanity!) details and connections between events.
In the spiritual life and in theology, the role of leisure is no less well understood. The Jesuit Josef Pieper wrote a remarkable book called “Leisure: The Basis of Culture” in which he argues that without adequate down-time, our lives are reduced to little more than a series of meaningless and joyless events… For Fr. Pieper, the experience of pleasure, which is little more than a chemical reaction in the brain, does not become really human until it is reflected upon and understood. At that point, it becomes joy. And joy persists even when the stimulus of pleasure or excitement goes away. Joy is, as the Bible says, strength! And leisure is the human condition of allowing our minds and hearts to convert momentary experiences into something lasting and powerful.
Put another way by Lily Tomlin, one of my favorite comediennes, the problem with the rat race is that win or lose, you’re still a rat… Life is more than one thing after another, and leisure is where we allow our minds and hearts to make the necessary connections for that to be the case.
Mass Intentions for the Coming Week
- Sat 5:30p In memory of Michael Mills/Mills & Thompson
- Sun 9:00a Pro Populo for the Living & Deceased Members of our Parish
- Mon NO MASS
- Tue 9:00a In memory of Rosa Gremshell
- Wed 9:00a Special Intentions of Rome family/E LeBeau
- Thu 9:00a In memory of Jason Jumonville/family
- Fri 5:30p In memory of Lee Rome/Bullard
- Sat 5:30p In memory of Payton Trichell/D Fortenberry
- Sun 9:00a Pro Populo for the Living & Deceased Members of our Parish
ALTAR CANDLES this week are burning for the special intentions of Margo Corulla
Assistants at Holy Mass
| Date | Servers | Lector(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 5/21 5:30p | None Scheduled | C VanderVieren |
| 5/22 9:00a | Preston, Cortland, Evelyn | D Ellerbee |
| 5/28 5:30p | None Scheduled | P Wilks |
| 5/29 9:00a | Cooper & Maura | M Lancaster |
| 6/4 5:30p | None Scheduled | A Farlow |
| 6/5 9:00a | Henry & MaryKatherine | C Guizerix |
Upcoming Events
- Confessions every Friday & Saturday from 5p until Mass at 5:30p
- Sunday Morning Catechism in the Hall after the 9:00a Mass unless otherwise indicated
- Pastoral Council meeting monthly on the third Tuesday at 6p unless otherwise indicated
For Your Information:
ROSARY GROUP… a group of parishioners is meeting on Monday at 5:30 p.m. to pray the Rosary. Everyone is invited to join the group. If you need additional information, please contact the Coordinator, Louise Magoun, at 318-341-2403.
SAINTS ALIVE…ANGELS AT WORK… thanks to the Junior Class parents who took responsibility for hosting the reception following Youth Mass last Sunday! You are appreciated!
Our Return to the Lord
| Weekly Budget FY 2020-21 | $ 2,111 |
| April Budget | $ 8,444 |
| April Income | $ 8,532 |
| April Expenses | $ 9,717 |
| May Budget | $ 10,555 |
| May 15 collecltion | $ 1,655 |
| May Income To Date | $ 6,126 |
Stewardship Today’s reading from Revelation offers a vision of the City of God, the new Jerusalem. “But,” the bishops’ pastoral on stewardship reminds us “that ‘life to come’ is in continuity with this present life through the human goods, the worthy human purposes, which people foster now.”
Let us Rejoice in the Lord!
Happy Birthday Dave Collins (May 24), Brittany McFall (May 25), Olivia Clare Copes (May 29), Anna Ginn (May 29), Mary Katherine Marsh (May 29)
In Our Daily Prayers…
Please let us know of anyone who is ill or hospitalized and would like to receive a visit from Father. Also, help us keep our prayer list up to date by advising us of those who should be added or removed.
Our Holy Father Pope and Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI; Bishop Robert Marshall, and our Diocesan leaders, our President, Governor, Mayor and national, state and local elected representatives
Our parishioners who are sick, shut-in, or otherwise in need of our prayers: Libby Bullard, Connie and Dan Copes, Elizabeth Crothers, Leslye Ellerbee, Mary Ernst, Monique Florence, Susan and Johnny Gilfoil, Jamie and Cindy Howingston, C.W. and Alyce Keene, Bill Kennedy, Ed Mills, Kathleen Mills, Terry Murphy, Sug Regan, Sue & Mike Rome, Delia Trichell, and Don Wood
Those under full-time care: Frances Kennedy, Carol Dunning
Our friends and relatives who need our prayers: Lee Adams (Smith), Ashley Alexander (Regan), Graham Allen (S Gilfoil), Kathryn Wood Allsopp (D Wood), Jenna Faye Allen (Florence), Pam Amacker (Gilfoil), James Arceneaux (Book), Judy and Danny Beard (Keene), Marie Farlow Bellard, Sarah Cannon (Gilfoil), Ruthie Coenen (Wilks), Molly Corulla, Truman and Diane Collins, Jami Cook (Wilks), Don Deweese, Carol Dipert (Rome), Mac Donaldson (Ellerbee), Ashley and Chuck Edwards (Keene), Joe Farlow, Mike Farlow, Patty Farlow, April Franklin (Wilks), Thom Gilfoil, Charlotte Green, Rita Hargrave, Evie Hilburn (Lancaster), John and Carlyle Ashly Hoogland, Melissa Jennings (Gilfoil & Keene), Dee Jones (Keene), Lyn and Calvin Lisonbee (Keene), LaLa Lopez (Hernandez), Michelle McGuire(Gilfoil), Mona Martin (MA Gilfoil), Caryn Oliver, Sue Perrilloux (D Wood), Wayne Pitre (Gilfoil), Frances Robinson (Wilks), Bailey, and Tiffney Rome, Dianne W. Roper (Murphy), Beverly Sibille (Gilfoil), Albert Thom (Rome), Meg Keene Thomas, Patrick Thomas (Bullard), Lucy Thomason (gr-dau of Bentley Curry)(Book), Paul Wayne and LeeAnn Rome Tranchina (Rome), Elaine Trimble (Rome), Joe Yerger
Our collegiates: Aidan Collins, Callie Ezell, Lilly Falgout, Chris Hall (USMC), Nick Hall, Bruen Johnson, Caroline Marsh, Emmy Lu Marsh, Maddie Oliver Bridges, Carter Sullivan, Walker Sullivan, Brice Wood, Marsh Wood