A Message from Fr. Jay
Dear Friends,
This weekend the first reading is talking about Eldad and Medad, the duo who were prophesying in the camp of Moses! But my mind started to reflect about two other people that I came across recently. One is a joyful event and the other is a sad one.
The joyous one is the pleasure of visiting a lady in American House, the Senior Living facility where our priests say Mass once a month. Her name is Anne. She is the aunt of parishioners, Al (and Sharon) Natella. Al and Sharon took me to visit her in her apartment last week. It was an amazing visit to this special lady because believe it or not, she is 113. She is the 17th oldest person living in the United States. She is very beautiful and active for her age with a fairly sharp mind and a joyful face. When asked about the secret of her age, she pointed to heaven and said, ‘it’s His grace!’
The second one is a sad story of losing Michael Sullivan, the faithful soul of this parish community, a very active 4th Degree Brother Knight of the Knights of Columbus, a Veteran and a Eucharistic minister. Every year he had been leading our prayer services for Veterans, Victims of 9/11 and honoring the police officers and first responders in the line of duty. On September 11, he arranged the prayer service at our memorial garden after 8am Mass. At the conclusion of the prayer service, he thanked everyone and with a solemn salute reiterated with his strong voice, “You will always be remembered!” Later when I personally thanked him in the church, he said…Jay, next is Veterans Day and that will be a big one. That was my last conversation with him. He passed away peacefully last Friday. May his soul rest in peace!
People come and go in our lives leaving a huge trail of goodness and blessings, for they believed in the words of Jesus as mentioned in this week’s gospel, “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward”. Faith brings us grace; Faith brings our parish community together giving ample opportunities to cherish the joy of living as Catholics. We will certainly be remembered!
God Bless,
Fr. Jay Raju
Numbers 11:25–29
Psalm 19:8,10,12–14
James 5:1–6
Mark 9:38–48
