July 3rd, 2022

Fourteenth Sunday in ordinary time

by Fr. Boniface Endorf, O.P.

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Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

 Have a blessed 4th of July weekend! Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of our country and the patrimony that has been handed on to us. As we give thanks for the gifts of our nation that have been handed on to us, let us also give thanks for the spiritual gifts that have been handed on to us. For two thousand years the Faith has been passed from generation to generation within the Church. We know about Jesus and His teaching and the new covenant He ratified in His blood because of those who have worked, and sometimes died, to hand it on to us today. We should cultivate a spirit of gratitude for all those who went before us and have gifted us with so much. And we should make sure that we hand on what we’ve received to those who come after us.

Gratitude is important not just because it’s the truest expression of the debt we owe to those who have gone before, but also because only with gratitude can we find joy and happiness ourselves. A spirit of resentment, envy, or hatred only leads to bitter despair, never to joy or peace. Only in gratitude can we accept the good while acknowledging the bad. Only in gratitude can we prevent falling into a pride that refuses to acknowledge those who have helped us and thus leads to a form of cultural or personal narcissism. Let us look with gratitude upon the gifts we’ve been given in order to see the world rightly and thus find in truth the joy and peace all our hearts desire. Let us be filled with joy as we give thanks to God and all the people who have made this world a better place.

Have a blessed 4th of July weekend,

Fr. Boniface