When I was a child I saw two pictures that greatly affected me. One was a picture of my great grandfather and his family. It was one of those pictures from that era with the father sitting in a chair and the entire family sitting and standing around him not touching him or interacting with him. He had a stern look on his face and he clearly was the head of the household and definitely in charge. The other was a Thomas Hook painting of Jesus with the little children. In this picture Jesus is portrayed with the children crawling all over Him and He is smiling and enjoying their presence. When I compared these two pictures I saw the Jesus picture as the one that reflected real fatherhood because it most reflected my understanding of God the Father. I didn’t see God the Father as a stern judge but as a loving and caring father who enjoyed his children. Fatherhood needs to reflect the love of God to us since God is Our Father. God provides for His children, so must our earthly fathers. God sacrifices for His children as we hear so clearly in today’s Gospel, so must our earthly fathers. What good fathers do reflects the love of the heavenly Father and makes us feel closer to Him.
Today we celebrate Father’s Day and we take this opportunity to congratulate all the fathers, godfathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers who are a part of our families and lives. We hope that you all have wonderful days. May God bless you in many special ways as He has blessed all of us by sharing you with us. Giving the “World’s Best Dad Tie “; not bad but what about the “World’s Best Dad Prayer”? How about thinking about the ways that our own dads help us to feel the love of God and then thank God and them for that special gift. I guarantee it will be the biggest surprise that dad receives on his day, Have a great day DADS!
I hope that all of you have circled August 15th on your calendars. We will be bringing back Hopefest. We will celebrate an outdoor mass at 11:00 and follow it with a day of picnicking. It should be a great day for the parish; I know I am looking forward to it since it will be my first experience of it. Hope fest takes a lot of work and volunteers to pull off such a day and work has already begun. If you are willing to help I encourage you to attend the planning meeting on Monday June 21st at 6:30. There is plenty for everyone to do and we would like your input and help. Entertainment that day will be provided by Switchback, who will also do some of the music for the mass. They have written some original Marian Songs which will be a part of the liturgy that day. More details will be coming out soon including the Hopeful 500 raffle which will be a part of the day.
Pardon our dust. The work has begun and the painters have started to ready the outside of the building to be refreshed and beautified. Soon the roofers will be protecting our building with a new roof. It is great to see and you can be proud of the facility.
Our Adult Education Committee is hard at work and the focus will be a Day of Recollection in Advent and a Lenten Mission which we will plan together with the Liturgy Committee and the Right to Life Committee. The dates and details will be coming out soon but I wanted you to be aware that these opportunities for spiritual growth are in the works. Watch these pages for details.
Congratulations to all of our Our Lady of Hope Graduates at all levels. We are extremely proud of all of you and we remember you in our masses and prayers. We also welcome home all of our college students who have been away. We miss you when you are not with us and it is good to see you again. Stop by and let us know how you are doing.
Have a great week. Know that you are loved and live that love. Now that the Blackhawks have won and we are left with the Cubs and the Sox to cheer for it begs the question when does football begin?
Fr. Clem