Walking with the Lord...

During the days of the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. John XXIII used to submit all his anxieties to God with this prayer every night: “Lord, Jesus, I’m going to bed. It's your Church. Take care of it!” We all know that we are safe at the presence of the Lord. Do we completely trust in him?

In the first reading, Prophet Zechariah consoles the Jews in their suffering and promising that their God who is meek and humble will come and establish peace. We see this same passage in the Gospel of Matthew 21:5, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Jesus’ coming to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and raised. His entry into the city such a way is to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah.
The second part of the Gospel for today is the heart of Jesus. Matthew (11:28) Jesus says "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” And “my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

This Gospel passage from Matthew is similar to Ben Sirach’s invitation to learn wisdom and submit to her yoke (Sir 51:23, 26).

Yoke does not sound good, it is a burden. Well, it turns out that sometimes farm animals will be unequally yoked. For training purposes, a farmer might yoke a bullock with an ox. The ox pulls the entire load while the bullock walks next to him. Once the bullock is trained, they share the burden. "My yoke," Jesus says, "is easy and my burden light." When we walk with Jesus in love, our burden will be easy. Walking together in love is not easy, it needs a rhythm. We need to learn from Jesus. It is a process, it is a journey to make.

Today’s Gospel passage starts with Jesus’ praise to the Father for he chose to reveal to the little ones. While the wise and the learned, the scribes and Pharisees have rejected Jesus’ teaching and significance of his mighty deeds, the childlike has accepted them. It is granted to those who are open to receive it.
 
 
Rectory roof project
Dear cluster parishioners,
We were planning to do a fundraising for the rectory roof. First, it was a plan to do fundraising in conjunction with the Feast of St. Anthony, which was June 13, but COVID-19 changed our life and it didn’t work out. We cannot do the way planned now, so we are still going to do a portion of fundraising. We will be mailing you the raffle tickets this week, please consider to participate and if you can make a donation towards it, please do so.
The rectory roof is the original roof and it contains asbestos, so we need licensed roofer for that, and we have bids from them and the total cost is $ 84,000.00. You will receive your raffle tickets early next week. Thank you in advance for your support of this project.