It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since Father Joe, Yvonne and I arrived. And what a year it has been. When I first spoke I mentioned that I hoped in my first year to get to know the parish, the people and the life of faith. I mentioned what Monsignor Clem McKenna said was his advice to new pastors: don’t make many changes your first year. Get to know the lay of the land, meet the people and take notes. God help them on the 366^th day.

When I arrived I found a wonderful community of people. You welcomed me. We have worked side by side through the many activities. We have prayed, celebrated and consoled each other. We have shared meals and shared Eucharist. We have rejoiced at Baptisms and Weddings. We have supported one another in moments of sickness and death. We have cheered when our teams are victorious and been sad when they have lost.

Thank you, the people of Saint Robert’s, it has been a great year.

I thank Father Ring once again for his many years of service to Saint Robert’s. He came to the parish at a very difficult moment in our history. He stabilized the parish and led it through difficult times. The Presentation Center and the remodeling of the sanctuary are stellar examples of his vision.

Day 366 has arrived. What’s going to happen now. The Parish Council, the Finance Council and staff have been meeting over this past year to look at parish life. There are some challenges ahead of us.

Something must be done with our youth program. The spirit I experienced with the young people during the preparation for and performance of the Passion play needs to cultivated and spread.

Beginning on October 23^rd we will spend four weeks reflecting on God’s goodness to us and our response to God. We will be holding a Ministry Faire and will be conducting a parish wide survey about our life at Saint Robert’s. All will be invited to share their time, talents and treasure to continue to build God’s kingdom here in this special place we call the Church of Saint Robert of The House of God

As a Parish Community

The readings this weekend are familiar, so we want to be particularly attentive as they are proclaimed. The Isaiah passage is the basis for the song, “Come to the Water,” which we sing at the Easter Vigil and other times as well. Those of us who enjoy eating and drinking will notice that it frames God’s boundless generosity in terms of abundance: water, grain, milk and honey, all given for free. The gospel also deals with food, freely given: the multiplication of loaves and fishes. Jesus blesses five loaves and two fish to feed those who’ve spent the day listening to him. Some scripture scholars are offering another possible way to look at this reading. Jewish people of that time were used to walking and, of course, realized that there was no deli or café nearby at which to buy dinner! So they would have brought along some dried fish and bread to eat later. What if Jesus’ prayer of blessing of the loaves and fishes inspired the crowd to open up their own knapsacks and share what they had brought with the folks who might have been in a hurry and forgot their provisions? Wouldn’t that have been an equally impressive miracle?

If you listen very closely, you might notice the words taking, blessing, broke and gave, the same words Jesus uses at the Last Supper. Jesus feeds their human, physical hunger in this gospel passage and at the Last Supper, feeds their spiritual and emotional hunger as they long for him to stay with them. The brother of a friend of mine is having trouble with the idea of transubstantiation, our belief that the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of the Lord during the Eucharistic celebration. I thought immediately of Jesus, the Son of God, becoming a child. Who could be afraid of a child? I suggested that one way he might think of it is as Jesus’ almost desperate attempt to come to us: who could be afraid of sharing a meal with a friend? When we eat the bread and wine, as theologians have taught throughout the ages, not only does Jesus become part of us, we become part of him. As the bread and wine are transformed, though they retain their outward appearances, we too are transformed, though we retain our outward appearances. It probably won’t be helpful for him or for us to get very technical or scientific about how this transformation takes place. We know that Jesus gave us this gift of his presence at the Last Supper and asked us to do this in his memory.

You are invited
Recital of Sacred music
Sunday, August 7th at 2:30 p.m.
at St. Roberts church.

Sopranos Rachel Carter and Natalie Barrens,
with Pianist Kerry Leyden,
will be performing

Music includes
classical and traditional hymns and spirituals.

Interested in Coming Home?