Happy Summer! With graduations celebrated and the weather glorious, it must be summer though we’re 10 days before it officially begins! As you look ahead to the next two months, what feelings do you experience? Gratitude for longer hours of daylight so more outdoor activities can take place? Relief that another school year, with its hours of helping with homework and projects, is over? Anticipation for a slower, different schedule with more trips to the river or to see friends and family? Joy at the prospect of a new summer job?

I’d like to suggest that we take a moment to consider this summer as the gift of God it is. If this were the last summer we were to have, how might we spend it? Is there something I’ve always wanted to do which I might do this summer? Is there a class I could take to keep my mind alert? Is there a friend who needs a visit? Is there a new acquaintance whom I’d like to get to know better? Is this the time to take seriously a change in my lifestyle: to give up smoking or to begin to exercise daily or to start praying other than in times of personal crisis? Is this the summer I start reading the bible or begin coming to daily Mass once a week? Is this the time I finally look into the possibility of having my marriage blessed? Is this the time that I volunteer with St. Vincent de Paul or the Red Cross or some other group whose mission I firmly believe in? Ask the Holy Spirit whose feast we just celebrated to help you know what good things you might do THIS summer for your body, your spirit and your mind.

Today’s feast is that of the Holy Trinity, this wonderful mystery of our God being a community of persons. Is this the summer you finally introduce yourself to some of the people you’ve been praying with for years?

We had a great first meeting of the Justice and Peace Committee last month with 10 parishioners of various ages and interests present. Over the summer, we’ll be exploring the Church’s social teaching - which some have called the Church’s best-kept secret - before we embark on hearing from the rest of the parish their concerns. If you’d like to join us, we’ll be meeting in the convent chapel this Tuesday, the 13^th at 7 pm. If you have questions, please give me a call at the rectory.

Monday - June 12
Readings: 1 Kgs 17:1-6 - Mt 5:1-12

Tuesday - June 13
Readings: 1 Kgs 17:7-16 - Mt 5:13-16

Wednesday - June 14
Readings: 1 Kgs 18:20-39 - Mt 5:17-19

Thursday - June 15
Readings: 1 Kgs 18:41-46 - Mt 5:20-26

Friday - June 16
Readings: 1 Kgs 19:9a,11-16 - Mt 5:27-32

Saturday - June 17
Readings: 1 Kgs 19:19-21 - Mt 5:33-37

Next Saturday, June 17 from 9 am to 1 pm, Sister Patricia and Sister Sheral will be offering a day of reflection, sharing and prayer for anyone who is caring for a spouse, parent, relative or friend. We are hoping that those who need this supportive day will have a relative or friend to “elder” sit. There are fliers at the church entrances. Please help us to spread the word.

Please take a flier for someone you know who might want to come, but won’t hear of this because of his/her caregiving.

We continue to ask each week that parishioners pray for the chronically ill of our parish. If you have a friend or loved one in need of our parish prayers please call the Rectory at 589-2800.

For A Summer's Day

"Jesus gives [his disciples] a simple, clear example of what discipleship is all about: service. Washing one another’s feet, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked- here is the core of the Eucharist, our great miracle of love…God’s table is large, as large as creation. All are invited, all are to have access to the necessity of food and the miracle of love." -

Bishop Robert F. Morneau, Ashes to Easter, p. 107-108

Believe it or not, plans are under way for this years annual parish festival “PORTS OF CALL”, which will be on the weekend of September 22-24. As always the Barbecue and Food Booths are in need of your help. Several people are needed to work in these two very popular booths and everyone from the parish is welcome to help. Most shifts are for 2 hours, but you can work for as many hours as you would like and on all 3 days if you wish.

The menu will include those all time favorites –delicious barbecued tri tip steak sandwiches, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, polish sausages, pizza, nachos, soft drinks, candy and much more.

Our group is open to anyone with little ones. Please come by so we can meet you! This summer TIPPS will be having playgroups at Commodore Park. It is located on the corner of Cherry Ave. and Commodore Drive in San Bruno.

Everyone is invited to this year’s Reno Get-Away. Mark your calendar-July 8th and 9th and enjoy the scenic drive going to Thunder Valley Casino, Carson City and Tahoe. One night stay at Silver Club Hotel and Casino in Sparks. Cost per person is $65 double occupancy $75 single occupancy. The Reno Bus will be leaving from St. Robert’s Rectory on Saturday, July 8th at 7 a.m.

    
Sign up for E-Contributions

Go to www.saintroberts.org and click on the e-contributions button. The first page explains the details. There is a button to take you to the e-paluch registration page. You can register online using either your checking account or credit card.

Made in the Image of God
This is one feast which a homilist might dread – what does one say about the Holy Trinity? The shamrock image as well as any other image gives a bit of insight, but leaves much to be desired. I remember growing up being told that we were made in the image and likeness of God. I don’t know what you recall, but I remember the explanation being that we had intellect and free will and those two qualities made us like God. [Who knows what was said, but this is what I recall!] I will venture to present another way in which we are made in the image of God. We are made for the community which the Father, Son and Spirit live! Three in one; granted our minds have difficulty imagining three persons in one God since we know no other entity to which to compare this God who is a community of persons. Perhaps, this is a good image for our times when our society is so very individualistic and competitive: a community of persons, each equal and divine, bound together by love, living within us all the time and made manifest to others when we act in a loving way.

I had the opportunity in 1985 to go to the Holy Land with a small group of deacon families I was working with in Sacramento. While we were staying at a kibbutz on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (actually a medium-sized lake), I went to a beach nearby with my journal and my bible. It was the Sabbath, so little by little, whole families came to enjoy the quiet of the place. I watched little ones wade into the shallow water with at least one parent watching closely from the shore. “Abba!” “Ima!” I heard a three year old shout. This is what Jesus called his Father! The same word a toddler has for the one he loves and trusts with his life! That’s the relationship Jesus had with his Father. Paul uses the same tender word in today’s reading, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are [children] of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “’Abba, Father!’”

Jude Siliciano, OP, a preacher and retreat master, puts it this way:

This is a feast in which we relish God’s saving relationship with us… We acknowledge God as Creator and appreciate God’s power and wisdom in our lives…We confess that we are creatures with limits and faults and that only in God do we find life. We confess our faith in the Son who has revealed the face of God to us. Jesus is the full revelation of God’s love and compassion for us and in Christ we are called to reflect the compassionate God to others by our lives. The Spirit brings us into an intimate relationship with God our Creator and the Son. Through this Spirit, we no longer worship God in fear and in strict observance of laws, but in the freedom of God’s children.

Aren’t we blessed to have such a God who loves us? What might we do to help others know they are each loved as much by that same wondrous God? Peace, S. Sheral

MERCY CENTER
2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010
Tel: 650.340.7474, Fax: 650.340.1299
mc@mercyburl.org

June
12-18 Jesus: The Compassionate Face of God
16-18 Sr. Ishpriya: Finding a Spirituality in Chaotic Times
18-Sr. Ishpriya: Spirituality for a Borderless Planet
16-23 Weeklong Mediation Intensive

July
17-21 Summer Home Retrat

August
18-25 Weeklong Meditation Intensive

SAN DAMIANO RETREAT
P.O. Box 767, Danville, CA 94526
Tel: (925) 837-9141
www.sandamiano.org

“Whoever lives the truth comes out to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God…”

Dress Code: Full length black slacks, (jeans or spandex are not permitted), white shirt with collar, closed toe comfortable shoes (preferably black or white).

We will car pool from the rectory. For those working in San Francisco, you can meet the group at the gate.