Dear Parish Family,

There’s a good chance that as we hear/heard (depending upon when you’re reading this), our 2nd Reading this weekend at Mass we felt like we were at a Wedding. Though it is certainly not the ONLY 2nd reading that I’ve ever heard proclaimed at a Wedding, it is, by far, the most common. St. Paul presents to us, in this reading, a wonderful description of love, a quality that is so needed in our world today.

Many times in the homily at a Wedding, when the couple has chosen this reading, I will challenge the two of them & everyone else there, to take out the word love. When they take out the word love, I ask them to put their own name in there in love’s place. It’s really challenging to do that, isn’t it? It’s a real challenge to personalize love & to reflect upon our own kindness, our own patience, our own brooding over injury, our own not being rude or inflated. It is, or at least it’s much easier for me, to put the word love in there because when I start reading my own name, I find myself being confronted with the ways that I’ve fallen short of those qualities that St. Paul lays out. And couldn’t we all say the same thing? Couldn’t we all be confronted with the ways that we’ve fallen short?

This week, let’s allow ourselves to be challenged. Yes, maybe we’ve fallen short of more than one of those qualities (I know that I have), but this week I’d invite us to reflect on just one of those qualities. As you put your own name in St. Paul’s letter, pick one of those qualities that jump out at you, and allow God to speak to you about how you might be able to bring that quality more into your daily living out of the ideal of love. If all of us grew, even a little bit more, in our practice of love, this world would be a much better place.

Have a Blessed week!