A thank you to our parishioners who volunteer their time, faith and hope for our youth within our Religious Education classes.  Not always what is accomplished or achieved in the classroom, but your presence, character and belief in the goodness and purpose of each child and teenager.  Your presence and faith is a ministry, allowing young individuals to discover or renew their relationship with God—and hopefully drawn to participate in the community surrounding the Eucharist.  Thank you. 
Earlier this week, spinning the channels I came across a biographical sketch, so to speak, of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to sit on our Supreme Court.  A wife, mother and certainly a gifted lawyer, her term and decisions provided numerous personal and national challenges.  In an unfamiliar role, she asserted herself as a competent, insightful Supreme Court judge, and more importantly, humbly reflecting her humanity as a wife and mother.  Her dignity remained intact as she underwent treatment for breast cancer on public display, and at the forefront—knowing she had the ability to continue her term as one of the nine—quietly stepping down to take care of her husband whose health was failing due to Alzheimer’s.  A decision of faith and respect for life far greater than any further achievement on the nation’s highest court. 
We are approaching October so quickly, the Respect Life Month.  We rally for state and national causes to uphold the dignity of life, but may it remind us too, of the quiet, dignified efforts of everyday people—us—whose actions and decisions allow for the integrity of another human being, especially the vulnerable.  To see the holiness in all life beginning with our Creator’s breath into the soul is echoed in the philosophy of Helen Keller. When someone sympathized on her blindness she replied, "How much worse to have eyes and refuse to see."
There have been different artistic depictions of Jesus embracing a child or children as a “feel good” reflection of the passage in our gospel reading: “Taking a child, Jesus placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me. . . .”  Parents, thank you for bringing your children to church; not always an easy task with their limited attention span.  I smile regardless, seeing a child holding the missal singing along, an infant asleep in their mother’s arms, a child whose voice echoes a spoken prayer, or persistent pleas to a parent, a child with a smile as they leave church, a child with their folded ‘prayer’ hands.  All such is a gift of grace within our parish community, whether parishioner or visitor.  A child merely reflects what we as adults—in all our wisdom—attempt to grasp of God’s presence here on earth and His grace in all creation.  Our youth bring forth the practicality of who God is, within, before and above us.  No less than John Henry Newman’s (Cardinal & theologian) perspective: “I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: "Go down again - I dwell among the people.”   As we attempt to teach our children about God and prayer and the grace of the Sacraments, may their presence in turn, open us adults up to the joy, creativity and spontaneity of our Creator and His Son within our daily lives and endeavors.  Thank you moms and dads for sharing your presence and faith within our parish gatherings and the Sunday Eucharist; and the gift of your children at your side.


God Bless, Fr. Tim
And for our edification in regards to the apostles “discussing among themselves who was the greatest:” It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels. (St. Augustine)