Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish and St. Patrick's Parish

Saturday Mass at St. Pat's at 5PM - Sunday Masses at OMPH at 9AM & 11AM

August 9, 2020
Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Reflection Questions:
Adults: When have you doubted God’s loving care for you?
Children: What helps you keep trying even when you are afraid?
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COLLECTION DETAILS:
Monthly Budgeted Income: $ 10,835.00
Collection for August 2020: $ 3,837.00

SANCTUARY CANDLE FOR BOTH SAINT PATRICK’S AND OMPH: Each week we invite you to light the sanctuary lamp in memory of a loved one or for a special intention. The cost is $20.00 and you may drop the donation off at the rectory during office hours or place it in the collection with the information enclosed.

FOOD BANK COLLECTION: OMPH & St. Pat’s are collecting jam for the month of August. As always, all food items are gratefully appreciated.

SUNDAY OFFERINGS: For now, there is no normal collection during Sunday Masses. Instead there are two baskets set-up in the entrance of the OMPH and one in the exit of the church, and at St. Pat’s there is one basket as you come in and one as you leave. As well the Parish is able to accept your Sunday offering via e-transfer. For those who wish to donate to the Parish by this manner, use the email “omphoffice@gmail.com” and the security password “OMPH81”. If you aren’t able to do an e-transfer you are welcome to mail your cheque to our parishes (Box 818 New Liskeard, ON P0J 1P0 for OMPH and Box 293 Cobalt, ON P0J 1C0 for St. Pat’s). We are grateful for your continued support of the Parish.

SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION: Fr. Wayne is available to hear confessions by appointment. Please phone the office if you would like to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

SUNDAY MASSES: St. Pat’s will have Mass on Saturdays at 5:00 P.M. on a first come first serve basis. OMPH will have Masses on Sundays at 9:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M, by registration only. Register by emailing omphoffice@gmail.com or phoning the office on Wednesdays. Please note that parishioners must register every week.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: We require more cleaners for after the 9AM Mass. Cleaning only takes about ten minutes after Mass. Please let Fr. Wayne, or the office know if you are able to help out.

LIVE-STREAMED MASSES: OMPH will continue to live-stream the 11:00 A.M. Sunday Masses on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/OMPH.NL/

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY: OMPH is looking for a care-taker. This position involves janitorial duties (cleaning the church, hall and parish office) as well as yard work and snow removal from entrances to the building. This is a 10 hour, per week position, at $20.00 an hour. The position starts September 1st, 2020. For a copy of the complete job description, email omphoffice@gmail.com. To apply, email omphoffice@gmail.com before Monday, August 17th.

REFLECTION FOR THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

The first reading is taken from the first Book of Kings 19:9a, 11-13a and relates the story of Elijah in the cave and the Lord coming to him in a "still small voice."

The second reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans 9:1-5 in which St. Paul speaks of the sorrow of heart that he has because the Jews, as a nation, had refused to see Christ as the Messiah who was promised to them by God through their patriarchs and prophets.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 14:22-33. Our Lord sent His disciples to row across the lake, knowing that they would meet strong, gale-force head-winds and be in danger. He did this because He wanted to strengthen their faith and trust in Himself. He intended to come to them at the right moment, working two miracles — walking on the water and calming the storm. This He did and the result was as He had intended — their faith in Him was strengthened, they declared He was the Messiah, the Chosen of God. Peter, already the recognized leader, and always the most daring among them, showed himself ready to risk drowning in order to prove his trust and confidence in Christ. While he trusted in Christ, all went well, but when his faith weakened he would have been lost were it not for the outstretched helping hand of his master. This was also a very necessary lesson in the education of Peter and his companions.

For us, too, there is a necessary lesson in this incident. It is that we must continue to trust in Christ and his loving Father, even when God seems to have deserted us. Most of the troubles and trials of our lives are caused by the injustice and lack of charity of our fellow men. The remainder can be attributed to our own defects and sins or to some weakness in our mental and bodily make-up. But God foresees all these misfortunes, and can prevent them. Instead he lets them take their course, because they can and should be the means of educating us in our knowledge of life's true meaning and they should draw us closer to him.

Christ foresaw the storm and the grave risk His Apostles would run when He sent them off across the lake. But that trial and the grave danger they ran was for their own good, because they learned to realize that He was from God and they could always trust Him. Our trials and our earthly ailments are also foreseen by God and permitted by him (even if inflicted on us by a sinful fellow man) so that they will draw us closer to Him and help us on the road to heaven.

This they will do, if we accept them and bear with them until He comes to our aid. Our troubles in life are like the growing pains of our youth — they are necessary if we are to arrive at our full stature as sons of God. They form, mold and shape our religious character and bring us closer to God — if we allow them to do so. For the lukewarm Christian who rebels against God because of his earthly sufferings, they can do the opposite. He cannot see the purpose and value of suffering because he has never seriously pondered or grasped the real meaning of this life and God's loving plans for him.

As in the first reading today, God may not be in the tornadoes or earthquakes or roaring fires, nor does He cause them perhaps, but He is ever near to His true children when such calamities occur. He has a purpose in every trial or tribulation which crosses the path of our lives, a purpose always to our eternal advantage if only we will see and accept his will in these trials.

Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.