FROM THE DESK OF THE PASTOR

FROM THE DESK OF THE PASTOR                      OCT. 6, 2026

PRAY THE ROSARY

One of the best prayers we can pray together as a family is the rosary.  It is interactive- there is a kind of call and response when prayed together as a group.  It is easy to memorize and thus easy to pray by heart. It helps us reflect in a systematic and deeper way on the mysteries of our Lord’s life, death and resurrection. It calls upon the help of the Blessed Mother who intercedes for us and gives us a model of discipleship.  There was a time when every Catholic home prayed the rosary after dinner.  I want to encourage us to renew that practice. However, no matter, how or when we do it, most important thing is… as commercial slogan states: “just do it.” The most important thing in any relationship but especially in our relationship with God, is to simply, “show up.” 

The month of October give us plenty of impetus to begin…. October is the month of the Holy Rosary. October 7 is the Feast of the Holy Rosary. October 13 is one the feast days of Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Fatima, exhorted the whole world most urgently to pray the Holy Rosary for Peace. Today, more than ever we need to pray not only for peace, but our society, our Church and our world for deeper conversion of heart and increase in faithfulness to the Lord.

RESPECT LIFE MONTH- POPE LEO ON CARE FOR THE DYING

October is Respect Life month, a time to renew ourselves in the truth that every human life is sacred and is a gift from God from natural conception to natural death. When we think of respect for life, we often think first of praying for an end to abortion and to helping women who find themselves without options, find support to carry their child to term--- and this is an important part of building a culture of life. At the same time, we also need to look at the end-of-life issues. We need to work for a society where every elderly person feels respect and love, is cared for, palliative care is supported and a society where physician assisted suicide is never seen as option. Pope Leo spoke passionate in France recently on the issue of physician assisted suicide. It is a grave moral evil and has just been legalized in France. I want to highlight what he had to say, because it is important for us as Catholic understand the moral issues involved and work to end this evil.  Here is a portion of his talk to the sick and those who care for them at Lourdes:

Mary did not keep the Lord for herself, but offered him to the world, saying to each of us, “The Lord is with you.” This truth is the foundation of our dignity as persons. And here, Mary looks upon each one of us as a unique person, as Saint Bernadette testified during the apparitions at the grotto. This maternal gaze reminds us once more that no one is invisible in God’s eyes.

At a time when some societies are inclined to look aside or close their eyes to the dignity of human life, we need first of all “to foster, in ourselves and in others, a contemplative outlook… It is the outlook of those who see life in its deeper meaning, who grasp its utter gratuitousness, its beauty and its invitation to freedom and responsibility. It is the outlook of those who do not presume to take possession of reality but instead accept it as a gift, discovering in all things the reflection of the Creator and seeing in every person his living image (cf. Gen 1:27; Ps 8:5)…

In the dialogue of the Annunciation, as the Lord gazes upon her, Mary discovers that she is God’s chosen one. Yet, at the heart of this encounter, it is each one of us who discovers that we too are personally called and profoundly destined for the love of God, who is the source of life. The human person is “worthy” simply by virtue of existing and of being destined for eternity. Our dignity cannot be measured or debated. I know that for some of you, because of particular illnesses and, at times, terrible pain, your horizon may appear dark, uncertain and without hope. But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity. On the contrary, it is precisely in the name of this inalienable dignity of the human person that we must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion. It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral.

Here in Lourdes, the city of the sick and of hope, I appeal to the entire healthcare community to remember the profound meaning of your vocation, which is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person. Yes, dear friends, be passionate servants of life. No one ever has the right “on the basis of laboratory algorithms, to decide the life of a given embryo or elderly person! Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death!” In this regard, I urge you resolutely to develop structures for palliative care and research. At the same time, I urge you to accompany the sick with the tenderness that we see here in Lourdes, where doctors, nurses, stretcher-bearers, chaplains, pastoral teams serving the sick, and so many others live out their vocation in the service of the dignity of the human person, so that the world may have life. In caring for bodies, you also bind up wounded souls. To you, dear members of the hospitality groups, and to the healthcare workers who devote yourselves to serving your brothers and sisters, I express my deepest gratitude.

Dear brothers and sisters who are sick, I want to tell you that you are not a burden. You are the beating heart of our humanity and a precious treasure for the Church. I carry in my prayers the trials you are going through… I entrust all of you to the maternal love of the Mother of the Lord, asking her to obtain for you the consolations of her Son Jesus. May God bless and protect you… POPE LEO

May the Blessed Mother help us to respect and promote the wonderful give of life we have received from God. Blessings on your week!

Fr Johnson