August 16
Weekend Bulletin
Children’s Bulletin
Dispensation Update
Deacon’s Digest
Two things...
First, In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus and his disciples talking to the Canaanite woman in some surprising ways. The disciples are annoyed by her and want Jesus to send her away but she won’t hear of it. As she continues, Jesus has a short conversation with her and in essence calls he a “dog”. Dogs were unclean to the Jewish people and so he is telling this woman that she too is “unclean”. The Canaanites of her time were hated by the Jews because they sided with the enemies of Israel in the Maccabean wars. They were also Gentiles because they did not believe the same way that the Jews did.
But she persists. “Please Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the Master’s table.” Jesus, amazed at her faith, grants her prayers and from that hour the woman’s daughter is healed!
What a beautiful sign from Jesus that his mercy, his power, and his love is for all people. His disciples were probably amazed that he granted her wish since she was not “one of them”. But strong faith and trust in Jesus wins out over any ethnic or religious differences.
What a great lesson for us. Sometimes it’s easy to think that there are some people who are “in” and some who are “out” when it comes to God’s grace. It’s easy to divide and parse society into factions but that is NOT a work of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is about UNITY among people. Whenever you see or hear of division you can bet it is not the work of God but of a different spirit -the spirit of evil.
In today’s First Reading from Isaiah, the Lord says that “my house shall be house of prayer for all people”. Let’s make sure we work and live and love and act in ways that make our parish a place of prayer for EVERYONE!
Second, you have already heard that Bishop DeGrood has lifted the dispensation from attending Mass on Sundays. This means that, to the best of our health and our ability, we need to be here every weekend. We have had a meeting and some other communication from Bishop and I can assure that he has only one motive for this change at this time - your Spiritual health and the salvation of souls.
Today’s First Reading says “all that keep the Sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, them I will bring to the Holy Mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer”. What a GREAT promise from our God! In any covenant there is an exchange of persons. In the Divine Covenant that exchange is between us and God. He gives himself to us TOTALLY and asks us to do the same - to make sure our lives are centered on Him.
PLEASE come back and join us at St. Michael’s. We need you and, I hope, you need us, too. I can assure that we will continue to make our worship space as safe and clean as possible so you can have every confidence in returning. If you some trepidation, please come to the 6:00 Mass on Saturday or the 4:00 Mass on Sunday. These are lightly attended and might be just right for you. Let’s make St Michael’s a place where people can be joyful in God’s house of prayer.
Mass on the Grass & Ice Cream Social TAILGATE
What do Jesus, chicken and ice-cream have in common?
You can receive them all right here at
St Michael (OUTSIDE) on Sunday, August 30th!
Because we are tired of what Covid has taken away from us and to welcome everyone back we are announcing the
2020 Mass on the Grass and Ice Cream Social Tailgate Event!
Here’s the scoop!
1. Park you car, get out a chair to sit in the Parking Lot, by your car or sit in your car for Mass and tune in on the radio!
2. After Mass we will provide Cluckin’ Good Chicken, but you bring your sides and drinks to have a picnic in the parking lot!
3. We will play games right in our spaces in the parking lot, Bingo (paper sheets), a round of Trivia and then have a car/purse Scavenger Hunt all with prizes for our winners!
It will be fun and it will be safe all at the same time!