The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Normally I do announcements at the end of mass, but this week I've got a lot of announcements to make. I promise you just going to do the announcements now, give you a very short homily, promise very short, so you don't have to worry. We'll just going to go through the elements because there's a lot of them.
Obviously, we have faith formation, registration today. It'll be after the mass in the parish hall. Please go to the ladies at the left. When you go into the hall from the church, they'll be signing up, all your children for faith formation this year. And I'm going to introduce our new DRE, who'll be replacing Meg Barrett, who served us for many, many years. Dyann Maldonado, you can meet her. She'll be there helping take registration if you want to get to know her.
This Tuesday is a holy day of obligation. It's the solemnity of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. Mass this Tuesday will be at 7 p.m. in the evening to make it easier for you to fulfill your obligation and I'll have confessions from 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m before mass. So, again, holy day of obligation this Tuesday. If you can't get here at Saint Dorothy's, just look for masses at other parishes. The office here will be closed on Tuesday for the solemnity.
We are having a planned giving meeting with the dioceses on Wednesday. That's August 16th, 7 p.m. in the hall. Anyone who would like to either head up or be on the committee please attend. This is basically how to help, you know, make sure we're have good funds coming in to take care of ourselves as a parish.
Our return to God group is meeting this Saturday, August the 19th at noon, at the Old Court Square downtown. Again, once a month they meet outside, and they pray the rosary and some other songs and devotions for our country. It's really a great group. It's a great witness to the local community. I encourage you to attend.
My email address for those who need it is on the monitor slides in the foyer. It's on our website and if you ever wanted to ask me any counselor counseling or spiritual direction questions, you can email me there and nobody else is going to read it. Don't worry about it.
Our altar guild needs at least two more people to help. Normally the altar guild is composed of ladies, but if some of you guys really like to iron and se w and do this kind of things, you're welcome to join. We just need two more people to help with the altar guild If you please pray about that. If you're interested or able, please see Yvonne Toro or Wanda Kaczmarek for more information and to sign up.
I'm also in need of money counters. I have some, but I need more. Usually, they meet on Mondays. It usually takes about an hour and a half, give, or take. And since we have different teams, you don't have to do it every week, but it just helps us. It's very important. I obviously prefer not to handle any of the money myself. I can never be accused of anything. I don't touch it. I just sign the checks. That's what I do. Just sign the checks. But if you're able to volunteer, please call the office and contact Alison. We will. Now, this is a special one.
We are now offering the second level of the catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. This is for ages 7 to 9. If you're familiar, the room back there, what used to be the old cry room is where we have the catechesis of the Good Shepherd program and it's up to the age of six by far.
It is the best catechesis in the world. It's the best way to teach the faith to children of various ages. But we've only had the opportunity to have the first level. I think there are three, so that's up to the age of six. So now we're going to be starting seven through nine. It's the second level. It's really special. If you have a 7- to 9-year-old and you want them signed up, please do so as soon as possible. It's kind of first come, first serve because we can only handle so many in a class. So again, this is very special. You definitely want to have your children involved. It'll meet Sundays between the masses, as is typical for these programs.
And please grab a bulletin and read it on your way out. I'm calling it a book ten this week because it’s not tiny. It's huge. It's like packed with a lot of information. So, there's a lot of there in there to read and to catch up on, especially if you have children and faith formation.
Now, I put something in the bulletin myself, a little letter that I wrote to you, and that's why the homily can be short today, because you can just read the letter and it's going to explain everything that I'm going to summarize in the homily. So, it's always a sensitive issue to talk about loud children at mass and crying babies. Right. It's always a sensitive issue. You know, you either fall in the camp of, you know, these babies should not be in the church because they're disrupting everybody, or God doesn't care if they're screaming. He would rather than be in his house. So usually, as is true, that, you know, the path is in the middle somewhere, you know, yes if your baby is screaming, if your children are talking, please take them out, calm them down, bring them back. Okay. But I would rather than be in here making noise than not at church at all. Now, I'd rather than be in here quiet, but I'd rather them make noise than not be at church. You know, it's so important. It's so necessary. The children from the earliest ages just be used to worshiping with the whole community to be a part of the body. One of the reasons I hate cry rooms and why I was happy to get rid of ours many years ago is because you're basically ostracized, ostracizing families and these children to the cry room. And yes, it makes it a little more peaceful in the body of the church. But that's not good. We need to be more patient. We need to be more understanding with the babies’ making noises and the little ones fidgeting and talking now and then. Now, yes, parents need to discipline them and correct them and calm them down and do what is necessary. Right. You don't want your children or your babies to disrupt everyone else's prayer. But I want you to think of the gospel today where Jesus again walking on the water, this profound miracle, and Peter at our Lord's Command, steps out of the boat and starts walking on the water towards Jesus. He is doing something that is impossible. He's walking on water. Jesus can do it. Makes sense. He's God. Peter's not God. He is doing something impossible by the power of God. So, what is he start to sink. Jesus says it's because his weakness of faith. Why did you doubt Peter? Why did you doubt? But what led Peter to doubt? It says while he was going towards Jesus, he was looking at Jesus.
But then he turned his gaze. He. He looked at the waves in the wind. And that must have caused some consternation, some fear, some concern. And so, he doubted. He thought, oh, my goodness, I'm just a man. I can't do this. And he's right. He's just a man. But that's not the point. The point is, with your mind focused on Christ, you can do the impossible.
So yes, at Mass when babies are screaming, and children are fidgeting right, Yes, it's naturally impossible to focus naturally. But if you're doing your best to keep your eyes on Christ, it's not going to be much of a problem for you. So don't blame the babies. Don't blame the children. Obviously, they're babies and children. They're culpable. But don't even necessarily blame the parents of those children for your distraction. Focus harder, keep your eyes on Christ, and you can do the impossible despite the distractions. Close your eyes. Honestly, celebrating mass order in time is really nice because I don't have to look at you most of the time. So, we're doing all kinds of stuff. That's why I always recommend for people you want to sit close up in the church. Fewer distractions. You should fight for the front pews, not the back ones. But that's another story now. Clearly, we have to do a better job of focusing on our Lord when we pray, when we worship, despite the distractions, we can't use those as an excuse and then get upset at other people.
However, we have our first reading today, which is the Prophet Isaiah going to encounter God. And we know the story well. There's this great storm, there's fire, there's an earthquake, and God is not found in any of those cacophony. He is found in the tiny, quiet voice. This is why you need to teach your children to be quiet. That's why it's so important you practice with them not just at church but at home. How to sit still and quietly. Because if they cannot quiet their bodies, and if they cannot quiet their minds, they will not be able to hear the voice of God because God does not yell, not like me. Sometimes he whispers. And you parents, it's your responsibility to teach your children to discipline your children. To do this. And it's not easy, obviously, when they're baby babies, you know, you just do what you can. If they're screaming, take them out, calm them down, bring them back. But by the time they begin to speak, or at least have words, at that point, you can start disciplining. And that may be a difficult concept for some of you.
Just read a couple of books on parenting. You know, talk to grandparents who done it before you and learn some lessons. And if it's just too hard to spank that little bottom, you know, because they're just so beautiful and you love them so much, just wait till you have a few more kids. You'll be spanking bottoms every day.
Okay? You know now, yes, we need to be patient and understanding. You know, consider this. If you see a Catholic parent here, especially with more than one child and the other spouse is not here for whatever reason, and they've got a crying baby or a talking child, instead of like giving them the evil stare, you know, which is completely uncalled for, turn around to say, hey, can I help? Is there anything you need? We want to make sure that no child feels unwelcome in God's house and no parent of those children feels unwelcome. It doesn't mean they don't need to discipline a little better. Again, that's between them and the Lord. But we don't want, especially by our judgment, that's our own sin. But even by any expression or word of ours, to push them away again, I would rather a crying, screaming baby be here than not here, but I would rather than be here quiet. It's just for us learning to be both patient on our end and as parents disciplining and correctly correcting and taking care of the noisy children that God has given us on our end. For more details, you can read the letter in the bulletin, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube Channel. Homily begins at 20:13