The loved church family of St. Augustine,
On this our 24th anniversary is being quote, “Church Together”. Today we feel a certain amount of joy and accomplishment that this church family has tried to stay steady, living, loving and hearing the gospel message. We today celebrate the continued challenge of being church, of loving the Lord with sacred worship and growing in union with Him. Then as the gospel proclaims today, “To Love One Another.”
We welcome today, Bishop Robert J. Hermann. The J. standing for Joseph. Bishop Robert was one year ahead of me in the seminary, my elder for sure. Praising and thanking the Lord for all the wonderful things he has done in service to our Saint Louis Church. So, welcome Bishop Robert. We promise as part of the people of God to simply do as the gospel says do. “Love one another.” Do as the last words are quoted, “Go and do likewise.”
There is a person in our Catholic family that died in 1980. I remember having a special Mass with Archbishop May at the Catholic Worker House on Cass back in 1980. Her name was Dorothy Day as you probably know. I read she has written many things about loving the poor, loving anybody in need. She simply says after feeding people for 14 years, being aware of all the problems and kind of a helplessness of what we really can do. So she says, “The only thing we really can do is to just love and there is nothing that we can, do but love. Dear God, enlarge our hearts to love each other and to love our neighbor.” Then she goes on to say, “What we would like to do is change the world–make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute–the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words–we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world.”
Church family, we are thankful today for 24 years together. We are also challenged by our Lord Jesus in His sacred word “To go and do likewise.” Alleluia! Amen!
Love, Fr. Bob
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