St. Jude 

In the last part of July, we celebrate two saint who have had a big impact on our journey of faith.  We celebrate the feast day of St James the Greater, the son of Zebedee and a member of Jesus’ original group of apostles, last Sunday on July 25.  This year is a special holy year for the pilgrimage of St James in the city where he is buried in Spain, which is designated as such each year his feast day falls on a Sunday.  This upcoming Saturday on July 31, we commemorate the feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits and author of the spiritual experiences which have had a huge influence on Catholic spirituality and spiritual direction.  As most of you know, I prayed the spiritual exercises in July 2019 in at the places where he was raised in the Basque country in northeastern Spain.

There are several well-known prayers attributed to St Ignatius.  Recently, I came across this prayer of generosity.  The prayer may have been originally written by him or it may have been written by someone else in the spirit of the spiritual of St Ignatius.  What matters most is the way the spirit of this prayer reflects the values of our Christian faith and inspires us to be generous and gracious in our faith.   May this prayer inspire us to have a desire to whole-heartedly imitate Christ and to have a readiness to give our entire being to our faith:

Lord, teach me to be generous,
To serve you as you deserve,
To give and not count the cost,
To fight and not heed the wounds,
To toil and not seek for rest,
To labor and not to look for any reward,
Save that of knowing that I do your holy will.  AMEN. 

I am having a good visit in California.  I enjoyed celebrating the Masses at St Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Whittier this past weekend, preaching about the missionary spirit that is alive in the Diocese of Jackson.  I am now spending a few days with my sister before I fly back to Jackson on Thursday.  On Monday, I got to hike about 15 miles through central Orange County, which was very nice.  I look forward to celebrating Mass with all of you this upcoming weekend.  I have heard from some of you that you really enjoyed having Bishop Kapacz celebrating Masses at St Jude while I was gone this past weekend.  I am so glad you had the opportunity to host him at our parish.  I know that you will enjoy having Father Nick Adam visit our parish on the two weekends in August I will be away for other mission appeals in Indiana and Rhode Island.
Blessings to all of you - Father Lincoln.