As nationwide protests continue over the death of George Floyd I found Pope Francis’ homily from Pentecost Sunday very fitting; perhaps it can give us pause. His full homily can be found at www.vatican.va.
“What is it that unites us, what is the basis of our unity? We too have our differences, for example: of opinions, choices, sensibilities. But the temptation is always fiercely to defend our ideas, believing them to be good for everybody and agreeing only with those who think as we do. This is a bad temptation that brings division. But this is a faith created in our own image; it is not what the Spirit wants. We might think that what unites us are our beliefs and our morality. But there is much more: our principle of unity is the Holy Spirit. [The Spirit] reminds us that first of all we are God’s beloved children; all equal, in this respect, and all different. The Spirit comes to us, in our differences and difficulties, to tell us that we have one Lord – Jesus – and one Father, and that for this reason we are brothers and sisters! Let us begin anew from here; let us look at the Church with the eyes of the Spirit and not as the world does. The world sees us only as on the right or left, with one ideology or the other; the Spirit sees us as sons and daughters of the Father and brothers and sisters of Jesus. The world sees conservatives and progressives; the Spirit sees children of God. A worldly gaze sees structures to be made more efficient; a spiritual gaze sees brothers and sisters pleading for mercy. The Spirit loves us and knows everyone’s place in the grand scheme of things: for the Spirit, we are not bits of confetti blown about by the wind, rather we are irreplaceable fragments in [the Spirit’s] mosaic...Come, Holy Spirit: you are harmony; make us builders of unity. You always give yourself; grant us the courage to go out of ourselves, to love and help each other, in order to become one family. Amen.”
Cinema for the Soul will be discussing Just Mercy for their zoom meeting on Thursday, 25 June at 7pm. You will need to watch the movie before the meeting. The zoom password is sent through Flocknote. If you have not already signed up you can sign up for Flocknote on the Holy Name of Jesus’ webpage.
Through the month of June Just Mercy is being made available free to stream to help educate people on systemic racism. This link is to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7MxXxFu6fI.
We concluded with the 7th grade essays last week; they wish Bishop Barnes a happy birthday and a joyful retirement when that begins.
God bless,
Mrs. Alhadef
Campus Minister
5th Grade Aide/4th Grade Religion