St. Philip Catholic Church: Happy Mother's Day. As you were preparing for mass, Tuesday or Wednesday, and you began reading the scriptures for this weekend, what word or phrase did you pick up? How about in the Acts of the Apostles that Peter and John ⁓ for them? How about the Psalm that was well done? Shout joyfully to God. How about 1 Peter, sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart. or from the gospel, I will not leave you orphans. Every one of us has a guardian angel. We are not orphans. Look at the size of this family. We are not orphans. This community has each and every one of us a patron saint. Not just St. Philip, but each and every one of us has a patron saint. This great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us that we don't fully, in my estimation, appreciate, see as part of that answer of I will not leave you orphans. As I said, happy Mother's Day. Motherhood is a gift to the world. Mothers reflect the tenderness of God for his creation. Saint Teresa LeSue, the little flower says, the loveliest masterpiece the heart of God ⁓ the heart of a mother. The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother. a story about my mom. One that I called and talked to one of my sisters and said, watch, because I'm going to tell you a story you don't know about our mother. I was 13 or 14 years old, riding a tractor, cultivating a field in Northwest Minnesota. I'm going that way. On the end of the field is my mother in our half acre garden bent over pulling out the weeds around the carrot. I stopped with what I was doing, got off the tractor. When are we gonna get a tractor like Tommy Gass that's got a hood on it so I don't have all this dust around me and it's got a radio in it? She continued pulling the weeds out of the carrots. Young man, do you have a rosary? Yeah, ma. You take it out of your pocket and you start paying the rosary. I want to hear you at only Johnson's corner. Do you understand me? Are you still here? Got on the tractor, turned it around. the name of the father. Ollie Johnson's corner would be like, praying from here to town square. I'm sure everybody thought the Donarski kid had fallen off. That's mom, and you guys know it. There's a poem that says, a thought and reap an action. My mom was sowing more than a thought. Prayer is based on relationship. Prayer is an encounter with the reality of who God is. and the reality of who I am. Preer is cooperation with grace to the universal call to holiness. We all are called to holiness. It's how we're going to obtain and attain sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to Him. Sorry about the sunshine. But when we pray, we all, because we're human, we're that pretzel, we have defects in our prayer life. We can be mechanical. Father who art in heaven and hell, be thy Lights are out. ⁓ she's wearing a white coat. Don't we? We get distracted so easily because we're just doing the rote. We can be superstitious. If I say the chapel of divine receive exactly at three o'clock, God will hear my prayer. And if I say two rosaries today, God will hear my... No. No. That can lead to bartering and I've been there. When our daughter had cancer, dear God, what do want me to do? I'll do it. You want me to pray rosary? You want me to go to I'll do it. Martyring. Or you can be like in Luke's gospel, dear God, I am glad I'm not like those folks behind me. say my rosary. Don't we fall into it. We judge. It's part of the pretzel of who we are. and we deal in fear. If I don't pray, if I don't put a mask, God's not gonna hear me. If I don't do this, God's not gonna hear me. is love. Caritas. Willing ⁓ good of the other for the sake of the other. He wants us to be with him. I can't emphasize it enough. and we turn and run away. So a reap an action. So an action, reap a habit. a habit, reap a character. So a character, reap ⁓ destiny. Psalm 46 says, be still and know I am God. We had to ask, have somebody say, please turn off your cell phones. How many times does that cell phone just control us? It buzzes, you gotta look. and we turn it off. Can we come and spend time and adoration in the old chapel? Maybe you can't dedicate an hour, a specific hour, when we have it specifically in the chapel. Come anyway, sign in as a guest. And if it's closed over there, I mean to tell ya, Jesus is waiting right here. come and stop in and say, hi, God, it's me. ⁓ yeah, that Polish kid. I remember him. reap a habit. Because we're all called and sent to be holy. God has called each and every one of us by name. We were baptized in that water and given a name that God knows and is calling each of us to go out there and proclaim the good news. what we're called to do. You say, but I haven't got a whole lot that I can do. I got five little barley loaves right here. I'm gonna tell you, my folks and my brothers and sisters know this real well. We lived 13 miles away from St. Rose of Lima Church. We all broke out our rosaries when we got in the station wagon. And everybody, all of us, in name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hey, Dad looking in the rear view mirror, you, you're leading today. And we're all poking elbows, ha ha. Because the old man's gonna take critique. Five lobes. So what do I pray for? Matthew 25 says, I was hungry. You gave me to eat. not merely bread. about peace. How about kindness to somebody else? How about praying for that? How about praying for others? We're in the midst of a war. I think about what the bombs are falling. Somebody's on their receiving end when they fall off an airplane. When they're dropped out of a tube in a mortar. Somebody's on the receiving end. Do we pray for them? They're immortal souls. part of the family of God. Where will they spend their destiny? Pray the rosary. Take up your cross and follow me. We sometimes think that the cross is this heavy. This isn't very heavy at all. praying the rosary, certainly for us that are getting older and older, our death. because the years behind me are a whole lot longer than the ones that are ahead of me. I'm no longer that teenager that prays the rosary. I have grown up a little bit. The Mass gives me an opportunity to sit and contemplate what Christ has done for me. The Mass is this source and summit of our life as Catholics. The source and summit of bearing our cross, they may be. Happy Mother's Day. As a chaplain at the hospital, we take turns on Friday in chaplain's corner. It's broadcast to those that get on teams. One of our young chaplain interns was his turn in the barrel, and he read this poem that I'm going to read. called my heart. She's been there for me. Just talking to her can make me happy. She tells me of the hard times. She's been through in hopes that I won't have to go through them too. She's an independent woman of stature and grace. has beautiful eyes. A lovely face. and audacious strength from deep inside. I know in her can confide. She's my guardian who will always be there, a very special part of me. Shee. takes care of her kin. She gives hope in things to believe in. I don't have her there for me. I didn't have her there for me. If I didn't have her there for me, I wouldn't be half the man or deacon that I am. May God bless us.