The Gospel of Mercy

In 2016, 2 million Catholic youth from around the world descended upon Krakow, Poland to celebrate World Youth Day. World Youth Day, started by Saint Pope John Paul II in the early 1980’s, is a week-long gathering of Catholic youth from around the world to grow closer to Christ and celebrate the bonds of Catholic unity that unite peoples of “all tongues and nations.” The Pope is always present as a visible and living sign of our Catholic unity. The center and culmination of the World Youth Day is Eucharistic Adoration and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered by the Pope.

Every World Youth Day has a theme. In Poland in 2016, the theme was: “Blessed are the merciful, for it is mercy that will be shown to those who show mercy.” The same Saint John Paul II who started World Youth Day and who was honored in his homeland of Poland in 2016 at the same international Catholic gathering he started called St. Luke’s Gospel, “The Gospel of Mercy.”

Last weekend we had the ministry fair in which we as St. Luke’s Catholic Church and community have an opportunity to extend in our own time the “Gospel of Mercy” by praying and discerning if Jesus is inviting or drawing us to be His presence in these “ministries of Christ’s Mercy” to others. Jesus also extended His blessing and Mercy on expectant mothers this past weekend as He blessed those women of our parish and those present at the weekend Masses who are currently pregnant.

Our Lord said in Luke 4:16-21: “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

As we approach our parish’s Patron Feast Day on Oct. 18th and Oxtoberfest on the 22nd, may WE OURSELVES be Christ who, in our parish, in our parish’s ministries, in our families and in our community “proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind and set prisoners free”

St. Luke the Evangelist Pray for us!

God bless,
Fr. Ryan