Having come from a big extended family, I learned a long time ago that I am a social being who depends on others for a better and more fulfilled life. This awareness has been a positive influence on my life as a seminarian. With this knowledge, from the day I joined Our Lady of Mercy as my home parish, I have been working on learning how to better relate with OLM parishioners. The OLM parishioners, with the help of our Pastor Fr. Michael, have helped me to become a balanced person who continually works at becoming a better person. Because of this, I am more prepared for the missions/ministries that await me in the future.

The ministries that I have been exposed to while here at OLM have been a means of responding to God’s call of praising and serving Him and His Church in the Diocese of Joliet. With honest discernment, I have been able to serve the sick and elderly by visiting and bringing them Holy Communion in their various assisted living facilities such as Thrive Hospital, Alden Gardens and Arbor Terrace. Also, I’ve had the opportunity to serve the Visitors (Homeless) at Hesed House. For me, the visitors at Hesed House are the very people who found special attention in the eyes of Christ, and still do through us today in the various ways that we respond to our ministry. My services at Hesed House and assisted living facilities have led me to feel closely linked with the ministry of Christ and in the way that he appears in the poor. The team that serves at Hesed House, and the Ministers of Care from OLM have both helped my Christian faith. I understand better that our faith is an invitation to see Jesus in the poor and the needy and to serve them.

My ministries at OLM have been very enriching, both by helping me grow in all aspects of life and giving me experiences that I can rely on in the future. Spiritually, I’ve been blessed to join in daily Eucharistic Celebrations with wonderful parishioners. It has been a gift to attend the Marian Crusade every Saturday with devoted men and women, lead Adoration at Waterleaf once every month, and join women for the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Rosary for Priests every day after our Eucharistic Celebration. These devotional groups at OLM have helped me recognize Christ’s presence in my journey of life, and the need for building a strong relationship with Christ.

Physically and socially, the Fit Shepherds and Bowling Team at OLM have helped me to put more effort into moving outside the box of my own nationality and grow in my openness to others. I am so grateful for this wonderful parish, with wonderful parishioners who invited me into their homes for prayers, lunch, and dinner. And thank you to those who took me to tour the great city of Chicago. As a seminarian in training, I treasure the memory of these experiences. Please continue to pray for me.  

Vincent Otieno

Seminarian

Did you know that in St. Matthew’s Gospel the word “kingdom” is used 50 times? This includes the 28 times that he mentions the “Kingdom of Heaven”. Maybe St. Matthew wanted us to know not only about the Kingdom of Heaven, but also about our King! In our Gospel this weekend, we hear several parables of the Kingdom of Heaven, which leads me to the following reflection. 

  When we talk about Heaven, we can have a tendency to only point to the future. We are not in Heaven, so it is tempting to either wait for the time when the Lord calls us there or keep it out of sight and mind.  We fail to see what is being offered to us in the Gospel today, namely the reality that the Kingdom of Heaven is also here and now. 

Through his parables, Jesus reveals that the Kingdom of Heaven is not something we are waiting for, but something we are called to live in right now. He explains the parable of the weeds in the field by saying, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.” We are called to respond to his Word and live as children of the Kingdom of God here on earth. Salvation begins now, not when we get to Heaven. Jesus desires to give us fullness of life in our daily lives as we await Heaven with hope. Even in the face of temptation and hardship, we are called to bear fruit in our lives and to bring others to experience this same joy. 

A few chapters later in Matthew’s Gospel, spoiler alert, Jesus will hand the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to Simon Peter, who is appointed as the rock and foundation of the Church. The Church is an integral part of the Kingdom of Heaven and provides us with graces and sacraments that give us much needed strength to follow Jesus. The Church had humble beginnings, much like the mustard seed in the parables, and yet it is now a place of refuge for all to find shelter.   

Let us not ignore the Kingdom of Heaven, believing that it is something we will only experience in eternity, but instead respond to the Lord’s invitation to live fully with him in the present moment.  May we experience the Kingdom of Heaven here and now at Our Lady of Mercy.  

Father Michael

I think I might have to accept the fact that I don’t have a green thumb. In seminary, I kept succulents in my room because they are supposed to be easy plants to care for. For a while, things were going well. But then I decided to water one of the plants, and it died from having too much water. So I decided I would wait until it was clear that the other succulent needed water, but it ended up so dry that it looked almost dead. But when I watered it, the plant ended up dying from too much water. I don’t have any more succulents, but there are some plants in my office here at the parish. I was told I don’t have to water them, so they should be safe.

In our culture, we struggle with waiting. We want things to be done as quickly as possible, and we want them to be done as perfectly as possible, and we want all this done yesterday. If we try to apply this to our spiritual life, we will almost inevitably become disappointed. God did not create us perfect, and He typically does not work quickly or instantly in the spiritual life.

Maybe that’s why Jesus uses the image of a seed to describe how people receive the Word of God into their lives. We can really only observe the progress of a plant after it has grown; we cannot catch a seed in the act of growing. And this growth only takes place over time. My succulents were so slow in showing progress that I didn’t notice a change until it was too late. As today’s Gospel says, we all need to strive to become the rich soil which will allow the Word of God to grow deep roots and bear fruit. But this takes time.

What does that look like? The key idea is little by little. In the spiritual life, this means cultivating good habits such as praying every day or joining a ministry or doing the dishes. When we first start doing this, we might not see any difference. But after some time, we hopefully will begin to notice some growth compared to where we started.

As with plants, there are many factors that are outside our control. We can make sure the plant has rich soil, water, and sunlight. But the rest is up to God. The same is true for our spiritual lives. We cannot grow by our own efforts alone but only by God’s grace.

Even with this in mind, waiting is still hard. But we know that the One Who sows the seed is faithful and that He wants His Word to take root in our lives and bear fruit even more than we do. If we allow Him to work in our lives on His terms, then we can bear fruit “a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” Thankfully, God takes much better care of His plants than I do.

Father Frank

It’s amazing how we can learn a lot about our faith by reflecting through the eyes of a child.  Jesus says as much in our Gospel this weekend: “For although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to little ones.”

Think about this, for instance: What were your first words as a child? You probably don’t even remember them, but that’s okay, because you could probably make a good guess. Mom and Dad were our everything as toddlers—so much so that they were the foremost things on our minds and in our words. We really couldn’t understand ourselves or the world apart from them.

As beings made in the image and likeness of a trinitarian God—a God who’s essence is relational—this doesn’t surprise us. Our essence and identity too is inherently relational. This explains why Christ talks about his relationship with his Father in heaven immediately after talking about the wisdom of children. Children come to know who they are because of their relationship to their parents. We come to know who we are because of our relationship to our Heaven Father.

Hence why we are pursuing a family-centered faith formation process for our children! If we truly want our children to better understand themselves in light of their heavenly Father, it is most effectively passed on through catechesis of their earthly parents. If children learn to walk, talk, and do just about everything else essential for life from their parents, why not also the most essential thing of all? 

God revealed that He is a loving communion of persons. May the communion of our families be at the heart of where our children come to know communion with our loving God.

Father Michael

From the moment I was assigned to Our Lady of Mercy, I have been overwhelmed by the warm welcome I have received from parishioners. It has been awesome to begin to feel like a part of the community of OLM before my official assignment even began. But I realize that this enthusiasm isn’t about me, but about the One I represent.

As a priest, I am called not just to represent Christ, but to become Jesus, to act in persona Christi, so that I can say with my own mouth, “This is my Body.” In the short time I have been a priest, I have been struck by the awesome responsibility of what this means—that a weak human being like me is called to be Jesus for others. And yet, this has strengthened my faith because I know my weaknesses better than anybody, I can see more clearly that God is doing the work through me.

Not just priests, but every Christian is called to be Jesus. In the Gospel, Jesus says, “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” That’s a tall order. How can we possibly become Jesus?

We can only become Jesus if we know Jesus, through speaking to Him in prayer as our closest friend and being united to Him in the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. Have you ever noticed that the more time you spend with a person, the more you become like that person? The same is true of Jesus!

And yet in all of this, there will be times when we fail to image Jesus. But this isn’t a reason to give up, but rather a reason for hope. In spite of our failings, God is still able to use us to be Jesus to those around us. In these moments, we can realize that it is truly God shining through us rather than our own effort. St. John Henry Newman has given us a beautiful prayer to help us grow more like Jesus every day:

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance wherever I go.

Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.

Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.

Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.

Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!

Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.

The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine.

It will be You shining on others through me.

Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me.

Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.

Amen.

In spite of my weakness, God has called me to be His priest, and to be His priest here at Our Lady of Mercy Parish. I look forward to being Jesus for you and also to receiving Jesus in each and every one of you.

Father Frank