Festival

Dear Friends in Christ,

When you read this we will be in the midst of our parish festival. I hope you and your family will spend some time at the festival and enjoy the food, games, rides and entertainment.

A few years ago we decided to link the festival with the feast of our patron St. John the Baptist. This is traditional in most parishes, especially when the patron feast falls during the warmer seasons. At Mass this weekend we are celebrating the feast of St. John the Baptist to focus on our patron and ask his intercession for all of us.

The festival has a two-fold purpose. First, it is a community building event. Parishioners come together to interact with each other and to meet in an environment that is family friendly and conducive to socializing. Relationships are formed and strengthened. We have an opportunity to celebrate spiritually at Mass and socially at the festival.

The festival is also a fund raising event. We depend on its proceeds to pay our bills and salaries during the slower summer months. What we can save is kept for emergency expenses and projects for improvement of our facilities.

Thank you for your support of our parish. My recent appeal to you brought a generous response from some of you. I hope that all of you will be able to continue to commit a percentage of your treasure to our parish.

My best wishes for a relaxing summer vacation (even if it has to be a “stay-cation”). If you are travelling don’t forget that Sunday Mass is still an obligation. It can be interesting to visit a local
parish church where you are travelling. When I was in college I worked in Grand Teton National Park during the summer. Every Sunday I helped the local pastor with Mass in a little log chapel.
Many people from all over would come to Mass. It was a great experience. For information about times and locations of Mass at your destination please go to www.masstimes.org.

See you at the festival,

Fr. Hildebrand

Feast of Stt. John the Baptist

Dear Friends in Christ,

The feast of our patron saint John the Baptist draws near. We are very blessed to have such a powerful saint to watch over our parish community. As you know the Church normally celebrates a saint’s day on the anniversary of his/her death, their “birth into heaven”.

In the case of St. John the Baptist we also celebrate his birthday. The Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist is June 24 (this Thursday). Because of his importance for us, we will celebrate the Mass of St. John the Baptist next weekend in conjunction with our 50th Anniversary Festival.

Here are some lessons we can learn from our patron’s life. Even before he was born John leaped in his mother’s womb for joy in the presence of the Lord, who was hidden in Mary’s womb. Let us remember to welcome unborn human life with joy, always rejecting the evil of abortion. St. John prepared the way of the Lord by his preaching and baptism of repentance. By our example we can prepare hearts to receive the grace of God. Perhaps we can encourage someone to become a Catholic or reach out to a lapsed Catholic to return.

As a model of the spiritual life, St. John the Baptist teaches us to allow Jesus to increase while we strive to decrease our pride. Jesus called John a shining lamp. May our patron guide our steps and strengthen our heart so that we will give a good example to others. St. John was so committed to the truth that he was willing to lay down his life. May his witness to truth keep us committed to learning the truth and
living it with love and sacrifice. St. John the Baptist, pray for us.

Sincerely yours in Christ and St. John the Baptist,

Fr. Hildebrand

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SJB Festival Opening Ceremony

• When: June 25 at 3:00 pm
• Where: Under the Big Tent
• Invocation by Fr. Hildebrand
• Greetings and Proclamations by Civic Leaders: Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Assemblyman Van Tran, City Mayor Alan Mansoor
  

What a great way to start the Festival!

Sacred Heart of Jesus

Dear Friends in Christ,

This past week we celebrated the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In fact, June is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart.

Some of us may remember in years past groups dedicated to the Sacred Heart and songs honoring the Sacred Heart. In our parish the Vietnamese community has a group called Men of the Sacred Heart.

What are we talking about when we speak of devotion to the Sacred Heart? Certainly we do not refer simply to the physical fleshly heart of Jesus alone. Here is how the Catholic Encyclopedia explains it:

“The worship, although paid to the Heart of Jesus extends further than the Heart of flesh, being directed to the love of which this Heart is the living and expressive symbol. On this point the devotion requires no justification, as it is to the Person of Jesus that it is directed; but to the Person as inseparable from His Divinity. Jesus, the living apparition of the goodness of God and of His paternal love, Jesus infinitely loving and amiable, studied in the principal manifestations of His love, is the object of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, as indeed He is the object of the Christian religion.”(New Advent website, Catholic Encyclopedia, Article on the Sacred Heart).

“The love of Christ gathers us together” says St. Paul. As humans we are drawn to Jesus because of His love for us. That love was manifested most perfectly in His offering of His life on the cross. After His death we recall that a soldier pierced His side with a lance and from his heart flowed blood and water, a sign of the saving Sacraments of the Church.

The Norbertine St. Herman Joseph is one of the earliest devotes to the Sacred Heart. He composed poems honoring the Heart of Jesus in the 12th century. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun of the 17th century is known as the Apostle of the Sacred Heart. She is said to have seen Jesus, Who gave her the famous promises of the Sacred Heart, which include the First Friday devo-
tions. Quoting the words of Jesus to her, St. Margaret Mary relates the prom-
ise related to the First Fridays as follows:
I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that its all-powerful love
will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine first Fridays of
consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they will not die under my
displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, my divine Heart making
itself their assured refuge at the last moment."

Heart of Christ we sing your praises, well-spring of eternal love.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Hildebrand

A Priest's Prayer

Loving Father,

I praise you, I love you, I adore you. Send your Holy Spirit to enlighten my mind to the truth of your Son, Jesus, Priest and Victim.

Through the same Spirit guide my heart to his Sacred Heart, to renew in me a priestly passion
that I, too, might lay down my life upon the altar.

May your Spirit wash away my impurities and free me from all my transgressions in the Cup of Salvation,

Let only your will be done in me. May the Blessed Mother of your dearly beloved Son, wrap her mantle around me and protect me from all evil.

May she guide me to do whatever He tells me.

May she teach me to have the heart of St. Joseph, her spouse, to protect and care for my bride.

And may her pierced heart inspire me to embrace as my own your children who suffer at the foot of the cross.

I humbly cry to her: please be my consoling mother, and help me to be a better son. Lord, make me a holy priest, inflamed with the fire of your love, seeking nothing but your greater glory and the salvation of souls.

I humbly bless and thank you, my Father, through the Spirit, in Christ Jesus, your Son and
my brother.

Amen