You can help save lives when you give blood. A blood drive will be held 12:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, August 19 at Good Shepherd Church in the Knights of Columbus Hall.

The event is co-sponsored by the Good Shepherd Knights of Columbus Council 8669. For more information or appointment, visit redcrossblood.org (sponsor code: Montrose) or call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767).  Give the perfect gift.  Give Blood.

Streamline your donation experience and save up to 15 minutes by visiting RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass to complete your pre-donation reading and health history questions on the day of your appointment.

Give Something that Means Something

Men of the parish are invited to come and enjoy growing in their spiritual walk with others. We will meet in the Knights of Columbus Hall from 6:30—7:30 on Wednesday, August 26 for our next Cor Meeting. We always have snacks and refreshments! Invite a friend or family member. We look forward to seeing you!

See what men are saying about it in the film below:

The mission of the Cor is to refocus Catholic men on Jesus Christ and to form and strengthen them in faith and virtue through a brotherhood committed to prayer, formation and fraternity.  The goal of each Cor gathering is to provide the opportunity for men to encounter Christ, to pray together, to be formed in their faith, and to strengthen their bonds of brotherhood, preparing them for courageous leadership and the mission of Evangelization for their families and communities.

The Knights of Columbus 4th degree assembly 2211 is collecting goods for the residence of the Aleta V. Lutz Veterans Hospital in Saginaw. This is a veterans’ nursing home. We ask you to please be generous as a lot of the residents have no family nearby.

Items Requested

• Body Wash • Combs & Brushes • Toothpaste • Toothbrushes in original packaging, Non-alcohol Mouthwash • Razors • Shaving Cream • Men’s t shirts, sweatshirts, & sweatpants sizes M- 6X • Men’s briefs size M – 3X •Men’s socks size 8 – 13 Men’s shoes sizes 8 – 13 (10 & 10.5 most common) • Coats for the current season

Women’s t shirts & undergarments – all sizes • Laundry Detergent (name brands only)  
Gift cards (Meijer, Walmart, Mastercard prepaid, gas) – $10 – $50.

– NO FOOD ITEMS, THANK YOU.

 Questions? Call Adam Lupo, Chief of Voluntary Service, (989) 497-2500 ext. 13369

There will be a drop box for your donations at the front entrance of the church and in the Family Life Center.

One of the beautiful things about Sacred Scripture is noticing the patterns and words the authors use to draw parallels and highlight themes. For three Sundays, the 15th–17th, we heard Jesus’ parable discourse about the Kingdom of Heaven. God desires us to pay attention to His words because they directly pertain to us and ignoring them carries eternal consequences.  Jesus was clear that even though God sows the seeds of grace and faith, that does not guarantee they will grow and bear fruit:  some seeds are swept away, weeds are burned at the end of the age, and fish are thrown out rather than kept. Jesus asks us if we understand this.

St. Matthew, throughout his gospel, lays out Jesus’ five sermons and follows each one with a narrative of what Jesus did. Over these same three Sundays, we’ve heard the follow-up narratives: Jesus feeding the 5,000 men (not counting women and children), Jesus calming a storm, and Jesus curing the daughter of a Gentile (Canaanite) woman. In each case, Jesus does something so subtle that the drama of the action itself pulls our attention away from the dialogue underneath.

Let’s begin with the feeding of the 5,000. After the disciples ask Jesus to send the crowds away, He tells them, “Give them some food yourselves.” Jesus is not delusional; He understands the situation perfectly well, and yet his response is jarring. It should make us wonder: “Why respond this way? Could He not just snap His fingers and have the greatest dinner appear out of thin air?”

What about the calming of the storm? Before disciples boarded, St. Matthew says, “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side” (Mt 14:22). Why would Jesus put His disciples’ lives in peril? This was no accident; Jesus was the instigator, in complete control, searching for something.

Finally, let’s consider the interaction with the Canaanite woman. Jesus compares her to a dog – rude. Yet if we understand the covenants the Lord set up with His people in the Old Testament, we see that God has always remained faithful to His covenantal people and shown them His merciful love, which is why Jesus establishes this new and eternal covenant with His chosen people and extends it to all of us as well. This episode offers a foretaste of what is to come, when God extends His covenantal mercy to everyone made in His image and likeness.

In each of these three narratives, Jesus is searching for a response from the people He encounters. He desires more from us than mere attention — He wants us to walk with Him: to be a part of His life, His mission, His kingdom. It might seem we have little to offer the world on our own, but with Jesus, we have everything to offer. Five loaves and two fish are enough. When we don’t want to enter storms, He calms them and gives us the power to get out of the boat. When we cry out to the Lord for help, He desires that we cry out even more. The Lord does not want children with little faith but with great faith — children who understand to whom they’re speaking:  the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the one who can do whatever He wills. Our merciful Lord rebukes Peter, who had little faith, and exhorts the Canaanite woman — the one compared to a dog — who had great faith! May we all have great faith so that God can work through us.

Happy Nineteenth Sunday! This past Monday, I had my first follow-up appointment with the doctor to assess how my fingers are healing. They took x-rays and examined the areas of skin where the stitches were removed. So far, everything seems to be progressing as expected. I have a follow-up appointment in four more weeks for another set of x-rays.  I’m grateful for the prayers offered by so many of you.

This past week, on August 4th, we celebrated the feast day of St. John Vianney, who is the patron saint of parish priests.  Woohoo! The vocation of the priesthood is given to us by God for the shepherding of His holy Church, and thus, naturally, I’ve been reflecting a lot on my own life. Whenever I do this, I always reach the same conclusion, which is that it’s all a marvelous mystery to me. I love the commentary of St. John Vianney, who said that “the priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.” So we pray for all priests, and for those among our sons whose vocation is to the priesthood. May they love God’s holy Church with the heart of Jesus!

As a reminder, this coming Saturday is August 15th, the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. Ordinarily, it is a holy day of obligation. But since the 15th falls on a Saturday this year, the obligation to attend the Mass of the Assumption is waived. Your Sunday obligation remains intact, which, per usual, you may honor at the Saturday evening or Sunday morning Masses.

From Fr. Brian