09/07/2026
Today we celebrated the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. Read Father Mike's weekly message below.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was ordained only a few days at my first assignment at St. Boniface Church in Williamsport. This Gospel was about correcting others: "If you need to, bring others to help you correct the mis-guided person." Ellen was the mother of three adult children, and they no longer attended church, other than Christmas and Easter (remember, we call them Chirs-ters.).
Ellen would call her children each Sunday morning and chide them for not going to church. She even used Catholic guilt: "I must have been a bad mother for you not to come to church." So, Ellen wanted ME to convince her children to come back to church because the Gospel said, "to bring others."
Jesus is saying in this weekend's Gospel that we are "our brother's keeper." We DO have a responsibility to guide and re-direct those who have gone down the wrong path, but it is HOW we do it. The last thing Ellen's children needed to hear was a Sunday morning rant about not going to church. We bring people along with love and concern, not criticism and dislike.
Ellen changed her tune and approach. She no longer even mentioned church to her children and treated them as adults and a caring grandmother to her grandchildren. You may be wondering if the children ever came back. A month ago, I baptized Ellen's second great grandchild.
