St. Joseph Parish

06/21/2026

. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY‼️

06/20/2026

Dear Friends,

William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is one of the great literary and theatrical masterpieces of the English language. The play presents the tragic tale of Prince Hamlet of Denmark, a young man whose dead father, the former king, appears to him in a vision to tell him that he was murdered by his own brother, Hamlet’s uncle. Hamlet then spends most of the play trying to figure out if the vision of his father was real, or if it was a hallucination caused by his grief over his father’s death.

Towards the end of the play, Hamlet finally resolves that he must seek revenge against his uncle for having murdered his father. He decides to use a duel against another young nobleman as the moment to reveal his uncle’s treachery. Right before the duel, Hamlet discusses his intentions with his best friend, Horatio, who warns Hamlet that he is walking into a trap set by his uncle. At that moment, Hamlet, who had been tormented by grief and insecurity throughout the play, says peacefully to his friend, “There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it will be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.”

My copy of Hamlet, as I am sure all modern editions of the play do, has a footnote for that line that refers the reader to Matthew 10:29-31, which are part of the gospel passage that we hear proclaimed at Mass this Sunday. People going to see the play performed in Shakespeare’s day would not have had written copies of the text, but they probably would have picked up on the subtle, but profound reference to the verses from the Gospel of Matthew that Hamlet speaks.

Whenever I hear or read that line from the play, I find it very encouraging and reassuring. Which is probably what Jesus intended to do when he spoke those words to the Twelve, whom he was sending out on their missionary training. Jesus wanted to encourage and reassure the Twelve that, although they would face real challenges and difficulties on their journeys, they had no reason to fear anyone or anything.

And Jesus’ words should encourage and reassure us during this time when we are preparing to form a new parish in Dyer, so that we may dedicate ourselves with renewed faith to the missionary work that the Lord entrusts to us. We may have a sense of some of the challenges and difficulties that are involved in forgning two communities of disciples into one, but we certainly don’t know all the effort, patience, and sacrifice that will be required to respond faithfully to the Lord’s call. But, in the face of that uncertainty, we must remember the words that Jesus spoke to the Twelve and that he now speaks to us.

The coming weeks and months will be a time of transition, which can be difficult for us to navigate with grace and peace. It will be important for us to trust in Jesus’ words, “do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.” If there is, as Shakespeare suggested, “a special providence in the fall of a sparrow,” how much more will God’s provident love and care guide and sustain us through the coming changes and beyond!

The quote from the play Hamlet that I mentioned earlier ends with the line, “The readiness is all.” That line could be interpreted as suggesting that the key to facing a challenge is to be ready to engage with it. That can certainly be true in many situations. But, as believers, we are invited to recognize that the “readiness” that is required of us is the readiness to recognize and respond to the Lord’s presence and action in our midst. It is his presence and action, which we experience ritually when we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, which enables us to face challenges with faith, hope, and love.

My hope and prayer for us through the coming changes is that, as we rely on the Lord to lead us through this process, we will acknowledge him as the one who does what we cannot do on our own. The testimony we can offer each other and those around us of the truth that, even in very difficult moments, the Lord is with us and at work among us, can be a powerful source of encouragement and reassurance for others who are facing challenges in their own lives.

Peace,

Father Leo

06/14/2026

FR. LEO'S LETTER TO OUR SJ PARISH FAMILY
Dear Friends,

This past week I was in Phoenix, Arizona with a priest friend from our diocese to participate in a national conference on ministry to teenagers. This was my first time attending such an event and it was a great opportunity to meet and to talk with youth ministry leaders from all over the US.

Prior to the conference, I had heard that the Phoenix area is one of the places in the country where the company Waymo has been introducing driverless cars. On Monday evening, my friend and I had dinner at a restaurant located about 15 minutes from the conference center. We took a taxi to the restaurant, but decided to try a driverless car for the ride back to where we were staying. I downloaded the Waymo app to my phone and within a few minutes, a driverless car was on its way to pick us up.

The car pulled up exactly where we had indicated we would be, and I was able to unlock the doors with the app on my phone. After we got into the car and buckled our seatbelts, I pressed a button to start the ride and off we were. At first it was a bit surreal to be riding in a car that had no driver. To see the steering wheel, and to experience the car speeding up and slowing down, all without a driver, created some cognitive dissonance. At the same time, though, it was impressive to see what our technological advancements have achieved. At no point in our 15-minute ride back did we feel unsafe. By the time we got to our destination, it was not hard for me to imagine that we might soon experience riding driverless car as something commonplace.

I mention all of this to you because this experience might help us to appreciate something that we hear in this Sunday’s gospel passage. St. Matthew writes, “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.” Nearly two thousand years have passed since Jesus looked out at that vast crowd, years in which technology has made it possible for us to do more and more things without the need of another human being. But we cannot think that those technological advancements mean that we can live and flourish while being shepherd-less.

We may soon be living in a world in which we are all ride around in driverless cars, but we can never make our way through life without Jesus as our shepherd. He is the one who can give direction and meaning to our lives, since he makes it possible for us to know and live out our identity as beloved sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. Without Jesus as our shepherd, we would be as “troubled and abandoned” as the crowd in today’s gospel.

At the time of Jesus’ public ministry, he called the Twelve to work with him in proclaiming the Good News and caring for his flock. Today the Good Shepherd continues to care and provide for us through those he calls to succeed the Apostles in the ministry of pastoring. Pope Leo and Bishop McClory are for us what the Twelve were for Jesus’ original disciples. Through their humanity—with their gifts and limitations—the pope and our bishop allow us to experience the closeness and care of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

We pray for the pope and our bishop by name during the Eucharistic Prayer at every Mass, asking the Lord to keep us in communion with them and with Christ’s flock. But I want to encourage you to keep Pope Leo and Bishop McClory in your prayers throughout the week.

The pope has the responsibility of guiding the Church through the many challenges we face today, including violence around the world and the changes resulting from the ongoing Artificial Intelligence revolution. Bishop McClory is guiding our diocese at a time of pastoral restructuring. This process involves the merger and closure of parishes throughout our diocese, including the changes we will be experiencing in Dyer. I appreciate that not everyone agrees with the bishop’s decision. But I hope we all recognize that the bishop has asked us to come together as one parish because he believes it will allow all of us to live out the mission the Lord has entrusted to us in our part of the diocese.

Peace,

Father Leo

06/10/2026

. Happy Ordination Anniversary
DEACON GARY BLUE!!
Our Congratulations on the 9th Anniversary
of your Ordination to the Diaconate and
becoming our Deacon at St. Joseph.

Our St. Joseph Parish Family is Blessed
and fortunate to have you as our Deacon.

Deacon Gary is a great steward of our Parish Family and everyone at St. Joseph offers our deepest thanks and gratitude for ALL you do.

Prayers for you and your family.

06/06/2026

FR. LEO'S LETTER TO OUR SJ PARISH FAMILY
Dear Friends,

Last week, I wrote to you about Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas: On the Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence (MH). I also shared with you a couple of quotes from the encyclical in which the pope reflected on the Holy Trinity as the grounding of all existence, as well as of our lives and dignity as human beings.

This week, as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, I would like to share with you two paragraphs from the conclusion of the encyclical. In these paragraphs, the pope reflects briefly, but incisively on the centrality of the Holy Eucharist for our lives as disciples, particularly in this time when artificial intelligence is having an ever greater impact on our lives and our world.

The pope writes:

The spirituality that we need is a Eucharistic spirituality, that is, a spirituality of ecclesial unity in love. The Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery reveal God entering into our human condition and transforming it through the gift of himself. This gift remains present and active in the Eucharist, in which the Lord gives himself and gathers the Church together, so that his offering becomes the principle of unity and source of new life. It is from this communion that Christian solidarity also arises, since “union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself.” As Saint Augustine explained to the new Christians of his local Church, the bread and wine on the altar are the sacrament of the unity of the faithful in Christ: “What is seen is a mere physical likeness; what is grasped bears spiritual fruit. So now, if you want to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle Paul speaking to the faithful: together you are the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27). If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. You respond ‘Amen,’ and by responding in this way you assent to it. For you hear the words, ‘the Body of Christ’ and respond ‘Amen.’ Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true!”

The “Amen” that we say in the liturgy, the Body we eat and the Blood we drink shape our entire lives. The Eucharist “is an extremely personal encounter with the Lord and yet never simply an act of individual piety.” In the Eucharist we find a visible manifestation of the reality that we “are the Church of Christ, his members, his body. We are brothers and sisters in him. And in Christ, though many and diverse, we are one: In Illo uno unum.” The Eucharist opens us to justice and sharing, with a preferential concern for those who are burdened by poverty or marginalization. And while new economic and technological networks can generate exclusion, isolation and dependencies, the Church — nourished by the Eucharist — is called to make visible a different paradigm, one that preserves human connections, gives a voice to the invisible and ensures that processes are aimed at respecting people’s dignity. (MH, 234-235)

We receive this powerful message from Pope Leo at a time when we are preparing to experience changes to the Mass schedule for the two parishes in Dyer. In less than two months, starting on August 1, we will begin to follow the Mass scheduled that was announced a few weeks ago. For those of you from St. Joseph who usually go to Mass Saturday evening or Sunday morning, the new schedule will entail a significant sacrifice and adjustment. For those from St. Joseph who usually go to the Sunday evening Mass and for those who have been going to St. Maria Goretti, the new schedule will ask you to be ready to receive with love and hospitality those who will begin to celebrate Mass with you.

The new Mass schedule is meant to be for us a concrete expression, as Pope Leo writes, of the truth that the Holy Eucharist is “a visible manifestation of the reality that we ‘are the Church of Christ, his members, his body. We are brothers and sisters in him. And in Christ, though many and diverse, we are one.’” Our celebrating the Holy Eucharist together will allow us to create and deepen human connections among ourselves and will be the foundation for the work of forming a new parish together.

Peace,

Father Leo

06/06/2026

06/06/2026

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR ORDINANDI‼️
Please pray for William O'Donnell, who will be ordained a priest today!
Please pray for Nicholas Emsing, who will be ordained to the transitional diaconate!
⁣

06/03/2026

. Congratulations to our Fr. Leo
on his Ordination Anniversary.
God bless you Fr. Leo for all you do‼️
ALL OUR PRAYERS FOR YOU

05/31/2026