• Thoughts From the Second Floor Front
  XIV Sunday in Ordinary Time
  
  July 3, 2022
   

  In a letter sent to his wife Abigail, President John Adams wrote of Independence day that it would henceforth be celebrated with “pageant and pomp and parades; with fireworks and bells ringing out” all across the land. The second president of our country was more prophetic than he knew when writing about our Independence Day. Both Adams and President Jefferson would later die on the 50^th anniversary of Independence, July 4, 1826; each comforted believing the other was at the celebration in Philadelphia marking their triumph. After that, it was a common practice in communities in our country to host gatherings in towns at which the speakers would be those people still alive who knew our Founders or had met them or most importantly had heard their voice. People wanted to listen to the voice of those who heard the voice of the leaders of the American Revolution.
  
  As we gather this Sunday, we too hear the voice. Not the voice of the Fathers of our country but the Voice of Our Father in Heaven. We hear The Word. Our Gospel excerpt today is most appropriate as a reminder for the need to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” I ask that you pray for vocations to the priesthood from our parish as a regular intention in your prayers. The text not only recalls the need for priests but reminds all of the need to evangelize, to give witness to the faith that truly makes us free.
  
  Tomorrow we celebrate this Independence Day, we praise God for the grace given to us as we enjoy being citizens of this great land; this City on a Hill as John Winthrop used the phrase in reference to the Puritan experiment in the New World. We realize too that the need for God’s presence in our country is in so many ways more important than ever in our history. We pray for our leaders that they will have a concern for the common good and those who are most vulnerable in our society. All too often the phrase is used by public figures ending a speech on what may appear to be a note of patriotic piety. Today we make it our prayer – God, Bless America.
   
  Faithfully,
    
  Msgr. Diamond