Browsing Thoughts from Fr. Bob
17th Sunday in OT - July 24, 2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 7/23/22
Every year on July 25th we celebrate the patronal feast of St. James the Greater, apostle and martyr. We always pick the weekend closest to that date. Thinking about what I myself write about for the bulletin, why not write why I love St. James Parish family. I will ... Read More »
16th Sunday in OT - July 17, 2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 7/12/22
In a time when inns or restaurants or fast food places weren’t around, travelers had to rely on the hospitality of strangers when they journeyed far from home. An upright person would be expected to provide for a traveler’s needs at a moments notice. Abraham and Sarah fulfill this ... Read More »
15th Sunday in OT - July 10, 2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 7/06/22
Gathered together each weekend in our parish church we look around and see our neighbors, family, and friends. Many of them are people very much like ourselves. The neighbor in today’s Gospel, the good Samaritan, is not. Samaritans were seen as outcasts by the Jewish people who frequented the ... Read More »
14th Sunday in OT - July 3, 2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 6/29/22
This weekend, we celebrate the anniversary of our country’s founding, appreciative of what we have while we labor to build a more perfect union. Jesus, in today’s Gospel, laments “The harvest is abundant, but laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for ... Read More »
13th Sunday in OT - June 26, 2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 6/22/22
“The Harvest is Great-Workers Needed.” This goes very well with our reading for this weekend. “Follow me,” Jesus calls out in the Gospel. He summons us as well, and his call is challenging. Being a disciple means putting aside one’s own personal concerns leaving everything to follow him no ... Read More »
The Body and Blood of Christ - June 19, 2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 6/15/22
This Sunday is the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, (or as we used to say Corpus Christi). We gather each weekend at the table of the Lord, invited to share in this sacred meal in which Christ himself provides the food and drink for ... Read More »
Trinity Sunday - June 12, 2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 6/07/22
How many times through-out our lives have we begun and ended our prayers with the sign of the cross in blessing, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? Three persons in one God. Easy to say but difficult to understand, for ... Read More »
Pentecost - June 5, 2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 6/02/22
This weekend we complete the fifty-day celebration of Easter with the feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. As the world was transformed when Christ was born, making God incarnate in our world, the world is transformed once again with God’s gift of the ... Read More »
7th Sunday of Easter - Ascension - May 29,2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 5/25/22
This Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer. And this Sunday the church has moved the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord-forty days after Easter-to the 7th Sunday of Easter. This holy day celebrates that day when Jesus Christ, having risen from the dead and appeared ... Read More »
6th Sunday of Easter - May 22, 2022
Posted by Fr Bob Betz on 5/19/22
Spirit to remind them of everything he taught them. And so, once again this weekend, we rejoice in God’s abiding presence with us.
The first apostles had a fundamental decision to make about the future of the church. They could choose to create vigorous requirements for admission, restricting membership ... Read More »