My dear parishioners, to the Church at Rome, Saint Paul explains how the Sacrament of Baptism, confers “newness of life” to all who receive it: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” [Rom 6:4] The surpassing way of being “alive together with Christ” [Eph 2:5] is a surrender to God in humble prayer and worship, “for through (Christ, all) have access in one Spirit to the Father.” [Eph 2:18]
To pilgrims visiting Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father’s summer residence, Pope Saint John Paul II of blessed memory shared the incarnational aspects of prayer. The pontiff affirmed that prayer is vital to a Christian's life but cannot be considered an activity independent or apart from one's ordinary behavior.

NO PRAYER can make up for the shortcomings of an improper moral life. Prayer before a just and loving God cannot help but commit the believer to worthy conduct. I invite you to pray constantly, raising your hearts and minds to God in a spirit of adoration and openness to his word. [1992]

The holy way to union with God is grace, a sometimes difficult path leading from death to life: “Even as (God) chose us in him before the foundation of the world, we should be holy and blameless before him.” [Eph 1:4]
God has entrusted to you many talents, accomplishments, and successes in life, but more than this, God sets before you the pursuit of holiness. He offers a “holy way of life” to you as a means to overcome the most dangerous of fallen man’s sins, pride with its unholy offspring: greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. Considered together, these “cardinal” sins share a common purpose, to lead a person inexorably into a desert of self-idolatry and ruination.
Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote, “Pride is the inordinate desire for one’s own excellence.” Pride and egotism go hand in hand. An egotist is overwhelmingly infatuated by his own biography. He does not care about anybody else or anyone else’s stories. Erasing other people’s humanity allows him to hoard the one thing he values, the content of his own mind. The egotist must win at all costs. But the process of degrading relationships and shared good will is not neutral. By erasing the humanity of others, an egotist annihilates his own story.
Mother Teresa, founder of the worldwide Missionaries of Charity (1950), said, “The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved -- they are Jesus in disguise.” God reveals his will to you as a test, sometimes in disguise, (Continued from page 1) God’s Will Be Done commanding you to depart from the broad and lifeless highway of pride and self-centeredness. To pray Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven is your pledge to be God’s humble, obedient disciple.
“With great confidence submit (yourself) to (God’s) holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.” [St. Faustina Kowalska, DIARY 950] God, therefore, unveils his will to you as a gift, a stirring acknowledgment of his son’s redemptive love, the fulfillment of human redemption and the regeneration of the cosmos itself. By praying the “Our Father prayer,” you give your assent to the world God created and, as well, to God’s intervention in human affairs to save it. To his beloved Thessalonians, St. Paul counsels, "Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." [1Th 5:16-18] Proclaim to the world the truth that God’s will - will be done. Sincerely in the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Your pastor, Reverend Richard Barker.