A Message from Fr. Bradley Jenniges, OSB

As I write this, a few days before the St. Joseph festival on July 3 and 4, I do not know how our prayers for good weather and a safe and successful festival will be answered. I do know that a number of dedicated people are generously donating time to prepare for the festival. Festival cochairs, concert committee and stand chairs have been preparing steadily for this event. Quilters worked for months making the beautiful quilts that will be auctioned. Many people are signing up for a shift or more at the various stands. People are selling raffle tickets. Stands are being set up and equipment is being cleaned. People are baking cakes and pies. I am grateful for the tremendous effort and cooperation that parishioners and friends of the parish are putting forth to make the festival successful.

Our Benedictine Catholic Parishes have traditions of hospitality. On June 24, the feast of the birth of their patron, St. John the Baptist hosted a senior social with a brunch following the Mass there that morning. It was a nice time to sit together and enjoy one another's company over a shared meal. The St. Joseph festival offers hospitality to a mass of people, which can be challenging, but exhilarating. Some technology is used to try to make it possible to serve so many people.

In his encyclical letter Magnifica Humanitas, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV reflects on the changing world humanity is building today through artificial intelligence and the challenges this presents to the human person. He urges the faithful to contemplate God's plan, live ecclesial unity by partaking of the Eucharist, build a world centered on the common good and pray in union with the Blessed Virgin Mary (MH 229). He urges us to cultivate relationships and cherish places and times where physical presence remains crucial, such as shared meals, Christian community gatherings, time spent with the lonely and serving the poor (MH 239). Our traditions of hospitality fit into this agenda.