Known by Name: A New Chapter

Good morning.

Just a few announcements for you before I begin my homily on the Word of God.

The uh first announcement is uh over the past uh several weeks, uh, we have been speaking about the launch of our third season of Alpha.

And uh just want to share with you an update uh on this third launch.

We launched this past Wednesday, our third Alpha course.

Uh and can you guess how many people went?

We got 300 again.

300 people came to our alpha course together with our confirmation one teens, which is something new that we're doing this year.

And if we're actually if we were gonna tally together, everybody who's gone through alpha since January, because that's when we launched, we've launched three courses now.

Uh it would total around 800 people from our parish who have experienced the alpha course.

Now, if you were to do the math with 800 and how many people we see here on a given weekend, we see about between 2400 and 2,500 people.

So almost a third of our parish community now has experienced our alpha course.

And if you look out in the congregation, you might see some people with uh t-shirts.

If you see red t-shirts, they're volunteers or leaders for alpha.

If you see some blue t-shirts, there are volunteers at our parish.

If you see some yellow t-shirts, there are sunshine greeters, as they call themselves.

Um and so I'm very grateful for all of our volunteers who help to make everything that we do here at the church possible, especially for our third Alpha Course.

So that's the first announcement.

Uh, second announcement is that this uh week, beginning tomorrow, I will be uh going on a trip to a place called Lourdes in France.

I don't know if you've heard of that place before.

Um, Lourdes is a special place where Mary uh appeared to Saint Bernadette of Subaru.

And millions of people have gone on pilgrimage to this place.

I have never been before, but I've heard all sorts of incredible stories of how people's lives have been touched going there, and how many miracles have happened, both physical and spiritual, and also emotional and communal and familial.

And so I'll be leaving tomorrow to go to uh Lourdes in France.

We have a small group in our parish that's already there that are serving as volunteers.

And while I'm there, I'm going to be lifting all of you up in prayer.

Uh, you know, I was officially installed as uh pastor here at the end of July, and I will also be consecrating my new pastorate to Mary's intercession and praying for all of you in a special way.

So I invite you, please, pray for me as well as I uh take this trip.

Next week, uh I won't be here during the weekend.

We'll have Father Arundas as well as Father Tim Raymakers.

You remember him, Father Tim Raymakers, who's a pastor here, I think maybe uh twent 12 years, 20 years ago, something like that.

A little while ago, he was here as a pastor.

He'll be joining us for the 4 p.m.

Mass on Saturday and 5 p.m.

Mass on Sunday.

Last announcement.

Uh this weekend today, we celebrate another known by name weekend.

Now, if you are newer to St.

Joseph's Church, our Known My Name weekend is part of our vision to create a community where every person is seen, known, and loved.

And if you have experienced these known by name weekends for some months now, did you know that we have been doing this for over a year?

We've been doing our known by name weekends for over a year, getting to know new names, new people, and praying for people in a more intentional way.

Now, now that we've been doing this for over a year, I've been praying, I've been discerning, and I've consulted with some of my key uh staff and leaders and volunteers, and I believe that the Lord is inviting us to take one more step forward to create a culture of prayer and community in our parish.

Are you ready to hear what it is?

Ready or not?

Here it comes.

Um, and this step that I am going to share with you, uh, at first it may feel a little bit uncomfortable, and that's okay.

It's okay if it feels a little bit uncomfortable.

Sometimes our greatest spiritual breakthroughs, our greatest spiritual progress happens when we take a step outside of our comfort zones.

That's what I'm gonna ask you to do today.

Take one step outside of your comfort zone.

Here's what I'm gonna ask.

Today I'm inviting you to turn to somebody new, introduce yourself, and ask of praying silently for that person during the course of the minutes or during the course of the week.

I sound like I'm doing an information or something.

Three easy steps on how to pray.

Now, if you do know how to pray for people, you've done it before, you pray however you want, that's fine.

But if you've never prayed before, here are the steps I'm gonna invite you to do.

Step number one is to thank God.

So just say, how many times in a day do you say thank you to people?

All the time, right?

So now we're just gonna direct it to God.

And we're gonna say, thank you, God.

Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Father, thank you, Heavenly Father, thank you for this person I'm meeting, thank you for my faith, my life, my family, and my work.

Just say thank you to God.

That's step number one.

Okay.

Step number two, ask God for something.

So say the person that you speak to says, you know, I'm going through struggles with my health, or I have this thing with my kids, or I've got a big important decision to make, I'm not sure what to do.

Say, Lord, I ask you to help this person with their health or with their kids or with the decision they're about to make.

Ask God for something.

And then the last step is to close with God.

And you can close the prayer by saying, I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.

And because Paul says to the Colossians, and whatever, I think the baby doesn't like my pitch right now.

So um it's okay, it's okay.

Um in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul says to the Colossians, and everything that you do it, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Or as the priests say during the Mass, we pray this through Christ our Lord.

Or if that's too much for you, just say amen.

And just close in that way.

So thank God, ask something of God, and then close with God.

Pray, I pray this in the name of Jesus our Lord.

Okay.

Are you ready?

I believe in you.

Even if you don't believe in yourself, even if you think, Father, this is a crazy idea, this is way outside my comfort zone.

What are you doing?

I believe in you, I believe that you can do this.

I have faith in you.

Okay, so let's take a moment now.

Turn to somebody new, introduce yourself, ask how I can pray for you, and then pray for that person in the moment out loud using those three steps.

Take a moment to go ahead and do that.

Another thirty seconds.