What would your life be like, if you had not one single relationship? Can you imagine your life, without conversation, without the touch of another, without the embrace of a loved one? Can human life exist, in complete and utter isolation? Can you imagine existing without the kiss of a mother or the embrace of a father? Without the strength of a friendship, without the occasion of offering your thoughts, your feelings?
Today is the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, the celebration of relational love. The Catholic Church proclaims that the Trinity is One (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 253). This is not jargon. This is not mumbo-jumbo. This is the revealed insight into the essential nature of the Lord God: the Lord God is understood in and through the relational love of Father and Son and Holy Spirit; and we are to find ourselves (the imprint of the truth of our human nature) in the divine model of relational love.
Can human life exist, in complete and utter isolation? NO. It is in our nature, as the image and likeness of God, to be relational. That is why the "program" of the Lord Jesus must be taken in its two-fold invitation: loving the Oneness of God in and through the relational love of neighbor.
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Some of our middle schoolers are at Covecrest this week, on retreat. The EDGE program at SJN has taken off and is having an enormous beneficial effect with our young families. Linda Mauge coordinates the EDGE core team and the EDGE program at SJN. Linda would like to see a few more parents involved with her. If you have an interest in manifesting that relational love of the Holy Trinity, please contact Linda Mauge at the RE office of the parish.
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Next weekend, the Catholic world celebrates Corpus Christi, the solemn celebration of the gift of the Eucharist, the shared meal of the Body and Blood of Christ. Our Archdiocese holds a Eucharistic Congress on the 4th and 5th of June. If you've never attended, why not contact SJN parishioners Ken and Nancy Fehner (###-###-####,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
) and ask them about the Congress. Many SJN parishioners attend the Congress each year and hold it as a high point in their spiritual pilgrimage. Let us thank the Father, for the gift of his Son, the relational love that saves us from our isolation and our sin.
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Monday is our Memorial Day observance. Please remember to pray for the families of all those men and women that have died in defense of this nation. Let us keep the dead in our memory this Monday, and thank God for the freedom we have, won by the sacrifice of others. We lift them in prayer.
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If things had gone as we had hoped, we would be attending the Dedication Mass this Thursday. But, God's divine providence has allowed us a new date to begin again the living out of the life of the Lord Jesus, in relationship, as the Body of Christ... as the family of SJN. And besides, the new date of 24 June allows us more time, to develop a hunger and a thirst for renewal... and the joy of fellowship... God's relational love... here and now.
Msgr. David Talley
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Managers and umpires needed for the Youth softball program. Contact Chris Sandquist at