Monthly Archives: July 2025

“For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you.”

Whenever I read that beautiful passage from Deuteronomy 30, I remember my friend Becky, who wandered into the parish where I worked many years ago and immediately fell in love with the whole “Catholic Thing.”

She’d never been in a Catholic Church. She stared at the statues of the saints. When the Bread and Cup were elevated, she could scarcely breathe.

She became the most devout student. She could sit with the missalette for hours, asking questions about why we do what we do.

She was baptized, confirmed, and received her First Communion one Holy Saturday night. She was a true convert, joyfully brought into the Church she loved.

One day she said to me, “Catholics are so sophisticated. They know all about all the sacraments, and the saints, and all about the Mass. I never thought I was smart enough to be a Catholic. It’s so intimidating.”

Are we sophisticated? Intimidating? Of course not. But our rituals and traditions seem mysterious and remote to those joining us for the first time.

When you notice someone new in the pews, think about sitting next to them. Ask if they’d like some help following the Mass. Take a missalette and show them how to follow it.

Help a newcomer navigate the missalette. Explain those remote and mysterious parts of the Mass. I bet they’ll join us next Easter, grateful for the gifts we often take for granted.

Remember that Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the book of Isaiah when Philip asked him if he understood it. “How can I understand, if no one explains it to me?” (Acts 8).

Are there still some mysterious and remote parts of the Mass for you?

Kathy McGovern ©2025

What an interesting gospel.  Apparently, those 72 disciples were doing “advance work” in the towns Jesus planned to visit. Maybe they were sent to assure people that what they had heard about him was actually true.

Yes, they might have said, he truly did say that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies! And when they tried to push him over the cliff he just passed right through them! And yes, he told his friends to cast their nets back in the water after they had fished all night, and the catch was so great they couldn’t haul it in! And yes, he did raise the widow’s son from the dead!

Imagine yourself on that mission. You don’t have anything to comfort you on the dusty road. No cell phone to stay in touch with family. No band aids for blisters. No extra jacket for the cold nights. It sounds, to my wimpy ears, like a miserable experience.

And yet, imagine being the first person to announce the kingdom of God to a city longing for that message. What joy. What grace. Oh yeah. I’d sign up for that.

Speaking of signing, those who bravely signed the Declaration of Independence agreed with Thomas Jefferson that “all men are created equal.” Some of them believed that so deeply that, if they owned slaves, they set them free. Jefferson himself, owned 175 slaves on the day of his death, the Fourth of July, 1826.

The kingdom is at hand, Jesus said. As we celebrate freedom this weekend, let’s consider how we are building the kingdom, and declaring our independence from the hypocrisies which dilute our witness to Christ.

What inconsistencies in your life keep you from truly experiencing freedom?

Kathy McGovern ©2025