A special thanks to the HCA school community who gave me early birthday wishes at the last school Mass of the year! Because my bday is in the summer, I had never celebrated my birthday on a school day! I did always love the fact that my birthday was a day of rest, adventure, exploration, and barbecue! I am truly grateful for the outpouring of love from my school family! And some ask, when is your bday? To which I give the slightly cryptic answer, the feast of Saint Kateri! Yes, there is a more widely known French national holiday that day too!

And our children just got through the first week of summer. Is anyone complaining of boredom yet? I remember that every summer of my childhood would be given some summer long task, like painting the fence, or battling the bamboo forest (a real thing in our back yard)! The sense of accomplishment in seeing such work meant that eventually, I wouldn’t be assigned the task because I was already taking ownership of the mowing and trimming of hedges! There was not much boredom in the Mosimann home of the ‘70s!

One of the greatest conversions in history occurred because of boredom. St. Ignatius of Loyal was recovering from a cannonball to the leg, and bedridden. He was bored. Requesting romance novels, he was instead given a book of the lives of the saints. He discovered a love worth living for. A huge part of that was him noticing that in contemplating the life and glory of the saints, that he was filled with lasting peace. Unlike when he filled his time with earthly pursuits that left him bored and empty afterwards. Fulton Sheen speaks to this when he said, “You will never be happy if your happiness depends on getting solely what you want. Change the focus. Get a new center. Will what God wills, and your joy no man shall take from you.”

Another summer highlight was my brother and I going to spend a week or three at my grandmother’s in Pennsylvania! Perspective has revealed that it was also a summer break for mom, but I loved those summers: helping Grandma, and going to Pirates games with my uncle! I still choose 21 as my favorite number in honor of Roberto Clemente!

This Monday I am off to Poland with a pilgrim group of +35! If you want me to pray for your intentions, you can email them to me, or commend them to the Blessed Mother, and I will ask her to obtain favors from Heaven for each of you.

Much of the pilgrimage will involve seeing the original Divine Mercy painting, and shrines of Saints Faustina, JP2, and Maximilian Kolbe! I heard a phrase recently attributed to the Blessed Mother, speaking of her straying children, “They do not yet know the love of the Father.” What a beautiful loving way for Our Lady to look at us! Thanks Mary!

Pax,

Father John Mosimann