GOSPEL MEDITATION - ENCOURAGE DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF SCRIPTURE
May 31, 2026
The Most Holy Trinity
John 3:16-18
I was 16 years old on a youth group retreat in the mountains. One night, I opened my heart to the message being proclaimed: that God so loved the world that He sent His Son for us. Later, I lay under the pine trees and looked up at the countless stars. They seemed different. No longer cold, distant balls of chemical reactions, they appeared as an expression of God’s love, as if He were giving those stars directly to me. The truth of God sending His Son changed how I saw the whole universe.
That is what today’s Gospel reveals: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” (John 3:16) The universe is not just a whirl of impersonal forces or empty space. At its heart is a gift: the Father eternally giving the Son, not to condemn, but to bring life.
This is not abstract doctrine but deeply personal. God gives His Son for you and me. Each human life is precious enough to be caught up in that eternal gift.
It is in the Mass where we encounter this most directly. In the Word proclaimed, in the assembly gathered, in the priest, and above all in the Eucharist, the Father once again gives His Son. What looks like bread and wine is the drama of the Trinity, laboring to love us here and now.
The Trinity is not a puzzle to solve but the blazing Truth at the center of everything: the Father gives the Son for you and me. Lord, help us to see this more clearly.
— Father John Muir
RAYER – FOR EVERYDAY AND EVERYBODY
Trinity Prayer
O Divine Mystery, O Sacred Trinity!
Surround us with Your wisdom, love, power, and grace.
Draw us to Yourself. Help us to rest in Your goodness. Amen.
(PRACTICING) CATHOLIC - RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS
By Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman
The Gift of Not Understanding
I once listened to Bishop Daniel Flores — a renowned scholar and prelate — give a 70-minute talk on the Trinitarian nature of God. In those 70 minutes, Bishop Flores said a lot of eloquent things. But what that really landed with me was not any group of words, but a single gesture.
Defining hypostasis, the term we use for the “the reciprocal dynamic relations that constitute distinct identities within the Godhead” (yes, I am using his words because I could never, in a million years, trust my own) Bishop Flores said “the Father and the Son are true God, but the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. How not? Different hypostasis.”
And here his eyes grew wide; he turned his head and opened his hands, drawing back as if from a spooked horse. The implication was clear: Any further than this, I dare not go.
I’ve never felt so seen.
Sometimes, I make the mistake of thinking that I am unique in my inability to understand the great mysteries. Sometimes, I despair that I am not a “better Catholic” — one who will rush headfirst into the crosshairs of a hard question, confident in the words that come immediately to my lips.
But when I saw Bishop Flores flinch at the thought of defining how, exactly, the Son is not the Father, and vice versa, I remembered that only fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
This Sunday, friends, take heart: our failure to understand is not a poverty. It is a gift. It propels us constantly back to the wellspring of our glorious Faith — to Scripture, to Tradition, to the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit which sustains each and every one of us who dare to believe.
WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS PARISH
Our Mission Statement:
We, the North American Martyrs Parish, a strong community of faith, Nourished by the Holy Eucharist, Guided by the Holy Spirit and Trusting in the grace of God, Dedicate ourselves to live God’s Word and Let the light of Christ shine through our Community. We strive to provide sound religious formation for people of all ages; To care for the spiritual, social well-being of one another With particular attention to the stranger and the poor in our midst.
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ John 20:21
Upcoming Events
MAKE PLANS TO JOIN US AT ONE OF OUR CEMETERIES ON JUNE 1ST AT 6PM AS WE PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOULS OF OUR LOST ONES.
ST ALBERT ST BRENDAN ST PIUS X