GOSPEL MEDITATION - ENCOURAGE DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF SCRIPTURE
July 26, 2026
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 13:44-52
Around the time that the gold rushes ended in the nineteenth-century West, a curious phenomenon arose in New England known as money diggers. These were men who roamed the countryside with shovels, divining rods, and superstitious hope, convinced that treasure lay buried beneath their feet. Surely there must be gold under our feet. But there was not. The craze of these wild goose chases caused many to lose farms, families, and sanity.
In this week’s Gospel, Jesus inaugurates a new era of spiritual money digging. He announces, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.” He invites us to become treasure seekers who search in the right place. What is of greatest value is not money beneath our feet, but the infinite treasure hidden deep in the humanity of Jesus himself, God’s own blessed life. The glory of heaven lies veiled in his ordinary life, his teaching, his suffering, his Church.
This teaching about the Kingdom changes things. Now we see the Church’s doctrinal and moral teachings are not arbitrary rules. They are a treasure map. Follow them, and we will uncover divine happiness. Ignore them, and we will wander aimlessly, spade in hand, digging in empty fields, discouraged.
Where have we wasted energy seeking treasure in the wrong places? How have we given up on seeking the treasure of truly finding God’s love for us? If so, let us repent of both. Then let us dust off our shovels and get back to digging deep into the field of Christ Jesus and his Church. After all, He never ceases seeking his treasure in us.
— Father John Muir
Kindness, Explained!
In the modern lexicon, the quality of “kindness” is often equated with politeness — but real, virtuous kindness is so much more. Virtuous kindness is a way of seeing others through the eyes of God.
God is not polite — God is kind, and His kindness is abundantly evident in all of creation. It was suspicion of this divine kindness that precipitated the fall of Adam and Eve (CCC 214), and it was this unfailing kindness that facilitated our own adoption as God’s children, conformed to the image of His son (CCC 257).
Also known as benevolence or beneficence and derived from the theological virtue of charity, kindness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and is a central theme in the famous parable of the Good Samaritan. In practicing kindness and seeking the good of another without prejudice or condition, the Samaritan reflects God’s own plan of loving kindness for us.
(PRACTICING) CATHOLIC - RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS
By Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman
Choosing Heaven
My children often ask me questions about Heaven. What does Heaven look like? Is there nighttime in Heaven? Do you get hungry in Heaven? Are there oceans in Heaven? Will we feel bored in Heaven?
My answer is almost always the same: “I can’t tell you for sure.” I guess I didn’t realize how little we actually know about Heaven until I had kids who were obsessed with hearing the details.
But accepting human ignorance is liberating in a way, because it allows me to see clearly — and cling wholeheartedly to — the three things I do know for sure: Heaven is where God is, and Hell is where He isn’t, and it’s completely my decision where I want to be.
The choice, you see, is everything.
We need to pay attention to how Jesus describes the kingdom of Heaven in his parables. It is, he tells us, a treasure — but a treasure buried in a field owned by someone else. It is a beautiful pearl — and a very expensive pearl. It is a bountiful yield — one which must be carefully, even painstakingly sifted through.
It’s so easy to imagine the delight of the man who finds the treasure, who encounters the pearl, who hauls the bursting net aboard, just as it is easy to call ourselves followers of Christ, to hang a Rosary from our windshield and go to Mass.
It’s less easy, and a great deal more uncomfortable, to contemplate what comes next: the sacrifice, the commitment, the perseverance through uncertainty.
Heaven is an incredible stroke of luck — one that requires a good deal of follow-through. We can never earn it, but we must choose it. Again and again and again, we must choose it.
VIRTUES, EXPLAINED! – CONNECT WITH TRADITION AND GROW YOUR FAITH
Abstinence, Explained!
The virtue of abstinence describes the act of refusing, to any extent, food or types of food. On its own, this action does not produce grace within a soul. However, when regulated by reason and performed in pursuit of sanctification, it is a pious form of mortification of the flesh.
Abstinence is compelled by the fourth precept of the Catholic Church (“You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church.”) This precept “ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts and help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart,” says the Catechism (CCC 2043).
St. Thomas writes that the virtuous act of fasting is ordered to three ends: first, to control the appetites of the flesh; second, “that the mind may arise more freely to the contemplation of heavenly things,” as we see so often in Scripture; and third, in reparation for sin (II:II, 147, Art. 1).
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
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MAKE PLANS TO JOIN US AT ONE OF OUR CEMETERIES ON AUGUST 1ST AT 6PM AS WE PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOULS OF OUR LOST ONES.
ST ALBERT ------ ST BRENDAN ------ ST PIUS X
