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Dear Friends,
This past week, on Friday, we had a very well attended liturgy and I’d like to recall the three areas we covered, for each of them is tied together and each of them is worthy of your attention.
First of all, we celebrated the great Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, a major feast of the Church, and then we had the festive ordination of two great young men, a moment of tremendous joy for our diocese, and lastly, we marked the major liturgical celebration of our “Fortnight for Freedom,” as we prayed for the preservation of religious liberty and freedom, with God’s help.
First, I spoke of the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul. Pope Benedict XVI remarked, in his homily for this feast, that the fraternity of Peter and Paul was really something remarkable. It was interesting to see how well our readings for the Feast of Peter and Paul worked, and as we celebrated the Fortnight for Freedom — for both of the first two readings had statements about the freedom of those two great apostles. The First Reading (Acts 12:1-11) spoke of how Peter was freed for his apostolic ministry by the direct intervention of the Lord’s angel, and in the Second Reading (2 Tim. 4:6-8, 17-18) Paul thanks God because he has been given the freedom to “fight the good fight,” and that “the Lord rescued him from the lion’s mouth.”