“These are the ones who, living in the flesh, planted the Church with their blood; they drank the chalice of the Lord and became the friends of God.”

This is the antiphon, sung at the beginning of the Mass on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, which describes the effect of their martyrdom: their blood being spilt planted the Church, and through their acceptance of martyrdom, they entered perfect union with God. The Church, since the earliest times to even today, is built and sanctified by those who give their life for Christ, and through this gift of themselves, they are joined in perfect communion with Him.

Dear friends,

Saints Peter and Paul, whose feasts we celebrate this weekend, are perhaps two of the greatest apostles, though called under different circumstances. Their feast, this year, is one of those liturgical feasts that replaces what should have been the ordinary Sunday of the Year, in this case, the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C.

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ), a special day where we draw attention to our Eucharistic Lord, and was instituted as a Feast in the entire Latin Church after a Eucharistic miracle in Bolsena, Italy in 1263.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I greet you all and wish you good health and happiness. When I visited Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in early 2023 and stayed for two months, I so enjoyed my stay with you that I could not hide my wish to one day be part and parcel of your faith Community. By God’s grace, this wish has been granted to me, and I am so grateful to God and to all those who made this possible. I am so excited to be among you. Here is something brief about myself:

Dear Friends,

Every year, during summer, the vocations office of the Diocese of Phoenix assigns theology seminarians to certain selected parishes so as to experience what a typical parish life looks like. Our parish has been fortunate to have been selected two years in a row, beginning with seminarian Max Rich last year. This year, we are blessed with the assignment of seminarian Steven Gutierrez, who will be with us from June 2 - August 4. This is an opportunity for us as a parish to participate in a crucial stage of his formation for the priesthood.

In the beginning, there was a man named Adam, and he had a great deal going for him. He had an intimate relationship with God—the Lord walked in the same garden and called to him by name—and, as a result, he also formed a beautiful relationship with his wife, his own self, and his surroundings. But one day, leaning into a tree, he turned away from God, turned on his wife, and turned his life (and the world) upside down.

In the account of Pentecost as recorded in scripture, we’re told the fire of the Holy Spirit fell upon Our Lady and the apostles in the Upper Room, were they were not consumed nor harmed by the flame. Once we hear such a thing, we’re immediately led back to Moses before the burning bush at Mount Sinai. The bush was on fire, but was not consumed. The bush wasn’t consumed because the fire was expressing the presence of God. It led Moses to greater reverence. It was a sign of his purification and of his call to go and proclaim freedom from slavery and an exodus back to the Promised Land of his forefathers.

Dear Friends,

“The Holy Spirit leads us like a mother. He leads His child by the hand…as a sighted person leads a blind person.” -Saint John Vianney

As I grow in my journey of faith, discernment of God’s will, and in my relationship to God as an adopted son through Jesus Christ and as one of his little priests, I continue to learn how to trust in his providence. In the good, the bad, and the ugly of life the Lord has worked to bring me to where I am today and to embolden me in my faith.