I am always surprised at how God uses the weakness of our nature and transforms it into an instrument of His glory. I know that's true for me in my life, my work, and my vocation, and I hope you can see how that is true for you as well. In today's Gospel, Peter has tried catching fish by lowering his net 1,000 times that same night on his own, and then refuses to lower it just one more time at the request of our Lord. He is basically saying, "Lord, I've tried this again and again on my own and it never works out. Don't waste your time with me, but go find someone better to help you." Can you hear his fatigue, exasperation, despair, and hopelessness? Yet it is at that very moment of hitting rock bottom that Jesus can act most powerfully in Peter's life! Here's my take: the Lord redirected the fish away from Peter's net that whole night because Peter trusted so much in his own ability to catch fish that he did not make any availability for what Jesus could do in his life. Sometimes God lets us experience what looks like failure so that we can offer our weakness to receive His glory. That’s a pretty good trade-off! If we would only trust Jesus and stop evaluating our worth and call based on our own definition of success, we will see miracles and hear the particular call of discipleship resound in our hearts by Christ.

Scheduling Mass Intentions: We are updating our process for scheduling Mass intentions which will take effect at the beginning of 2023 in order to better fulfill parishioners' requests with the new Mass daily Mass schedule. I will have new guidelines available near the end of this month as well as offer dates when the 2023 Mass book will open. Please know that there are limited Mass intention options left for 2022. Contact the parish office to schedule Mass intentions for 2022.