June 11, 2025

By Father William Muench
NCC columnist

Each Sunday during this month of June, our Catholic Church celebrates a major liturgical feast day. We, Catholics, will be recognizing important beliefs of our faith – the teachings of Jesus – each Sunday. These feast days will draw us ever closer to our faith in the Lord Jesus. We will celebrate the Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit to the apostles and now to us; we will celebrate a feast honoring our God, the Feast of the Holy Trinity; there is also a feast day celebrating the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus; and this year, we will honor two of our greatest saints on a Sunday, the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.

To prepare us properly to celebrate the feast days of this month, the month began by focusing our attention on the Gospel reading of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. This is the 17th Chapter of the Gospel of St. John. You will probably remember this. I do encourage you to read John 17 during this month. It truly sets a tone for all the celebrations of the month.

In his Priestly Prayer, Jesus is praying for us, today’s Catholics. In this prayer, Jesus also prays for himself – that he will be strong in meeting the sufferings of his Passion and Death. He then prays for his apostles – he knows that they will need faith and guidance – as they bring his message to this world.

Then Jesus prays for us. He prays for all those who will discover and believe in his message and teachings throughout all ages. This means Jesus was praying for you and me at the Last Supper. Jesus prays that we will all – the people of all time –come to know God, the God who loves us first. That all of us, you and me, will become loving people – loving in our faith of our God, loving each other, loving all others in our world.

Jesus prays in this prayer that all his followers of all time will be united to him, our Lord and God, and united to each other. Jesus prays “that they may be one as we, Father, are one.” Jesus prays that we, as followers of God, will be the People of God – united as a family with our God, united in our love for our Savior, Jesus Christ. As the family of God, we will make our world a better place – a Church, people united together, that will bring Christ’s love to all that we meet.

At Mass, I frequently like to remind the folks that we all remember to join in prayer to all here present – our family and the Lord’s family, that we pray together, but we also pray for each other, that we see each other, that we join together. I know that there will always be many there present who desperately need our prayers.

Our Catholic Church is so unique. We are a diverse group – each with our own unique gifts. Jesus chose us. Although we are different, we must be united with the same goal of mutual love. We must be open to each other, and we must welcome each other in love. We are the Body of Christ – alive in the love of God, united as we bring Christ’s love to our world.

We will succeed when we are united. Selfishness is always a blight on our community. A spirit of love for each other should always be evident in our Christian community. We must spread our Christian love to all that we meet – a powerful sign of our love for Jesus. We must be recognized as a caring people.