| Remember your Mothers and Fathers, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, God Parents, and Spiritual Parents, Living and Deceased, with a Novena of Masses Did you know that only one of the Ten Commandments has a promise attached to it? The fourth commandment says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is just. Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with a promise: That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest be long lived upon the earth" (Eph. 6: 1-3). What I find most interesting about this passage from Sacred Scripture and the Commandment itself, is that there is no qualification. It doesn't tell us to honor our parents if they were exemplary parents, or even satisfactory parents. Nor does it tell us to honor our parents for a specific period of time - until we are adults or as long as they are living. No. The passage and the Commandment implicitly suggest that honoring our parents has no qualification - we are to honor them - as our parents - throughout our lifetime without exception. We have great opportunity to joyfully obey this Commandment many times through the course of the year, and even our secular calendar complies. Every Mother's Day and Father's Day reminds us of the gift of life given to us through our parents by God the Father. Our parents, in cooperation with God Himself, gave us the gift of natural life. Then, at the font of Baptism, they provided entrance for us into Eternal life. How can we show our gratitude for this gift of life? There is no greater way than by remembering our parents during the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Our dear friend M
onsignor Matthew Odong,
Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Gulu and Rector of Sacred Heart Seminary,
w
ill celebrate a
Novena of Masses
beginning on Sunday, May 8
th
and ending before Father's Day, June 19
th
.
I invite you to use the link below to send me the names of your mothers and fathers, grandparents, godparents, spiritual leaders, aunts, uncles or other loved ones who have nurtured you throughout your life so that we may offer this Novena of Masses for their spiritual or temporal needs. In this way, we can truly honor those who have gifted us with life whether biological or spiritual. Additionally, we will be remembering in the Masses as well, all of those painful moments that family life often encounters via the brokenness of the world or the frailty of our own human condition. My prayer is that these Masses will also be a source of the healing graces of restoration and new life. God bless you!
In His Service,  Johnnette S. Benkovic |
