Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

Solemnity (1969 Calendar): June 29
Double of the I Class (1955 Calendar): June 29

The Catholic Church honors many, many saints and we can easily be one too. We don't have to live in poverty or take the Sacrament of Holy Orders; we can simply love God and our neighbor as ourselves and follow Jesus. Christ said: "Whoever does not take up his cross is not worthy of me". And we take up those crosses in our lives all the time, yet we must continue loving God and growing in prayer. For, without the Cross there is no Resurrection. We can deepen our meditation on Christ's life, passion, death, and Resurrection while only growing closer to the Lord.

Today, June 29, we celebrate the Sts. Peter and Paul, who both loved God so fervently they died for the One True Faith. St. Peter loved his faith so much he was even crucified upside down because he claimed that he was unworthy to die in the same manner as Our Lord.

Life after death is possible only if we trust 100% in Jesus Christ. St. Paul suffered so much throughout his life that he would call so painfully on God to save him. And God only said that His grace would be sufficient. St. Paul continued to grow in faith and reached Heaven even though his previously time on earth was spent persecuting Christians. We can always turn to God no matter what we have done before.

I sincerely hope that more people in the Church will simply go to Mass on Sundays and pray the Rosary more often. We can know a lot "about" God from books but only prayer lets us "know" God, and if you have never sought out God you wouldn't know Him. Our Lord is always with us "until the end of the age" in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar calling and praying that some may just spend 1 hour with Him as He said in the Garden before His passion.

As Saint Paul learned later in life, "I can do all things through He who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13), and I pray people that have left the Church will come back to it knowing that it is the Church with an apostolic line back to Saint Peter, the first Pope on the Church Christ began in Matthew 16:18-19.

Some many have left the Church for reasons they don't want to discuss, but others may not have "seen" God, so I will leave now with a quotation from an anonymous Jewish prisoner in the Holocaust:

"I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. I believe in God even when He is silent."

Can you also look at the Blessed Sacrament with your heart instead of your eyes and answer your call to Sainthood? God doesn't have a complex telephone number or operator service, He only stands at the door of your heart and knocks...will you answer?

Also, read Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 Homily for the Solemnity.

Mass in 2008:







Prayer:

O God, Who hast made this day holy by the martyrdom of Thine Apostles Peter and Paul: grant that Thy Church may in all things follow the precepts of those through whom she received the beginnings of the Faith. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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