Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your hospitality and the welcome you offered me on the day Bishop Malooly installed me as your new pastor. I am truly grateful to almighty God for all the graces he affords us here in our parish.

Today we hear about the wonders of the instruction for how to pray. Jesus offers us the Our Father; he instructs us that we are to offer forgiveness and in turn we will be recipients of such forgiveness by our heavenly Father in turn.

Let us take to heart the prayer we speak together at every Liturgy and allow it to resonate within our daily lives as a guide and compass for our attention to God and to our neighbor. What we pray is what we believe and what we believe is what we pray.

May our action of prayer be understood by those who observe our behavior and may we come to exemplify what Christ has taught us to be, brothers and sisters and heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Pax Christi,
Vy. Rev. John B. Gabage, V.F.