This Sunday after the 11 a.m. Mass we will process immediately to the Mary Garden and hold a brief prayer service to give thanks to God for our religious freedoms in America. We also will offer our thanks to all the men and women who have built and defended our God-given rights to these religious freedoms, and pray for the enlightenment of those who wish to weaken them.

The word in the title above, "Traditions" is, I believe, important in our lexicon. For many, the word "tradition" and what it conveys is without meaning today or is even ridiculed as unimportant by some, even antiquated and outdated. "Move on into the future," many say as they relegate traditions—religious or secular—to the heap pile of the past. I think traditions are
important and need to be restored. I hope you will join me on Sunday for a few minutes to give thanks to God for all that He has given us in this world—faith, family, nation and community. And as an enticement, we will celebrate with hotdogs and ice cream in an American style Fourth of July.

On 24 June, the Nativity of the John the Baptist, we celebrated the importance of "traditions" of all sorts. In the readings for that day—a feast in the Catholic Church-which marks the birth of John as the Precursor of Christ—and the summer solstice which begins the lessening of daylight (I must decrease so that He may increase) and six months before the Nativity of Christ and the beginning of longer days (winter solstice) as the Light of the world came into our lives. These are not empty rituals or simply symbolic traditions, but carry with them real meaning that have a mighty impact on our life—now and eternal. The feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist offers readings that remind us of the wonderful job that Elizabeth and Zachariah did in raising John to become the chief prophet that God created him to be: in his home life his parents, Elizabeth and Zachariah, passed on to him three important understands—the knowledge of his faith, the knowledge of his people's human
history (their story), and the hope which Eternal Salvation offers to each of us. These traditions helped to form John the Baptist into the person God created. His mother and father, in carrying out their parental duties, were cooperators or partners with God in bringing about human salvation.

We all are called by God to join Him in Christ's ongoing mission and ministry to bring salvation to the entire world. Small roles or large roles, public or private, we all have a role to play in God's great plan for humanity. You never know which daily activities of our lives, carried out well and faithfully, are part of God's design. May we all be faithful to His Divine Call, and hear in this bulletin an invitation from God to give Him thanks for the freedom to be who He created you to be! See you in the Garden!