22ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME IS A CATHOLIC-CHRISTIAN HISTORY LESSON FOR OLOL...........

As we gather to celebrate the Prayer, Worship, and Ministry, of being Church in Jesus The Christ, the missionary appeal being preached this Sunday by Dominican Father Tony Wall, O.P., at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, in Sacramento / Del Paso Heights / Rio Linda / Elverta / Robla / is a history lesson as to what it means to truly be, Catholic-Christian.  In his preaching on behalf of the Dominican Missions, Father Wall is speaking not only of their four missionary territories in Lithuania, Africa,the Phillipines, and Mexico, but of the Dominicans historical contribution to the settling of Catholic-Christianity in this part of the Lord's Vineyard, 160 Years ago, at the time of the California Gold Rush.  Reverend Father Peter Anderson, O.P., the first priest to celebrate Mass in Sacramento, was a Dominican missionary priest.  Father Anderson ministered for only six months in this missionary territory, having bent sent by his Superior, Reverend Joseph Alemany, he succumbed to death just six months after his arrival, and before Alemany was appointed from Rome, as the first Bishop of this expansive missionary territory, and would become the first Archbishop of San Francisco.  The focus of Father Wall's preaching this weekend is appealing to OLOL parishioners, as to how Catholic-Christian they are; in their support not only of the domestic, local, Church, but the universal, "catholic", nature of the Church.  In our support of the international missions conducted by his own Dominican Missionaries.  He speaks to the missionary work being done by the Dominicans, especially in work among the lepers in the Phillipines, who through the vision of one Dominican without the support of his province founded a parochial school, a secondary school, and a teacher's college, to educate them, that continues to the present. Now those teachers, freed from isolation due to their leprosy, are training others throughout the Phillipines in the Catholic-Christian Faith.  The message of this appeal for all Christian Disciples, is how catholic / Catholic, are we in embracing and supporting the worlwide mission of conversion, catechesis, evangelization, and fidelity to the Catholic-Christian Faith, and the Gospel Values of Jesus, Son of God, and Savior of the World ???  That is a pertinent question each  of us can ask ourselves, and from the interior of our hearts discover, as we fully proceed in Living Faith...........Through, With, And In, Christ Jesus Who Is Lord Of All Creation,   Fr. Troy