Join Saints Mary and Joseph Parish as we sponsor a Family Concert at Field of Dreams on August 13th from 2:00pm to 6:00pm. Come enjoy the music of the local church bands including our very own Brenda Terry and Kyle Erickson! There will also be food, face painting and raffles. So mark your calendars and bring your friends and lawn chairs!! Let us pray for our community as we unite in song and remember we are all one.

Reflection 07-04-2016

The Gospel this weekend begins with Jesus …”appointing 72 others whom He sent ahead of Him in pairs to every town and place He intended to visit.”

I wonder if He intends to visit Salem?! That would be very exciting, wouldn’t you agree? In order for Him to do that, though, He needs to send people OUT to prepare the people for His visit. Jesus must have known that people were not going to come crashing down the doors to get into our church. But rather, we have to go OUT and find them! Pope Francis says “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of ALL who encounter Jesus.” This is SO true. But if we don’t go OUT, how will they hear it? How will they know the joy that can only come through Jesus?
They won’t.

BUT all is not lost! Why? Because we are going OUT! On August 13th Saints Mary and Joseph will be sponsoring a concert at Field of Dreams called Big Church Day Out. Along with other churches in town, we will be spreading the Gospel message of Joy to Salem. We are going OUT!

Why now? Two reasons. The first is that the Pope ASKS us to! Along with his message that the joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of ALL who encounter Jesus, he also encourages, “Let us not allow our-selves to be robbed of missionary enthusiasm.” Our Big Church Day Out is a way to spread “missionary enthusiasm” right in our own town!
Does Salem need missionaries? Recently, 20/20 did a two-part story on the drug epidemic in our nation. Part 2 was titled “The Epidemic in NH” and was filmed in Manchester. News Anchor David Muir spoke of being in a Manchester middle school. He says, “There was a moment I was in Manchester inside a middle school – I won’t forget it – talking to 11 & 12 year olds. I said ‘How many of you have seen the needles, the heroin needles?’ And nearly every kid in the class raised their hand.” People, the drug crisis isn’t in our backyard, it’s on our front porch. If ever we needed missionaries, it’s now!

So if the Joy of the Gospel is to be shared, and no one is to be left out from hearing the message – what better way to do it than to collaborate with the other churches, go OUT and bring Jesus through music?! Imagine a family, struggling with a child addicted to drugs, stopping by Field of Dreams and hearing the message of hope in song! What a gift!

YOU are being called too! Rather than meet on the side of our own building for our Parish Picnic, we will meet at Field of Dreams. We will begin to get the message of Joy OUT to our town to prepare for Jesus’ visit! So get your lawn chairs ready, pray without ceasing for the people of Salem to come. And meet us on the lawn at Field of Dreams August 13th!

Justine Dufour