The effort for you to attend Saturday or Sunday weekend Mass matters. Our world just seems to get noisier each day. We are surrounded by conflict, division, anxiety, and endless demands on our time and attention. It is easy to wonder, “what difference can one person make?” The answer begins each weekend when we gather for Mass.

Saturday evening or Sunday worship is much more than fulfilling an obligation. It is an opportunity to step away from the noise of the world and enter the peace of Christ. Around the altar we listen to God’s Word, receive the Eucharist, and remember who we are: people of hope, mercy, and peace.

The choices we make during the week are shaped by what shapes our hearts. When we regularly worship together as individuals and families, we begin to see life through the eyes of Christ. We become more patient with one another, more forgiving, more generous, and more willing to choose kindness over anger, understanding over judgement, and hope over despair.

We may not be able to change the entire world, but we can change the atmosphere in our own homes. We can bring peace into our workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, and friendships. Every act of compassion, every word of encouragement, every moment of forgiveness begins with a heart that has first encountered Christ.

Children learn what matters by what their parents make a priority. When families gather faithfully for Mass, they discover that God is not simply part of life - He is the center of it. The memories, values, and faith formed around Sunday worship become a foundation that carries them through both life’s greatest joys and deepest challenges.

As each weekend approaches, keep making worship your priority. Come to give thanks, to be renewed, and to receive the strength that only Christ can give. Then go forth to be His presence in the world. Peace in the world begins with peace in one heart. And one heart, transformed by Christ, has the power to touch countless others.

This week, please share this article with one person who has been away from Mass for a while. Then choose one act of kindness, one word of encouragement, one gesture of forgiveness each day. Peace grows one heart, one home, one choice at a time.

With you a Christian, for you, a priest.

Father Carl Morello
Pastor
Ascension and St. Edmund Parish
St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy and St. Giles Parish