2022 Mission

September 8-11, 2022

Fr. John Michael Paul, CSJ, a priest of the Community of St. John, joined us in September for our first parish mission in a number of years!  The theme for the mission, first developed by Fr. Vincent, was, “Be one, and be holy!”

Theme of the Mission:

Be One, and Be Holy

Talk Titles

Talk #1: The Challenge to Unity

The challenge to unity today, based on the transition from the modern to the post-modern world. We will look at Holy Scripture, Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical, Ut unum sint, and Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et exsultate, on the call to holiness in today's world (19 March 2018).

Talk #2: The Personal Call to Holiness

We become holy because of God’s sanctifying grace at work in our lives. For this, we must be in dialogue with God and become all the more a prayerful people.

Talk #3: Putting Together Unity and Holiness

A deep-down look at John 17, of how Jesus himself prays to the Father and asks for the gift of both personal sanctification and unity of all.

Talk #4: Mary, Model of Holiness, Model of Oneness with Jesus

We will be looking a lot at Raniero Cantalamessa’s work “Mary, Mirror of the Church.” We are called to look to Mary to guide us that we may be one and that we may be Holy as called by God himself to be holy.

Click to Watch the Talks

Mission Speaker:

Fr. John Michael Paul, CSJ

Born in Saint Joseph, Michigan, Father John Michael Paul joined the Brothers of Saint John in 1997 after teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District and working in Irkutsk, Russia (Siberia) for the Russian Academy of Sciences. During his formation time, he received a Masters in  Philosophy from the University of Paris (Sorbonne Paris IV) and lived for 18 years in Europe between France, Lithuania and the island of Corsica. He has since come back to the United States.

He is currently the Vocations Director for the United States after having served in the General Priors’ Council as Vicar of Southern France and then Vicar of the Americas. During his college years at Saint Mary’s College of California, where he was a varsity rower and Pacific Coast Pac-10 Champion, he took to swimming, running, working out, mountain climbing, as well as preaching in the United States and beyond. He would be very glad to share with you his love for God and passion for holiness!

Find out more about Fr. John Michael's community, the Community of St. John, at their international web site, or at the American website for the brothers.