I.  The Mystery of the Holy Trinity, that God is one in nature and three in persons, is the most fundamental of our faith. On it everything else depends and from it everything else derives. Have you ever noticed how often we invoke the Trinity during the liturgy?  We begin the Eucharist with the sign of the cross in the name of the Trinity. The first of the opening greetings mentions all three persons. The end of the opening prayer (collect) prays to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. We are “sent out” from Mass being blessed in the name of the Trinity.  We are baptized into the Trinity to remind us that we share God’s very life. Through grace, we are drawn into the communion of life and love shared by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are called to live in community as the Trinity does! It’s about relationship!

II. Can You Hear?  Several weeks ago, I mentioned in the bulletin that we had had too many complaints about our sound system; I even had a few families to tell me they “were thinking about joining the Cathedral parish, but they had trouble with hearing the spoken word”.  None too soon, I put together a Sound System Committee: Mike Bogdan, Corey Bruns, John Calhoun, Rita Gerteisen, Ed Riney (chair), and James Wells. The first phase of working on our sound system was completed on Wednesday, May 31. We hope that you have noticed an improvement in the sound.  What will happen next is that the speaker needs to be moved down so that the sound waves will have to travel at less of an angle so that they don’t bounce off the floor.  We are told that the lowering the speaker (actually, it’s a “column” of small speakers) and the necessary adjustments will take place in the next month.

III. Theology of the Hammer: Habitat for Humanity is an international Christian organization which builds houses for qualified low-income families. Habitat home owner partners agree to: sweat equity commitment, maintenance of house and property, and timely mortgage payments.  The use of a nail and a hammer can become an instrument to manifest God’s love! To date, parishioners of the Cathedral have raised $1,665 out of the $3,000 we have committed to H4H. We’re over half way there!! There are Habitat envelopes in our church packets, or you may donate through our WeShare online giving option (it’s safe and convenient!).

IV. Welcome Back Fr. Titus Ahabyona! Ordained in 1997, Fr. Titus spent six years (and lived three of those years at SSC rectory) working in our Diocesan Marriage Tribunal. Three summers ago, Fr. Titus was assigned as rector of Our Lady of the Snows Cathedral for his home diocese of Fort Portal, Uganda, with 45% Catholic population (15 million Catholics in a country of 33 million people). There are over 1 million Catholics in his diocese; we have approximately 65,000!  Fr. Titus will be arriving June 15 and stay with us five weeks. Welcome back, Fr. Titus!

V.  Half Birthday Party for St. Stephen, Monday, June 26: the feast of St. Stephen is December 26, and we are often caught up in Christmas joy, thus short-changing celebrating the patron saint of the Cathedral. Therefore, this year we will have a half birthday party in honor of St. Stephen, who was murdered by stoning for his faith. Plan on attending our Ice Cream Social to honor this first and great martyr! Save the date and join us at 6:30 pm in the Community Center.