As we begin a new school year, I want to thank all those who support St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic School. Whether you have children enrolled or simply offer your prayers and encouragement, you are an important part of this ministry. Catholic education is a mission of our entire parish as we work together to form young people who know, love, and serve Jesus Christ.

In our Second Reading for today, St. Paul writes with startling confidence: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” He then lists hardships that can feel overwhelming—“tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.” And yet the Apostle does not end in despair. He adds, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us,” and he finishes with an even greater assurance: “neither death nor life… nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35, 37-39)