Weekend Wisdom, July 20th, 2025
The Dog Days of Summer
Sometimes bringing our faith out of our heads and our quiet, personal relationship with Jesus in order to share with others can seem intimidating. It has been said by others in ministry that sharing our faith is as simple as “Be a friend of Jesus, make a new friend, introduce your friend to Jesus.” I’d like to illustrate with a story that happened this past week.
Some of you know that my dogs make regular appearances at the St. Mary office. They are a cute, but often boisterous welcoming committee. Last week Lisa, our 2nd grade sacraments coordinator, held her annual summer prep classes for two parish families each afternoon. On the first afternoon, I brought the pups over after lunch just as the children were arriving. Redly and Kinn very excitedly greeted the kids in the gathering area, frightening one little boy with their enthusiasm. I was deeply concerned about how that interaction had impacted Lucas and asked Lisa for the contact information for his family so I could reach out to them to further apologize.
Before I could reach out, Lucas and his grandma walked through the parish doors - early for class – with an older girl with them. “Lucas wanted to bring his sister to meet the puppies today,” his grandmother said. “Do you think they could say hi?”
The kids spent the next 10 minutes meeting the pups in a more controlled setting and getting to know their names and personalities – Kinn is the one who loves toys, Red is the biggest, but also the calmest once he settles down, and Behr is the old man. When class time rolled around Lucas asked, “Do you think we could come tomorrow and walk them around outside a little bit?” What a turn-around from that first day!
And here is the faith point: sometimes meeting Jesus the first time is unusual or uncomfortable like Lucas when he first met the dogs. Sometimes it doesn’t go like anyone would like. This may be one or several times, but the Lord is still stirring something inside of us that makes us curious, makes us want more. As we respond to that stirring and our desire to know Jesus better and our relationship with Jesus grows, we should desire to introduce our friends and loved ones to Jesus – showing them why Jesus is our friend and companion. Then, as we grow with Jesus through the comfort of community, friendship and weekly worship, we will want to spend more and more time with Him and become more comfortable going out into the world to share Him.
A perfect analogy? Perhaps not, but there isn’t an unconditional love and companionship much closer to that of Jesus than that of a dog – in my humble opinion!
Peace in these July summer days,
Fr. Mike
