St Clement of Rome Catholic Church

On this Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the scriptures provide us with important insight regarding the road to happiness. In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah (17:5-8) cautions us that when we turn our hearts away from the Lord, we are like a barren bush in the desert. Likewise, the Psalmist (Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 &6) provides us with guidance on how we should live our lives; chiefly, by not following the counsel of the wicked, walking in the way of sinners, or sitting in the company of the arrogant.

On a summer day in the year 2000, Jack Sullivan was told by his surgeon that based on scans of his spine, surgery would be necessary to repair it. Later that day, dejected and suffering from intense pain, he tuned into a television program on the life of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Years later, he recalled that “at the time, I knew something about Newman- not much, but that he was a convert, a brilliant man, who preached and wrote about the influence of God in everyday life.”