Responding to the pastoral need, Most Rev. Claude Hamelin, Bishop of St. Jean – Longueuil, assigned Fr. Michael Nguyen Dinh VINH, CSSp, a Vietnamese and religious priest of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans) as full time pastor of our parish. His appointment is effective Oct 1, 2023 and will remain until August 31, 2025.

The Pope's Intentions for August 2025

For mutual coexistence 

Let us pray that societies where coexistence seems more difficult might not succumb to the temptation of confrontation for ethnic, political, religious, or ideological reasons. 

Message from Fr. Vinh Michael Nguyen

August 3, 2025

Seeking the Purpose of Life 

In the spirit of seeking the purpose of ourlife, the Word of God of the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year C reminds us how to balance our material and spiritual lives. In the first reading, the Book of Ecclesiastes points out that earthly careers are the means to sustain human life, not the ultimate goal and have no eternal value, because “vanity is vanity”. If people only know how to run after and cling too much to material things, they will become slaves to it.  

In the Gospel, with the parable of the rich man, Jesus goes further when he teaches us that even if we build warehouses to store a lot of gold, silver, and jewels, it will not help us. Because, if death comes and visits us, everything will no longer belong to us. Not only that, the habit of being addicted to money and material things will easily make us greedy and selfish. It will close the doors of our hearts to the difficulties and sufferings of others. And it will also keep us forever separated from God, and from our eternal life.  

For that meaning, in the second reading, St. Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, tells us to seek the things above, not the things of this world. Because he knows well that the material things, we seek in this world do not give us ultimate meaning, he wants us not to let our bodies and spirits be restrained by the absurdity of this world. And Saint John Mary Vianney said: “Nothing is permanent. Life will pass away… reputation will collapse, wealth will disappear, health will be attacked, we will go away like the wind.” 

Thus, to be rich before God, each of us needs to balance our lives, to know how to seek material wealth to serve life, and to seek the value of the Kingdom of Heaven; to know how to live generously, to open our hands to share and sympathize with others. When we know how to live in harmony like that, God will not only give us the true destination of the Kingdom of Heaven, but He will also help us live happily in this life. Because, with God, we will have everything.