Five Ways – June 26

June 30, 2026

1.  Joy of Children:  After a little boy attended his first wedding, his cousin asked him, “How many women can a man marry?” “Sixteen,” the boy replied.  “How do you know that?” his cousin asked. “Easy,” the boy replied.  “All you have to do is add it up, like the pastor said, four better, four worse, four richer, and four poorer” (from the Joyful Noiseletter, “In the Marry Month of June”).
2.  The Fourth of July, 250 Years of Independence.  As we approach July 4th this year, we remember that of the 96 signers of the Declaration of Independence, only one was a Catholic, Charles Carroll of MD. But all the others belonged to various Protestant denominations, a rate significantly higher than in the colonies at that time. Charles Carroll’s cousin John became the first bishop in the Catholic Church in the new republic, at a time when Catholics were persecuted in some of the states.

In the 250 years since, we have had two Catholic presidents, and Catholics have become the largest denomination in Congress. When Pope St. John Paul II addressed Congress in Oct. 1995, he said “At the end of your national anthem, one finds these words ‘Then conquer we must, when our cause is just And this be our motto ‘In God is our trust!’ America: may your trust always be in God and none other.”

3.  Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:  on June 11, our bishops consecrated the USA to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  They listened to Archbishop Shelton Fabre explain that bishops are called to “ensure that our words and choices make visible our life giving incorporation into Jesus Christ, a lived participation in Christ, that binds us to each other in unfeigned love. The people entrusted to our care long to encounter the Sacred Heart of Jesus in us, their shepherds.” Since each of us shares in the shepherding of our bishops, may we continually remember this consecration of our country and each citizen to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Many thanks to those who responded to the May 27 Five Ways e-letter. The website Mission-Unity-Dialogue http://www.harrywinter.org is continually being improved.  Click on the home page icon at the top for much more.

In the love of the Sacred Heart,

Father Harry Winter, O.M.I.

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