Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 27, 2025
Confessions are held on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. at the northwest entrance (opposite the Adoration entrance) of the church.
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Perpetual Adoration
Office Hours Parish (414) 321-1965 (414) 321-8540 School
Friday: 8 a.m.-12 p.m.
After Hours by Appointment Only
Our Staff
Father Michael Merkt, Pastor Email: mmerkt@stjohns-grfd.org
Steve Pemper, Deacon Email: spemper@aol.com
Denise Kasulke, Dir. of Administrative Services Email: dkasulke@stjohns-grfd.org
Karen Schulteis, Dir. of Liturgy & Music Email: kschulteis@stjohns-grfd.org
John Paul Shimek, Dir. of Lifelong Faith Formation Email: jpshimek@stjohns-grfd.org
George Pitman, Jr., Bookkeeper, Building & Grounds Email: gpitman@stjohns-grfd.org
Jan Sadlon, Parish Secretary Email: rectory@stjohns-grfd.org or jsadlon@stjohns-grfd.org
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Gospel Reflection
July 27, 2025
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Once, I went to a hospice facility to celebrate Last Rites for an elderly dying man. His family had told me that he had been uncommunicative for days. At the conclusion of the ritual, we began to recite the Our Father prayer. To everyone’s surprise, his lips moved, clearly mouthing the words to the Lord’s prayer. Stripped of most of his faculties, the man could still pray those precious God-given petitions. A lifetime of prayer had planted the words even deeper than his failing consciousness.
Do we want the Lord’s prayer to be as deeply embedded in us? If we want to be people of hope, we should. Recall that our Lord immediately follows the prayer by saying: “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9). We only ask, search, and knock because we hope that the request is not in vain. Everything we could possibly hope for is contained in the prayer. Praying the Our Father deepens our hope.
We should consciously pour all our hopes into the Lord’s prayer; we should allow it to be an expression of hope, not simply rote words. Then, over time, it builds up our hope in God. It sinks deep into our souls and bodies. How blessed we are when these words of hope are on our lips, even when everything else seems to fail.
Publications
Love One Another Catholic Campaign
In the Summer of 2021, we entered the pilot wave of the Archdiocesan campaign, "Love One Another." Below is a video we produced to present some of our case elements. For a more detailed description of our case elements, or if you want to donate, please click here.
Welcome
St. John the Evangelist is a Roman Catholic Eucharistic community faithful to the values and traditions of the Church. We strive to live our faith every day, to embrace stewardship, and to be nurtured by continuous Christian Formation.