Rebuild My Church: Part I

Dear Friends in Christ,

As we celebrate the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s Transitus, our parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church & School, is embarking on a journey of renewal. This renewal is both spiritual and corporeal, personal and corporate. We draw our inspiration from the famous account of Francis’s initial calling, as first recorded by St. Bonaventure in the “Life of St. Francis,” written around 1260. In Chapter II, Bonaventure writes that as Francis was gazing upon the Cross at San Damiano, “with eyes full of tears he gazed up, and he heard with his bodily ears a voice proceeding from the Cross saying three times: ‘Francis, go and repair My House, which, as you can see, is falling utterly into ruin.’” Francis would interpret these words from both a literal and metaphorical perspective, as both were needed in his day, as they are today in 2026.

Francis didn’t hear this call from the Lord while walking the quaint cobblestone streets of his native Assisi, or the rocky trails along the Umbrian mountain range. Rather, he heard the voice of the Lord while praying in the church of San Damiano. As his biographers attest, Francis loved spending hours in churches praying before the Blessed Sacrament. His greatest love was the Eucharist, to the point that he never sought priestly ordination, as he felt unworthy. This fact humbles me to the core even as it fills me with tremendous gratitude for the gift of the priesthood. Augustine Thompson, O.P., wrote a biography on the life of St. Francis drawing principally on primary sources, published in 2012. Using one of the few letters written by St. Francis to his burgeoning community, Thompson writes, “Francis’s piety focused on God’s most tangible manifestation in the world: the Host itself. Francis was developing an ever-greater sense that God is present to Christians in the Sacrament, and that it was to be reverenced above all other presences. In both Host and Christ’s words, the work of Calvary is delivered to the believer.”¹

As we seek to rebuild the Lord’s Church, inspired by the life of St. Francis, I firmly believe this work must begin with our own reverence for the Eucharist. St. Teresa of Calcutta is quoted as saying, “Unless we believe and see Jesus in the appearance of bread on the altar, we will not be able to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor.” I have been inspired by the Eucharistic reverence I have witnessed over the past month. My prayer is that this reverence, modeled for the many children of our parish in the way we receive the Eucharist, will ignite a great Eucharistic revival in our parish that will, in turn, lead to other revivals. I will speak of one such revival next week.

Let us entrust our desire to grow in Eucharistic reverence to St. Francis of Assisi and Mary, Mother of the Eucharist!

In Christ,

Rev. Jesse Bolger

Pastor

¹ Augustine Thompson, O.P., Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012), 62.

Going on in the Community:

Wine at the Shrine – Oct. 10 from 1–6 p.m. Wine at the Shrine is a family-friendly fall festival on the grounds of the Shrine of St. Anthony benefiting the Franciscan Center of Baltimore and Little Portion Farm, two ministries bringing farm-fresh food to our neighbors in need. The festival includes wine, beer, and mocktail sampling, live music, food trucks, pumpkin picking, hayrides, and more. Details and tickets are available at wineattheshrine.org.

Come and See Women’s Retreat – Oct. 16–18, an opportunity for women in your parish who may be discerning a vocation to religious life to retreat and hear the Lord. The retreat will offer young women an opportunity to meet the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg, learn about our mission and community life, and prayerfully explore their vocation. If you would like to learn more, email sisterliz@doc.org.

Mental Health Retreat – The Archdiocese of Baltimore invites you to Hope, Unity & Relationships, a Mental Health Retreat at New All Saints Church, 4408 Liberty Road, Baltimore. Join the archdiocese on November 7, 2026, 9:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. for a day of encouragement, reflection and practical tools to strengthen relationships, build meaningful connections and embrace the next chapter of life with hope and gratitude.