Integrity /inˈteɡrədē/ noun 1. the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. 2.the state of being whole and undivided. That’s how the Oxford dictionary defines the word integrity, a subject God’s word wishes us to focus our attention on this weekend. To be a person of integrity, honest, upright and firm in our convictions, we must be whole, unified, undivided. To be whole, there are some things we must connect with and other things we must disconnect with. Integrity is both an individual and a group requirement. Jesus points out to His disciples (that’s us) the importance of both. We as individuals and collectively as a Church must possess integrity. That requires us to gather in and gather with those seeking Jesus and disentangle ourselves from all that leads us away from Him. You might say, to have individual and group integrity, we must: adhere, cohere, and inhere. Adhere to God, cohere to God and one another, and take what we learn and have it inhere in our lives, individually and collectively. To adhere is to stick to something—in this case to stick to God. To cohere is to stick together—to God as our center and to one another in Him. To inhere is to make something a central part of our existence. God’s teaching and care for each other, which is the pursuit of the good for one another, must be the guiding principles for each of us. As Jesus makes clear in the Gospel to adhere, cohere and inhere, we must also learn and practice detachment. Detachment means to let go of or remove anything that keeps us from living integrally. Jesus puts it in a most forceful way - cut off whatever leads us to sin. He does not mean that we should literally cut off our limbs or gouge out our eyes, He does mean we must learn to let go of things that keep us from holding on to Him. That can be painful and difficult, but that is the only way we can attach ourselves to Him. We must use whatever God gives us - our senses, our talents and our possessions in a way that serves God. If we hold on to things, or misuse what God gives us, there is no space for God to enter our lives. If we let go, we let God attach us to Himself and become the whole people He wants us to be. Please keep our parishioner Dominic Barracchini in your prayers as, next Saturday, October 5th, he will be ordained a Deacon. If you would like to attend there are a few tickets available. If you would like to watch the ordination via livestream a group will gather at Saint Cecilia Social Hall Saturday morning or if you would like to watch it from home, go the website diopitt.org and look for the link to livestreaming. Keep watch for an upcoming presentation of Bishop Barron’s series the Pivotal Players. More details will be in next week’s bulletin.