Saint Peter's Church is under the patronage of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles and the first Pope (Bishop of Rome). On June 29th, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, we celebrate our parish's feast day.

Before being called by Jesus, Simon, who would later be called Peter, was a simple Galilean fisherman from either Bethsaida or Capernaum. His brother Andrew would also be chosen as one of the 12 apostles. Little else is known about his pre-Christian life.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus walks along the Sea of Galilee and calls out to Peter and Andrew, asking them to cast their nets. While they had not caught anything last night, they cast their nets and take in a great volume of fish. Then Simon Peter kneels down before Jesus and cries out, "Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man." Jesus invites Simon, Andrew, and James and John to follow Him and be made "fishers of men" (Luke 5:10).

A crucial moment in Simon's life was when Jesus asks His disciples who they think He is, and Simon confesses, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus names him 'Peter,' a translation from kepha, which means 'rock,' and says, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock shall be built My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

And yet, the 'Rock' of our faith wasn't perfect. During the Last Supper, Peter promised our Lord that while others may lose faith, he will stay with Him until the end, to prison and to death. However, when Jesus is taken by soldiers in Gethsemane, Peter flees the scene and then denies that he knows the Lord three times. We can imagine the sorrow he must have felt!

However, we know that there's a happy ending:  Peter is forgiven after our Lord's Resurrection from the dead. Jesus asks him three times, 'Do you love me?', to make up for the three denials, and finally gives him the command to 'Feed my sheep' (John 21:17). From then on, Peter knew that he was in charge of the 'sheep' - God's people in His Church. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, who once denied our Lord, now proclaims the good news of His Resurrection, and by the Holy Spirit's power, thousands of people convert through his powerful preaching and miracle-working. Peter's vigor and zeal, now enflamed by the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, ignited the early Church's missionary work, and Peter was entrusted to preach to the Gentiles (the non-Jews).

At some point, Peter is elected Bishop of Antioch (in modern-day Turkey), and later comes to Rome as the city's first bishop for his final years. In Rome, he wrote his two letters, which are in the New Testament, to Christian converts in Asia Minor. With the growing opposition to Christianity from the Roman Empire, Peter is imprisoned and crucified, but because he didn't feel worthy to die in the same way as Jesus did, he is crucified upside down.

Saint Peter is a powerful patron saint for our parish, and we should be inspired by his growth and conversion. As zealous and passionate as we are for our faith, we have our moments of doubt and weakness, where we say the wrong thing or shy away from talking about our faith. Well, St. Peter is right there with us, and his life shows us that God isn't done with us, but wants to guide us closer and closer to Him.