I suppose that we all have that one thing, or perhaps those two or three things, in our lives that we are most passionate about. They are what are most important to us. They are the things that we live for. They are what get us most excited. For many, that one thing is their spouse. For many others it is their children. For some people it's their favorite hobby or sport or recreation. For some, it's golf. For others, it's NASCAR. For still others it's soccer. (I promised Fr. Dale that I'd get that in there!) For some people, it's chocolate, or good wine, or pasta! .especially if you're Italian. But if you're Russian, it might be vodka. Or if you're Irish, it might be potatoes. Or if you're French, it might be bread. I don't know. All I know is that we all have these things that we love, that are important to us, things that are the center of our lives.

One of the clearest things that stands out when you read the life of St. Maria Goretti, is that one thing for her was God. You would expect that when you ask a child what is most important to him or her they would say "their toys" or "their friends" or "their pet" or possibly "their parents". And yet from her earliest years, if you asked St. Maria Goretti what was most important in her life, you always got the same answer: God. In this child we find a singular devotion to God that most of us can only imagine. And maybe this is our most important insight into the life of our Patroness, not only so that we can understand her, but also that we might be able to become more like her. Simply put, St. Maria Goretti loved God completely. There was nothing that was more important to this young girl than God. She prayed constantly. She lived her life by God's commandments. She sought to serve and be of help whenever and wherever she could, even to the young man who would eventually take her life. St. Maria Goretti loved Jesus and His mother, Mary. She loved the Sacraments. The most important day of St. Maria Goretti's life was the day that she made her First Holy Communion. She never forgot just how important and what a privilege it is to be able to receive the Body of Christ. She never lost hope, even in the face of the dire poverty that her family had to endure. She believed and trusted even when her father, Luigi, died from malaria, because even then, she knew that God was in charge of her life and her family. This is the kind of life that we are all called to. God is supposed to be the first priority of each and every one of us. IS HE???

It's not supposed to be about golf. It's not supposed to be about NASCAR. It's not supposed to be about food. It's not supposed to be about anything other than God! He is the reason for it all. He is our ultimate goal and purpose in this life. And everything, everything that prevents us from seeing that every day of our life is a distraction. And the truth is, my brothers and sisters, our distractions are getting us sent to Hell. They are not what this life is supposed to be all about. And so many times, they take us away from God. But the world's not going to tell us that. The media is not going to tell us that. But today St. Maria Goretti does tell us that with her life and death. Today, St. Maria Goretti has volumes to teach us about life. St. Maria Goretti didn't become a saint on the day that she was stabbed or on the day that she died. St. Maria Goretti became a saint on the day that she gave her whole life to God, without reserve. Her death and her martyrdom were only the logical expressions of what she believed, of what her priorities were. We honor her today as our Patroness, and as one of our role models.

So how do we do it, how do we make God the Number One priority in our lives? Well, first of all, like St. Maria Goretti, we've got acknowledge all that this God has done for us. This is our Creator. This is the God who died on the Cross for us. This is the God who empowers us with the Holy Spirit to be God's Holy people. We have an awesome God who we rightly should love above all things. We forget that. And that's wrong. It is a terrible sin to take God's love and all that He has done for us for granted. We need to constantly be experiencing His love and grace, alive and active in our lives. Once you experience that, there's no turning back. There is no substitute. We need to pray more. We need to serve more. We have a responsibility to each other. We need to be beacons of hope! When God is your first and primary priority, those things happen quite easily, and very naturally. But when we keep God on the sidelines, when we give Him only an hour a week, when we make Him a sidenote in our lives, instead of a priority, that's when things get out of whack. St. Maria Goretti would never be able to understand that. And neither does God.

The Gospel says that if you are neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, that God will spit you out. My brothers and sisters, it's time that God became the Number One priority of all of us. Let us not be part-time Christians, but may we give of ourselves whole-heartedly to God. And may St. Maria Goretti show us the way!

God bless us as we celebrate our Patroness, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN!!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us!!!