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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, the great
Feast of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a
great day to remember what an incredible gift we have in the
Holy Eucharist. This is such an easy to thing to forget when we
go to Communion often. Jesus gives us the strength and the
nourishment that we need to live as Christians in this world.
We should take advantage of this Heavenly Food as often as we
possibly can. It has always amazed me that some Catholics would
consciously choose to miss out on this extraordinary gift from
God, by not coming to Mass. They have no idea how much they are
hurting themselves in their erroneous choice. Sometimes the
very best gifts in this life are ones that many people never
seem to accept. May each one of us learn to love and treasure
the Holy Eucharist in our reception of Him at Mass and also in
our Adoration of Him in Eucharistic Adoration!
Tomorrow our annual summer Vacation Bible Camp begins
for our children. Each year, I am so amazed at the creativity,
the energy, and the love that is put into this effort by the
dozens of volunteers that it takes to put one of these on.
Weeks of preparation on many people’s part all culminate
tomorrow morning when over 250 children will walk through our
doors for this year’s event. Let us keep this year’s Vacation
Bible Camp in our prayers. This children’s event reminds all of
us, of course, of just how important it is for ALL of us to keep
reading and studying the Bible. The Bible is NOT just for kids
for one week in the summertime. The Bible is there for ALL of
us every day, so that we can hear God and God’s ways in our
life. Our children are going to learn more about that this
week. What are you doing to learn more about the Bible in your
life? I’d like to thank everyone who has worked so hard to make
this event so special and such a popular tradition at our Parish
family.
We are also beginning our “Answering God’s Call” 2007
Seminarian Fund Campaign this weekend. In 1999, our Diocese had
just three young men studying for the priesthood. It is
anticipated that there will be over twenty studying for our
Diocese next year. This is great news! The Elijah Cup is
definitely working! Unfortunately, at the same exact time that
our number of seminarians is up, so too is the cost to educate
seminarians. Two years ago, in an effort to help our Diocese
out of this very expensive, but very good situation, a June
fundraising campaign was begun to help pay these costs. In the
past two years, Catholics in our Diocese and in our own Parish
family have been extraordinarily generous in giving to this
campaign for our seminarians, and there has been enough money to
pay all the bills. Now it’s time again for us to do our part.
St. Maria Goretti’s designated portion of these costs is
$18,900. That is a chunk of change, especially in June of 2007
when the price of gas is affecting all of us. And yet, working
together, we can reach our goal, our portion. It is just going
to take everybody’s help. Please give what you can in our
second collection today. It is truly an investment in the
future of our Church!
Some of the local parishes have had their seminarians
speak at Mass in support of this Campaign. I feel very strongly
that they shouldn’t have to do that. These guys deserve the
support of all of us based on the sacrifices that they have
made, are making, and will make in the future for the Church.
It is not their responsibility to drum up support for the future
leadership of the Church. That, frankly, is our job. We should
be doing this Campaign for them. They shouldn’t have to “sell
it” to us. They have many other things that they should be
concentrating on at this time in their lives. Having said that,
we are most very proud of our two seminarians from our Parish,
Josh Bennett and Clayton Thompson. And I know that there are
already several other young men from St. Maria Goretti who are
considering joining them in the near future. We have also been
blessed to get to know seminarian Andy DeKeyser, who is helping
us out this summer. Since the summer of 2003, Bishop Higi has
trusted this Parish enough that he has sent a summer seminarian
each year, so that they could experience a “positive” Parish
experience in their preparations for ordination. We are so
pleased that next weekend, Deacon Christopher Roberts, St. Maria
Goretti’s first summer seminarian from 2003, will be ordained a
priest for our Diocese. You know, not every parish gets a
summer seminarian. The Bishop obviously trusts you guys a
lot. May we never let that trust down.
Priesthood Ordinations are next Saturday morning,
June 16th,
at 11:00 AM at our Cathedral in Lafayette. Fr. Joshua, Fr.
Dale, myself, Deacon Steve, Josh Bennett, Clayton Thompson, Andy
DeKeyser…we’ll all be there. Come and join us if you can. It’s
a beautiful Mass and occasion.
Have a great week!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Sympathy is no substitute for action.
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