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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Quite obviously, last weekend’s bulletin letter was written
before Wednesday evening, July 18th.
Last week, I thanked everybody for the beautiful new Liturgy of the
Hours books that were given to me at the Italian Festival Mass. I
do love them and am most grateful. And yet, little did I know at
the time, that the presentation at the Italian Festival Mass was
only an elaborate diversion cooked up by conniving minds that had
other things in mind. I will never forget my 20th
Anniversary of Ordination. The Mass, the dinner, the rap, the
go-kart race, and getting to be with all of you on my anniversary
made my day perfect. St. Maria Goretti, or somebody up there who is
in charge of weather, made sure that, like the night of the Italian
Festival, we had a perfect evening weather-wise. It was such an
over-whelming evening. Thank You to each and every one of you! The
Mass, with more priests at it than any other Mass we have ever
celebrated here, was truly one that I will never forget. And yeah,
I cried. I’m a baby when it comes to Mass anyway. But put a bunch
of my favorite priests and my favorite people, including my
97-year-old Grandmother and a couple of Mother Teresa’s sisters from
the Missionaries of Charity, and I was more than a little
emotional. I’m sure glad that Fr. Dale preached, because I could
barely talk. And what a beautiful homily he delivered. Dinner was
delicious and amazing. My hat’s off to Bill and Sheryl Clifford and
their amazing crew of volunteers who fed over 900 of us in less than
half-an-hour. Toni McDonald Hinkley’s rap was a riot, and the
go-kart race was fun, even if my car was more “weighted” down, than
the others. Fr. Jack Christopher Weldon, or whatever name he is
using this year, was more than a little intense about that race.
Did you see that helmet that he was wearing? How funny! It was a
wonderful evening! Thank you to each and every one of you who
attended, helped plan, and put on the celebration. My words could
never express my gratitude and appreciation. Thanks also to all of
those who contributed to the very special gift, and to Deb
Biddlecombe for making all of the arrangements. I look forward to
enjoying it in the near future. I know that I have said it before,
I know I will say it again, and I pray about it each morning in my
prayers, but I am truly the most blessed priest in the entire
Church. I know that. You have no idea how easy you guys make it to
be your priest and your Pastor, and I assure you, that it is I who
am incredibly honored to get to serve here at St. Maria Goretti at
this time. I know that God has brought each one of us here for a
reason. I am humbled and awed that I get to be here with you for
this time. Thanks for all the prayers, gifts, card, best wishes,
and acts of kindness that all of you did for my 20th
Anniversary. As I said, I will never forget it. Thank you!
I do want to take the opportunity to remind everybody
again, that St. Maria Goretti is very happy to be able to welcome
the nationally-known speaker, Jesse Manibusan, to our Parish next
month. Jesse will be here for two incredible evenings on August 20th
and 21st.
Please clear these dates on your calendar and plan now to attend. I
assure you, that you are not going to want to miss this
opportunity. Jesse is very funny and inspiring and has a great
Faith! You will love his music, his stories, and his challenges to
all of us to keep growing in our Faith. As with so many of our
recent events, this is a wonderful opportunity to invite family and
friends to come and here this very gifted man. We want as many
people as possible to get to enjoy Jesse and his mini-retreat. Who
could you invite? And PLEASE! Make sure that YOU are able to join
us on August 20th
and 21st!
We do have several projects that are going on in the next
couple of weeks to help us get the campus ready for another school
year. There’s painting already going on. The south parking lot is
scheduled to be sealed and repaired in the next few weeks, and there
are several other “projects” that will be going on. We apologize in
advance for any inconvenience that any of these things may cause
you. Please know that the work is temporary, and we will be getting
back to normal as soon as possible. I thank you for your patience,
cooperation, and understanding as we do this work. Things will be
nicer when we get this done.
I will be gone this week until next weekend. I will pray
for you. Please keep me in your prayers for safe travels. God
bless you and your family always!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Truth is found at Mass, not at the movies.
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