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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We give thanks and praise to God for all of the blessings
received from the Family Fun Mission this past week with Jesse
Manibusan. It was great fun having Jesse here and he enjoyed his
time with all of you as well. He commented several times about our
community and especially about the Faith energy and vitality of our
children and our youth. It was a wonderful couple of days! I’d
like to offer my thanks to Connie Anderson, our Director of
Religious Education, to Jeff Stankovsky, our Youth Minister, and to
the dozen of volunteers and coordinators who made last Monday and
Tuesday evenings happen for our Parish family. Thank you from all
of us. The mini-Mission sure gave me a greater sense of how we are
ALL in this together, in good and bad times, and how when we work
together, and pray together, and celebrate together, with one
another AND with God, incredible things are always going to happen!
These are exciting days around here at St. Maria Goretti.
Parish Religious Education (P.R.E.) begins in just two weeks. Both
of our youth groups, for high school and for junior high school, are
getting ready to kick-off in the coming weeks. And our two-year
Confirmation formation process is getting ready to begin for our
Freshmen in Year I, and to continue for our Sophomores in Year II.
With all of this starting up soon, a special parent’s informational
meeting has been scheduled for this Wednesday evening, August 29th,
at 7:00 PM in the Parish Hall, to keep parents informed of the
opportunities that St. Maria Goretti offers for our young people.
If you have a son or daughter in high school or junior high, we’d
really like at least one of your parents to come and join us for
this introductory meeting. To keep our young people involved in
their Church and in their Parish family, it takes a united effort on
all of our parts. We have some really excellent youth programming
coming up this year through our religious education office. We’d
sure like for every one of our young people to get to take advantage
of these programs.
We do love our kids and our youth here at St. Maria
Goretti. How could we not when we have a Patroness who was herself
a child, when she died for what she believed in? It is out of true
love and a true concern that I mention AGAIN, our problems with our
children leaving Mass multiple times, unaccompanied by an adult,
under the presumption of going to the restroom. Either some of our
children have the smallest bladders in the entire world, or else
they have learned that an easy way to go hang-out in the restroom or
in the gathering area of the church, is to pretend that they have to
go to the restroom. I know that several of you parents who are
reading this are right now thinking that my son or daughter would
never do this, and let me tell you: You’re naïve! Maybe any kid
would do it if we let them. Kids do not intuitively appreciate the
Mass. It takes hard work and lots of explaining to pass on our
Faith and how important Mass is. Our children and our young people
must be taught and nurtured in a love and appreciation of the Mass.
That can’t happen if we keep letting them leave the Mass multiple
times to go hang-out in the back of church. Here’s an idea: as a
family lets ask and make sure that everybody’s had a chance to go to
the restroom when we come into the building, before we enter the
Sanctuary. Then, can’t the presumption be that everybody is going
to be O.K. for the next hour until Mass is finished? I realize
that there are times when, because of sickness or “irregularities”,
sometimes all of us have to leave to take care of things when nature
calls. It’s always good to obey nature and not have an accident.
That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about goofing around
in the restrooms and in the church narthex. And I’m telling you,
you’d be surprised at the good kids from active families that are
doing it multiple times every week. We can do better as a
community. We’re not helping our children by ignoring it.
This morning our 10:00 AM Mass is going to seem like a
mini-Easter Vigil. Mike and Karol Bonine and Britt McDermott are
going to be received into the Catholic Church, get Confirmed, and
make their First Communions. We congratulate our brother and our
sisters. This is a wonderful day for them, for their families, and
for all of us. Bishop Higi has granted special permission for me to
do these Confirmations outside of the Easter Vigil because all of
the candidates have completed our RCIA process and all requirements
for full-membership in the Church.
Have a great week. Is next weekend really Labor Day
weekend?
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
God believes in us even when we don’t believe in Him.
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