St. Maria Goretti - Pastor's Note

This weekend we are very proud to welcome John Michael Talbot to our Parish! We have enjoyed his music for many years now, and it is indeed an honor to have him play this concert in our church. In addition, we welcome all those who have traveled here for the concert. It is a great joy for us to meet you and have you here with us for Saturday evening’s concert. On behalf of entire community here at St. Maria Goretti, I welcome each of you in the name and love of our Lord, Jesus the Christ!

I have been reminded several times in the last couple of days of how important it is for us to be bearing witness to Jesus, His Gospel, and His Church. The witness of each one of us is so important! Our favorite Christian T-shirt, the cross we wear around our neck, the bumper sticker or license plate that we put on our car or truck, all of these and many other “things,” can help us to bear witness to our Faith. My personal favorite is still those always-stylish St. Maria Goretti license plates. I can’t tell you how many conversations I have gotten into, all because I was the priest at “that Parish in Westfield that has the license plates on the front of their cars”. People do notice. By the way, the school office still has a limited number of those St. Maria Goretti license plates available, if you’d like one for your car. And yet, the best witness that we can give isn’t what we wear, or put on, or carry with us. The BEST witness is the one that we give with our very lives. Each one of us has the power many times every day to lead somebody else closer to Christ, or it is entirely possible for us to lead somebody else away from Christ. The Church’s greatest enemy isn’t Hollywood, or CNN, or MTV. The Church’s greatest enemy comes from within and is in fact its own very members who don’t live out and practice their Faith. Each one of us has to do better at living out our Faith in our lives. We need to be examples and role models for one another. And when we don’t, when we try and sit back and “quietly” live out our Faith, keeping it to our self, NOBODY comes to join us. NOBODY wants to be part of that! The Catholic Christian life is heroic. It is inspiring. It has produced incredible saints down through the centuries. But It is only those things when It is lived out and practiced by Its committed members! How are you living out your Faith? What kind of example are you giving to others?

We cannot be afraid to evangelize either. It is part of the expectation of being a follower of Jesus Christ. Somehow, somewhere along the way, we have come to view evangelization as something “optional” or only the responsibility of some committee at the parish. NO WAY! Each one of us is supposed to be an evangelist. It’s time that all of us took seriously our call and commission to spread the Good News of Jesus to others. Maybe we should all put a license plate on the front of our cars and trucks. Maybe we should make that call to our neighbor or friend or co-worker who we know is Catholic, but who hasn’t been to Mass in a really long time. Maybe we should invite someone that we know to join the Church this year through the RCIA. By the way, the cut-off for getting into this year’s RCIA is class is tomorrow, Sept. 24th at 5:00 PM. The first session of the Catechumenate is tomorrow evening at 7:00 PM in the Parish Narthex, down the hall from my office. There are so many different ways to invite others to Faith. At some point, we just need to try some of them. There are souls out there waiting for us to bring them to Jesus. Think about that. And before we tackle anybody else, what if we just started with ex-Catholics, and invited them to come back home? How many ex-Catholics do you know? If you’re like me, the number is too many. What a shame that so many have left a Faith that they didn’t know enough about! When you realize how big, how beautiful, and how inspiring our Catholic Faith is, there’s no way you can just walk away from it. And you could never allow anybody to cause you to walk away from it. We need to pray for brothers and sisters who have excused themselves from the Church for whatever reason. And even more, we need to be good examples for them to come home. Who should you be evangelizing? How could you be evangelizing better?

Next weekend is the Men’s Christ Renews His Parish weekend. Let all of us pray for the guys putting on the weekend, and especially for the new guys of Men’s Team #15 as they make the weekend. Miracles are expected!

Have a great week! Enjoy these beautiful Fall days!

In Christ,

Fr. Kevin

The reason that grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy