Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

         I would very much like to say ‘thank you’ to everybody who worked so hard to make yesterday’s marriage conference with Dr. Bob Moeller such an awesome day.  I know that the committee worked for months on yesterday’s event.  I am aware of several individuals who were on the committee, but out of fear of leaving anybody out, I’m not going to start listing names.   You know who you are.  From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for the great service that you provided for our Parish family by sponsoring yesterday’s conference.  I’d also like to thank everybody who attended the marriage conference.  Being married is NOT easy.   It takes a lot of work, and sacrifice, and humility.  As a Church and as a Parish within the larger Church, we need to be doing everything that we can to support and respect marriages.  Our marriages are under attack.  And the first step in doing something about that is recognizing what is happening right in our midst.  I mean it when I say that the devil has found the Achilles’ heel of our Parish.  And he has had a hay day these last few years.  It’s time that we fought back.  It’s time that we strengthened, and protected, and did everything that we could to keep marriage holy, and committed, and intact.  Yesterday’s marriage conference is just the beginning of our efforts.  Stay tuned for more events in 2008 to bolster and strengthen marriages than we have ever had before.   And of course, we MUST all pray for married couples and marriages, even those of us who are NOT married.  It needs to constantly on the prayer lists of each and every one of us!  We learned this as a Parish a long time when it came for praying for our priest or our priests.  We want holy and better priests, then the FIRST thing we need to do is pray for them.  Doesn’t the same thing apply to marriage?  IF we want better and holier marriages, then the FIRST thing we need to be doing is praying for that intention.   We can stop what the devil is doing.  By fervent prayer and fasting, we may even be able to bring healing and reconciliation to relationships that already been damaged.   Let’s try it.  What if we ALL prayed?  Think of the possibilities!

        And while we’re on the topic of threats to the family, I also want to mention a word of caution on a new film that is going to be released in a few weeks.  I very much hesitate to do this, because way too often in my opinion, this backfires, and the Church unwittingly ends up providing free advertising and promotion for a film that may have very possibly died on its own.  But now, there are daily warnings being issued by just about everybody in the Catholic Church, and even several other non-Catholic churches, concerning the upcoming film, The Golden Compass.  There was a commercial for the film during last weekend’s Colts vs. Patriots game. If you haven’t heard, the film is based on the first book of a trilogy by militant English atheist Philip Pullman.  This trilogy, His Dark Materials, was written to promote atheism and to denigrate Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism.  The target audience is children and adolescents.  Make no mistake about it, this film is going to be greatly hyped by the media, as a children’s fantasy along the lines of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings.   The hype has already started.  Only this time, the story is cleverly woven around atheistic and humanistic principles.   This particular film is based on the least offensive of the three books, and even it has watered down the most despicable elements to sell the film.  So why should we make a big deal about it?  Well, first of all, if the movie is a success, it will virtually guarantee that the other two much more objectionable books will get made into movies.  Secondly, the movie is bait for the books.   Just as The Chronicles of Narnia  and The Lord of the Rings sold millions of C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien books, so too is the hope for The Golden Compass.  That’s the problem here.  As Catholic Christians, we need to know and understand what’s going on here.  This is not an innocent children’s film.  These books are not books that Christian children should be reading.  This movie has an agenda and it is to destroy our children’s Faith.  May we be careful.  And may we stay informed! 

         Our Faith, our families, and even our friends are real treasures.  And sometimes they are the treasures that we most need to protect and take care of.

         Have a great week!   Thanksgiving is coming!  You can’t tell that, of course, in the local stores that already have their Christmas decorations up.  It’s not time for Christmas.  It’s not even time for Advent yet.  It’s almost time for Thanksgiving.  Let’s get ready for that first.

In Christ,

Fr. Kevin  

The truest way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belonged to them.