Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

        First of all, the Good News this weekend is that, hopefully, you are reading this!  Last weekend, we experienced the great mystery of the missing bulletins.  I apologize for any and all inconvenience that the bulletin mess caused.  On the weekend before Ash Wednesday and Lent, it was a terrible time to NOT have our bulletins.  Pastoral Solutions, Inc., who prints and manages our bulletin account, and UPS, who is the shipper that Pastoral Solutions, Inc. uses, both apologized for the situation.  The bulletins did finally arrive, on Monday morning, February 4^th, at 10:00 AM.   It was quite late for the weekend Masses.  This weekend, they are available in the church narthex, along with this one that you are reading now.  Last week’s bulletin did contain important information on our Nursery Co-op, on parking cars in the drive and pick-up zones, and on Lenten regulations for Catholics when it comes to fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and on abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent.  So along with this bulletin that you are reading, I do hope that you will also take the time to read the one from last weekend.

       I’d like to thank several folks this week.   First of all, I thank the Parish Council for all their hard work on this year’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” Dinner that took place on Saturday, January 26^th.  This year’s event was headed up by Parish Council representative Beth Schneider.   It was a fun, wonderful evening, that the Parish Council sponsors for all of us each year.  I had a great time.  From the comments I heard, I think most everybody enjoyed themselves.  The community-builder gets bigger every year.  If you weren’t able to join us this year, perhaps you can next year.  It’s a lot of fun.  I’d also like to express my appreciation to everyone on our school staff and our Parent/Teacher Organization for all they did to celebrate our own Catholic school during Catholic Schools Week 2008.  It was a wonderful week with lot of great celebrations and acknowledgements.   And finally, I’d also like to thank all of our scout people who made last weekend’s Scout Mass and our Parish’s celebration of Scout Sunday a success.  I am continually amazed at the army of people that it takes to run Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Brownies, Cub Scouts, and all the other variations of the scouting family.  As a former scout myself, I am so grateful to every adult volunteer that we have, who give of their time and make the scouting programs possible for our young people.  We are very blessed with so many people who give of their time and energy to make really incredible things happen at our Parish family, and for our Parish family.  We all need to remember to say ‘thank you’ once in awhile.  

       As we head into our first full week of Lent 2008, I’d like to challenge all of us to pray more this week, and to continue to work on the quality of our prayer.   I don’t think that I have ever met anybody who says that they pray enough.  We can all do better with both quantity and quality.  And that would be a great goal for us during this first week.  I have been really moved by the number of people who are coming to daily Mass for Lent.  The Mass is the perfect prayer and a great way to start improving your prayer life.  But there are many other ways as well.  Morning prayers, evening prayers, and even night time prayers before you go to bed, all keep us connected to God.  The rosary, the Stations of the Cross, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and so many other devotions are also powerful ways to improve your prayer life.  Or how about just praying a couple of the Psalms every day, or reading from Sacred Scripture for a few minutes?   It is really very easy to increase your prayer life.  You don’t have to pray all day or even for hours.  But we do have to pray!  How’s your prayer life this Lent?  When’s the best time and place for you to pray?  Are you communicating with God?  How can we believe in Him if we’re not showing it by our communication with Him?  Pray more this week!  You’ll be glad that you did.

      I do want to remind everyone once again of our Parish Lenten Mission.  It is a great honor for us to welcome Fr. Stan Fortuna to St. Maria Goretti for the Mission,  February 25^th thru the 28^th, at 7:00 PM each evening.  Fr. Stan is a spiritual powerhouse who is going to encourage all of us to grow in our Faith.  Please plan now to attend.   And now is also the time for us to be inviting friends and family to come and join us for the Mission.  A lot of time, work, and resources have gone into preparing the Mission and getting Fr. Stan to come here.  Wouldn’t it be a shame if as many people as possible didn’t get to take advantage of this incredible opportunity?  Be an Evangelist!  Invite a friend to come to the Mission!

      Have an awesome week!  Next weekend, is Destination Jesus, the high school event at Guerin High School.  Please keep our youth in your prayers as they prepare this week for next weekend.  Once again, the guys from Destination Jesus will be staying in our Fieldhouse and Parish Hall next weekend.  The buildings may smell a little funky for awhile, but its worth it for all the good that happens!

In Christ,

Fr. Kevin

Take away love and our earth is a tomb.