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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We had a wonderful celebration this past Friday evening.
The food, the music, the excellent company, the excitement, the
bidding at the auction, and the drawing of the raffle tickets, all
for a good cause, really made for a great evening. The 2008 Spring
Fling is now in the history books. I offer my deepest appreciation
to Rod and Kara Clarke and to Chris and Shari McGrath for their
fantastic leadership this year. All of the committee chairs and
members did excellent jobs. I also thank all of those who donated
items for this year’s event. The number of donations was
incredible. So many families, individuals, and businesses went out
of their way to make nice donations to this year’s event. Thank
you. I’d also like to thank all of those who came out and joined us
on Friday night. The Spring Fling is always a night to really be
proud of our Parish community. This past Friday night was
especially so!
Next weekend is one of my favorite weekends of the year,
as our community joins with our second graders in celebrating their
First Holy Communion. There will be a special Mass next Saturday
afternoon, May 3rd,
at 1:00 PM in the main sanctuary, where 142 of our young people will
be receiving Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time. Every year,
this is such a neat event! We’ve watched these children grow up
right in front of our eyes. They have come up in the Communion
processions with their arms crossed over their chest for countless
blessings over the years. And now, next Saturday, they will join us
at the Eucharistic banquet for the first time. The Faith and love
that these children have is awe-inspiring! Every Catholic should
attend a First Communion once in awhile just to be reminded what a
great gift we have in the Holy Eucharist. As all of us get older,
it so easy to take the Eucharist for granted. We come to Mass every
week and we get in line, and we go to Communion. And it’s so
terribly easy to forget what we are doing, what an extraordinary
gift we have. First Communion is NOT just for the second graders
receiving the Sacrament for the first time. First Communion is
powerful Parish event each year because it reminds us of where our
hearts are supposed to be when we walk down that aisle every week.
Let us pray for our children who will be receiving the Sacrament
this week. And even more, let us pray for all of us, that we would
never lose our love, our wonder, and our awe of our God Who invites
us to share in His Sacrifice, in the Eucharist! If you can come and
join us next Saturday, please do! Believe it or not, the new church
will be packed with people, so come a little early.
We make such a big deal about our “First Communions” that
I’ve always wished that we made more of a big deal about our Second
Holy Communion, and our Third, and our Tenth, and our Hundredth, and
our one-thousandth Each Communion in our lives is important. We
need to see that more and more. It would be really great that if
when you made your one-thousandth communion, that the lights would
flash, and confetti would come down from the ceiling, and people
would give you gifts, just like at your First Communion, and they
would have cake for you. But that doesn’t happen. Most of us have
no idea when we made our “one-thousandth” Holy Communion We don’t
keep count. EVERY Communion should be important and special. Let’s
do our best to remember that every time we walk down the aisle to
receive the Eucharist.
And we should be prepared to receive the Eucharist. This
means that we do examine our conscience and think and pray about
whether or not there are things that we should confess first in
Reconciliation BEFORE we come to Communion. Scripture tells us that
those individuals who receive the Body and Blood of our Lord while
in the state of serious sin, drink or bring “condemnation” on
themselves. It’s a lot bigger deal than we like to admit. There
are times that ALL of us need to go to Reconciliation before we come
forward to receive Communion. We also need to remember to observe
the one-hour fast prior to receiving the Eucharist. It is our
little way of remembering that what we are doing when we go to
Communion, is different from everything else that we do and must be
prepared for. The one-hour fast does include gum, by the way. I
don’t think that all Catholics realize this.
The Eucharist is a great gift. We are so blessed to be
Catholic Christians! We’ve got an awesome Pope who knows how to
pope. We’ve got really cool brothers and sisters, who hold us and
sustain us in our Faith. We’ve got all that we need to really live
exemplary Christian lives! Let’s do it!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Life is like tennis; the one who serves the most seldom loses!
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