Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We’ve had so many feasts and celebrations since we came to the end of our Easter season, that it hasn’t really seemed like we were back in Ordinary Time. Today we go back to the “Wear’in O the Green” and Ordinary Time on Sundays, as we go back into the season at the Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time. We are in Cycle “A” of our Sunday Mass readings and Year II of our daily Mass readings. It’s going to be a great summer!

Summer also means “move time” for a lot of folks. This summer we have a few families that are moving to other parts of the country. We are losing some good friends. And we’ve already had several new families register or call about registering this summer. We look forward to meeting and making new friends with these new families to our Parish family. Summertime reminds us that all of us need to be making a constant effort to welcome our new brothers and sisters to our community. St. Maria Goretti has an excellent Welcome Committee that works really hard to welcome and invite new parishioners to participate in our Parish family. But in a Parish the size of ours, and one that is growing as quickly as ours is, ALL OF US need to be welcoming folks. Which means, we’ve all got to get out of ourselves and go out of our way to greet one another before and after Mass We don’t always realize what a simple ‘hello’ or other greeting can mean to someone who is new to our community, or even what it can mean to someone who’s been here for years, but doesn’t know anybody or feel a part of things. We must be a

welcoming community, not because I say so, but because it is what Jesus commanded us to do and to be. St. Maria Goretti Parish has always been so good at this. New families have commented for years about what a welcoming community this is, and that this is exactly what made them feel comfortable enough to join here. We must keep doing this. And with more and more new brothers and sisters moving in each week, we are ALL going to get plenty of

opportunity to do this. We need to be ambassadors for Christ and for St. Maria Goretti. Please don’t be bashful about introducing yourself to the people around you at Mass. Why not go up to someone that you don’t know before or after Mass and say ‘hello” and introduce yourself and your family to them? It’s not that hard. It’s a simple thing. And yet, it can make all the difference in the world to a family or an individual, looking for a little caring or even acknowledgment. We need to keep St. Maria Goretti Parish a friendly, welcoming place. And that’s only going to happen if each one of us takes seriously our responsibilities to our brothers and sisters. We are a Parish family. The family is the basic building block of the Church. But the Parish family is the next very important level, where most of us experience Jesus and His Church. We should know each other, care about each other, and reach out to each other. A healthy Parish will always be growing, reaching out, and evangelizing. It’s what we are supposed to be doing. We’ve just go to keep doing it. We need EVERYBODY. Nobody should be sitting on the sidelines and watching. We’ve all got to participate. ARE YOU?

Don’t be shy. Don’t sit back and wait for someone to come up to you. Maybe you ARE the one God wants to use to reach out to someone, right here, who needs to be reached out to. Maybe, someone is waiting on YOU to be Jesus for them! So many times, so many Catholics want to sit back and have Church just happen to them. We’ve got to be Church. It is an active, not a passive, thing. Welcoming one and all to our community, let’s make that happen here at St. Maria Goretti.

This week, we say goodbye to two very special members of our Parish family. Ted and Marita Ziu came to the Carmel/Westfield area in 1996, from Albania, through the personal involvement of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They came with two bags of clothes. Since their arrival, they have worked hard, learned English, made many friends, and have become U.S. citizens. This week, Ted and Marita move to Texas to be with their oldest son and his family. We wish them well in their move and are honored to have had them with us for the past twelve years. God bless you both! The annual priest convocation for all of the priests of the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana is taking place this week. Both Fr. Dale and I will be attending the event that is taking place down in Brown County. There will be a couple of communion services this week in place of Daily Mass. Please check the schedule that is inside this week’s bulletin.

Have a great day! May God bless and be with you, wherever you may go!

In Christ,

Fr. Kevin

We must never confuse error with the person who errors.