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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Welcome to our celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi,
the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Today we commission all of our
Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. At a parish of our size, it takes
hundreds of individuals to help the priests and deacon to give Communion at our
Masses. Today we show our appreciation to every one who volunteers their time
to help distribute Communion at all of our Masses. We also pray for and are
grateful for, all of those who serve the Parish by taking Communion out to our
brothers and sisters who sick and homebound. This effort is coordinated by our
St. Francis Ministry to the Sick. We are most grateful for everyone who is
involved and helps out with this important effort.
Today we welcome Father Peter Chabot, M.M., to St. Maria
Goretti. Fr. Chabot and the Maryknoll Missioners have been selected by our
Diocese for St. Maria Goretti for annual Missionary appeal. It is a great honor
to have Fr. Chabot with us. Father was ordained a Maryknoll priest in June of
1965 and sent to Bolivia. After a six-year assignment as an assistant pastor in
Bolivia’s largest city, La Paz, Fr. Peter was reassigned to the River Apostolate
of Bolivia’s remote Amazon basin. In 1977, Fr. Peter was appointed Regional
Superior of the Bolivia Region and participated in the Seventh General Chapter
at Maryknoll, New York the following year. Upon his return to Bolivia, he was
reappointed Regional Superior of the Bolivia Region for another three-year
term. Fr. Peter now serves out of Maryknoll’s Cincinnati community to promote
Maryknoll’s mission work and to invite people to share the Good News among
peoples around the world. Maryknoll’s mission is to witness to God’s Word among
the peoples and cultures of foreign lands. Maryknollers share the Gospel, not
in words alone, but in practical and concrete actions: by feeding the hungry,
clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless, and comforting the
oppressed. Maryknoll was founded in 1911 by the U.S. Bishops to represent our
Church overseas. For this reason, they have no parishes or schools in the
country and they depend on the priests and people of the United States for the
continuation of their work in mission lands. While visiting us this weekend,
Fr. Peter would be happy to talk with any person who is interested in learning
more about mission life or in perhaps becoming an overseas missioner. Welcome,
Fr. Peter!!!
Each year, every parish in the country is asked to host a
different Missionary group or Order, in order to remind all of us of two
things: Number one is that the missionary work of the Church belongs to all of
us. Our Catholic missionaries are out there IN OUR NAME, bringing the Faith and
the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. WE MUST PRAY FOR ALL OF OUR
MISSIONARIES! Secondly, every Catholic has the obligation to help our
missionaries out, not only by prayer, but also by sharing with them what we
have, so that they will have the resources that they need to continue to do
their work around the world. We don’t all have to leave everything behind and
go off to a foreign land to preach the Gospel, but we do ALL have to pray for
those who do so in our name, and we have a moral obligation to support them in
their work and efforts. Even in these tough economic times, may each one of us
do what we can this weekend to help out the Maryknoll Missioners.
Fr. Peter’s visit and missionary appeal this weekend,
does throw a little wrench into our Diocesan “Supporting Those Who Are Answering
God’s Call” Seminarian campaign, which you hopefully read about in
The Catholic Moment
and that the rest of our Diocese begins this weekend. We
will begin the Seminarian Appeal next weekend, and run it for the following
three weeks. We’ll talk more about that next weekend.
Please make Fr. Peter feel welcome and say ‘hello’ after
Masses this weekend. I am most grateful for Fr. Peter’s help this weekend, as
Fr. Dale is in France with the pilgrimage group from Guerin Catholic High
School. Please keep Fr. Dale and the group in your prayers for safe travel.
Next Sunday, the Sunday feasts are over for awhile and we
will be back in Ordinary Time. Next Sunday is the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary
Time. And we are still in Cycle “B” of the lectionary. Have a great week!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Money often costs too much. |
