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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Welcome to our celebration of the
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary time! Yesterday, we began our Novena to St.
Maria Goretti. This year we get to have two Sunday fall within the nine
days of our Novena prayer. Today is the second day of the Novena, and we
will be praying the Novena prayer after Communion at all of our Masses today.
Next Sunday, July 5th, we
will conclude the Novena. The Feast of St. Maria Goretti, July 6th,
is the next day. We will have a special Feast Day Mass on Monday evening,
at 5:30 PM in the Main Sanctuary. As always, if you can’t pray the Novena
prayers with us here at Mass every day, please feel free to take a copy of the
Novena home to continue the prayers all this week. This is a great week
for all of us, as we get ready to celebrate our patroness’ Feast Day.
The coming Feast of
St. Maria Goretti also means that we are right around the corner from our 2009
Italian Festival to honor her. The Italian Festival is Saturday, July 11th,
beginning with the 4:30 PM Mass and continuing that evening until 10:00 PM.
We’ve got a great band, a whole lot of delicious Italian food, all kinds of fun
games, including some brand new ones this year, and of course, lots of wonderful
people to share the evening with. One of the primary goals of the Italian
Festival is evangelization. We celebrate our Patroness and our community,
and we invite the larger community of Westfield to come and join us in our joy
and exaltation. Every year, we have more and more visitors to our Parish
for this event. I sincerely hope that each one of us might consider who we
could invite to come and celebrate with us that evening. Our friends, our
neighbors, co-workers, fallen-away Catholics, anybody and everybody are all
welcome to come and join us. For many people, it is their only exposure
all year long to the Catholic Church. And if that is only done over
“elephant ears”, which are originally Italian, by the way, I just have no idea
how to spell the Italian word for them, or over breadsticks, so be it!
Remember Jesus made a great number of conversions over some fishes and loaves
two-thousand years ago. You should see what the Holy Spirit can do with a
little gelato! Now is our time to invite folks to come and join us at the
Italian Festival. Who could you invite this year? Too bashful to say
anything? Why not buy one of those extra stylish 2009 SMG Italian Festival
T-shirts and spread the word that way? They make excellent conversation
starters!
Inviting guests to St.
Maria Goretti, in particular, inviting non-Catholic guests or guests who are not
in good standing with the Catholic Church, to come to Mass, does come with some
responsibilities. In the past six weeks, I’ve had three different
situations, where three different visitors have come down the aisle at Communion
time, not to receive a blessing, but to go to Communion. This created
confusion and conflict down front at the Communion station, as in two of the
cases, Communion had to be withdrawn. It is extremely important that if we
are bringing non-Catholic friends and family to join us for Mass, and we should
be doing that, that we must let them know that they cannot receive Communion,
and that they may receive a blessing, if they cross their arms over their chest.
We want to be very hospitable to our guests, but all of us know how very
important it is that we be Catholic in order to receive Holy Communion.
Communion is all about our union in the Faith, especially our unity in our
belief in the Eucharist. Anytime any non-Catholic tells us that they want
to join us for Communion and the Eucharist, it is one of the best and surest
signs that they should be Catholic!
Another reminder
for all of us to remember is how important it is for us to remember to say
“Amen”, before we receive both the Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That “Amen” is not optional. In fact, you don’t say “Amen”, the priest,
deacon, or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion is NOT supposed to give you
Communion. It is that big of a deal. Please help us out with this by
clearly responding “Amen” after both “The Body of Christ” and “The Blood of
Christ”. That “Amen” is truly one of the most important words that we are
going to say all week long. Besides, if you fail to respond, the priest,
deacon, or Extraordinary Minister may think that you are NOT Catholic because
you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing. Just say “Amen”.
It is as simple as that.
We’ve got a great
couple of weeks coming up. I am so excited about the Novena and the
Italian Festival. Have a great Fourth of July! Please don’t forget
about our campaign to help our seminarians!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Unfortunately, too often we worship our work, work at our play,
and play at our worship.
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