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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Hello! And welcome to St. Maria Goretti Parish! We
especially want to welcome all of our brothers and sisters who join us for our
2009 Marriage Conference this weekend, featuring Christopher West. All of us
have looked forward to this weekend for several months now, and it is a great
honor for us to have Mr. West with us for these couple of days. It is my
greatest hope and most fervent prayer that this year’s Marriage Conference will
strengthen marriages and help all of us to remember that Marriage is a Sacrament
and a vocation. It is not easy being married. It takes a lot of selflessness.
And that’s a radical and rare commodity in the world that we live in today. All
of us should pray for healthy marriages every day. If you are married, you
should be doing EVERYTHING that you can daily to strengthen and build-up your
marriage and relationship. To forget how sacred and important marriage is, is
truly the first step in allowing your marriage to deteriorate. I applaud the
couples who invested the time, effort, and money to come to this year’s Marriage
Conference. I know you will not be disappointed. But perhaps this year more
than ever, it would have been very easy to make excuses of why NOT to attend.
Thank you for joining us. And I would also like to thank the entire committee
for this year’s Conference, which included Connie and Tim Anderson, Mary and
Chris Bohn, Anne Marie and Dave Bigot, Mike and Elva Farrell, Kathy and Chris
Ellington, Peggy and Jim Hackl, Jori and Mike McNulty, Joan and Tom Scimeca,
Shelly and Sam Schenk, and Vivian and Michael Tragesser. Thanks to each of you
for all your hard work and planning!
This weekend, and several times in the next few weeks, we
are going to be hearing from our HELP Committee and Shepherd’s Gate Food Pantry,
about how each of us can help out with our annual Thanksgiving and Christmas
food and gift outreach to those in need. Next Saturday is our Thanksgiving
delivery date. Many volunteers are needed to prepare, to pack, to organize, to
load up, and to deliver our Thanksgiving donations. Once again, I am counting
on everyone to help out with this massive undertaking. The only way that we are
able to do so much for so many people is with ALL OF US helping out and lending
a hand. I hope that when you are asked that you will willingly and
enthusiastically respond with a “Yes! How can I help out this year?” The HELP
Committee has been getting things ready for next Saturday for months now. They
are organized! Now they just need lots of manpower to pull off both the
Thanksgiving and the Christmas deliveries. In just a couple of weeks, the
“Advent Angel” trees will be going up in the church narthex. It’s time now for
all of us to pray and discern how many people we might be able to help this
year, by taking angels off the tree, buying and wrapping the gift, and bringing
it back in a timely fashion so that it can be delivered with the Christmas
food. There are more people in need this year than ever before. And while
times are tough for all of us, the reality is that there are always many who
have it worse off than what we do. Even if we might not have as much to spend
on our own Christmas celebration this year, all of us can do something to help
those who are worse off than we are. We pray for generous hearts, which is the
true spirit of Christmas! How can you help out? You’re going to get some ideas
in the special announcement at Mass this weekend.
Tomorrow is Deacon Steve’s birthday. If you get the
chance make sure you wish him well on his special day. Deacon Steve has been a
great blessing to our Parish family now for several years. We greatly
appreciate all that he and his wife, Melissa, do for all of us! May you have a
very Happy Birthday!
In last week’s bulletin, when I was thanking those who
were instrumental in helping to bring the Vatican Exhibit on Eucharistic
Miracles to St. Maria Goretti and in running the Exhibit, I neglected to mention
the incredible Kathy Lengerich. I even more embarrassed by this omission
because of the huge role that Kathy played in helping to put on the Exhibit, and
even more by all that this wonderful woman does for our Parish family in so many
other areas, most especially by providing the leadership and organization for
our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion ministry. Kathy is true gem! We
are so blessed to have her here at our Parish. If you see her today give her a
big THANK YOU. She is an amazing woman and I truly regret my omission last
week.
Next weekend, we come to the end of our liturgical year
with the Feast of Christ the King. Thanksgiving and Advent are not far away!
Enjoy these special days!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
“The Lord is my Shepherd” is written on many more tombstones than
lives.
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