Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

How’s it going? We have transitioned back into Ordinary Time this week. Last Monday, was the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, officially ending the Christmas season. Then on Tuesday, we went into the first week of Ordinary Time. We come together today, and it’s already our Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. What happened to our First Sunday of Ordinary Time, you may ask? Well, it doesn’t exist. The Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, which most years occurs on Sunday, is not only the end of the Christmas season, but it is also the First Sunday of Ordinary Time. So… Welcome to the Second Week of Ordinary Time!

I wanted to remind everybody this week, about our obligation as Catholics to attend Mass every Sunday and Holy Days with our community, to bring our prayers and praise to God, and to be strengthen for the Christian life by the Holy Eucharist. Hopefully, this is much more than an “obligation” for us. We should all want to be here every Sunday to go to Mass together. But even when we don’t want to, in fact even when it is not easy or convenient, we STILL need to be going to Mass every Sunday. There are still many Catholics who somewhere along the way have missed this. Mass is what we do as Catholics on Sunday. It should be our first priority every Sunday to decide which Mass we are going to, and then to get there and receive the Sacrament. As some Catholics decide to exempt themselves from what we all agree to be one of the basic expectations of our Faith, is it any wonder that these same Catholics who aren’t going to Mass each week, are also finding it hard to live the Christian life each week. Missing Mass on a continual basis, is the beginning of that downward spiral that leads folks farther and farther away from the Catholic Christian life.

We ALL need to be here on Sunday. I need YOU to be here on Sunday. You need me to be here on Sunday. We need them. They need us. It is so important for all of us to see each other every Sunday, and to be strengthened in our own faithfulness, by the faithfulness of our brothers and sisters. When anybody is not here, you are missed. We all need to work at being faithful in our Mass attendance and take seriously our responsibility to be here every Sunday. We would never want a part-time God. We expect Jesus to ALWAYS be faithful to us. Why in the world would any of us every think that it’s O.K. to be part-time Catholic Christians? What if, on that Sunday that we slept in, or that Sunday that we decided to go out to brunch, or on that Sunday that we decided to play golf, was exactly the Sunday that God had a special message for us at Mass that changed the course of our lives? Wouldn’t any of us hate to miss that? I know I would.

On any given weekend, right around 60% of St. Maria Goretti Parish comes to one of our four Sunday Masses. Believe it or not, that percentage is very high compared to most Catholic churches. Most are 15% to 20 % below that. That’s still not anything for us to be proud of! We are always going to have a certain number of people traveling each weekend. And there will always be those occasions when some St. Maria Goretti Parish family members go to other local Catholic Church for many different reasons. Those are not the people I’m talking about. And this is not 40% of us! We need to work hard to get everybody here every weekend. It’s not enough to come to Mass every other weekend. It’s not enough to come once or twice a month. We want you with us every Sunday. And even more importantly, God wants you here every Sunday. Today, in the Catholic Church, it is getting harder and harder to be a “part-time” Catholic. The best advice I can you give is don’t even try it. Most people who are “part-time” Catholics, usually end up “ex-Catholics” in a very short while. And God certainly doesn’t need any more of those. We are called to Faithfulness by a God Who is always Faithful. May all of us make a commitment to being here every Sunday for Mass. It’s the way that the Catholic Christian life works best. It also works best when we come to Mass on time and actually stay to the end of Mass. What would happen if we raised the bar? What would it be like if this Catholic Community expected and wanted more? I think the results would be out of this world!

Have a great week! I’ll look forward to seeing you next Sunday.

In Christ,

Fr. Kevin

Honesty is like an icicle; if once it melts that is the end of it.