Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This is Destination Jesus Weekend. We pray for all of our young people from St. Maria Goretti who are gathering with youth from all over the Midwest at Blessed Theodore Guerin High School this weekend. We have over ninety representatives there this weekend. We pray that all of them will grow closer to our Lord during this very special event. My thanks to all of those from St. Maria Goretti who have worked so hard on the committee that organized this event, in conjunction with the parishioners of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish. Each year, this event is a powerful experience of God’s love. It is my hope that all of us at St. Maria Goretti can do whatever we need to, to keep this weekend happening each year. It is well worth all or our efforts.

I am so proud of all of our youth programs. Our Youth Minister, Jeff Stankovsky, does a wonderful job of coordinating our high school program, working with our Jr. High program, H.O.P.E, and facilitating our Confirmation preparation. We are very blessed to have Jeff. I am also most grateful to Kathy Pelletier for all that she does to coordinate H.O.P.E. and for her leadership efforts this year. Of course, both Jeff and Kathy have teams of volunteers helping them to minister to our young people. I thank all of those High School Youth Ministers who work in T.R.U.T.H., all of the Jr. High Youth Ministers who work in H.O.P.E., and all of the dozen of adults who serve in our Confirmation process. Your efforts are making a great difference, even when you can’t see it week to week. I pray that ALL of our young people know how much we love them and how much we want ALL of them involved in our Parish family.

I’d also like to thank all of the parents who support these youth programs. I will be the first one to admit that sometimes a little parental nudging is needed to get our young folks involved. Most likely, if you’re like me, your parents had to do some “nudging” with you too. I am so grateful to all of those parents who make sure that these important programs not get lost in the shuffle of everything else that our youth are involved in. We need to get more of our young people involved for the right reasons.

Two weeks ago, we celebrated Scout Sunday at our 5:00 PM Mass. Yes, that was Super Bowl Sunday. So if you missed it, we congratulate all of our scouts who earned their respective Scouting Religious Awards. Scouting is another branch of our youth ministry efforts here at St. Maria Goretti. And I also thank all of the parents and volunteers who give so much time and energy to our scouting programs. Again, the results are worth all of our efforts.

The youth remind me of how important it is to pass on our Faith. ALL OF US are under the Gospel’s imperative to take the Good News of Jesus Christ out into the world. This is not an option. This is not just something that we should do once in awhile when we “feel” like it. This is not just something we do when we are here at 169 th St. and Spring Mill Road. We are all to do it all the time. It is supposed to be one of our number one priorities. St. Francis of Assisi used to say, “we could even use words when necessary”. Who are you evangelizing to lately?

The Christ Renews His Parish Weekends for both the men and the women are coming up in the next few weeks. Have you made Christ Renews His Parish yet? You are going to want to do this weekend at some point. Why not now? Eventually, we want the entire Parish to get to experience this wonderful weekend. What are you waiting for? You give one weekend to God and He will give you back more than you could ever imagine. God’s not going to let you down.

It’s also not too early to start thinking about what we are going to be doing for Lent. We’re going to talk about making Lent 2006 the best one yet in your life, next week in this letter. Ash Wednesday is coming. Ash Wednesday is March 1 st.

Have a great week! There’s a Welcome Brunch next Sunday after the 10:00 AM Mass. If you are new to our Parish family, I hope you will join us!

In Christ,

Fr. Kevin

“Stop, Drop, and Roll” doesn’t work in Hell.