Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Happy May! This is going to be a big month. First Communion is next weekend. Confirmation is May 14 th. We’ve got lots of Baptisms and Weddings coming up. The Pacers are looking better than ever. The Indy 500 is now just weeks away. And take a good look at that new church going up next door. It is awesome!

This past Friday night’s Spring Fling 2004, “Building Our Tradition” was an amazing night. My sincerest thanks to everybody who worked so hard, made contributions, and attended the wonderful evening. It was a great night. It is always one of my favorite nights of the entire year and is very much like a pep rally for St. Maria Goretti Parish. My special thanks and gratitude to Sheryl and Dennis Dye and Katie and Mitch Schroder, for heading up this year’s event. “A good time was had by all” is an understatement. And while it will be a little while before we know exactly how we did monetarily, the evening was a great success for bringing us all together and helping us to appreciate one another and our faith community. The statues for the new church are amazing. We had seen pictures of the statue of Mary before, but the first pictures of the statue of St. Maria Goretti are simply breathtaking. These incredible works of art honoring Mary and St. Maria Goretti, that will inspire countless generations for years to come, are only made possible because of the Spring Fling. Thanks to everybody who worked so hard and who supported this most important annual fundraiser! Hopefully all of us will be proud each time we see the statues in our new church. The designs were chosen for their ability to inspire all of us to greater holiness in our lives. If you haven’t had the chance to see the pictures of the statues that are currently under production in Chicago, stop by the school narthex this weekend and next weekend to check them out.

We are quickly coming to that time of the year when many of our school-calendar-based programs will be coming to an end in the coming weeks, in particular P.R.E. or Parish Religious Education. Now’s a good time to remind every one that we still need to be coming to Mass, even when there’s no P.R.E. or school. Some Catholic churches lose half of their attendance at Mass in the summertime. And while there are many more people traveling in the summer than during other times of the year, we still need to be making sure that we are NOT taking a vacation from God. We need to be here every week, and if not here, we need to be at Mass some place every week. I must confess that I am completely perplexed at what to say to people who think that it is important to have their children at P.R.E. or in a Catholic school, and then who take the summer off from God and Mass. There is no excuse. We need to be here every Sunday. And even when we are traveling, we need to make every effort that we can to attend Mass. When we are traveling and know that we are going to be gone on a Sunday, why not check out in advance where the nearest Catholic church is? Most hotels and motels will keep that information in their office. Besides, isn’t one of the fun parts of traveling getting to experience how different parishes do things? Several of the ideas for our new church came from people who were traveling and brought back ideas to our building committee. Yes, there are some areas of our own country, and certainly many areas of our world, where it is very difficult to get to Mass. Nobody is asking anybody to do the impossible. And yet every reasonable effort should always be made to attend Mass wherever you are. It is what we do as Catholics on Sundays.

This Friday evening we will be having Family Holy Hour in church at 7:00 PM. This is the return of this important prayer opportunity after its being replaced by the Stations of the Cross during Lent. Family Holy Hour was put into place to help families get their children used to Eucharistic Adoration. As we move closer and closer to Perpetual Adoration in our new church, we are going to need all of our young people to take an hour each week and spend it with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. To help them to start to get used to this, Family Holy Hour was devised for the First Friday of each month. The hour of adoration includes readings, songs, litanies, and silence, all involving the whole family. Since we have started regular Adoration during the week, attendance at Family Holy Hour has dropped off significantly. It is my hope that we can reverse this. Come and join us this Friday evening. Bring the whole family. You’ll be glad that you did.

Have a great week! Pray for me!

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

Don’t let your worries get the best of you,
remember Moses started out as a basket case.