Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This weekend we congratulate all of those who were Confirmed this past Friday evening, It was wonderful having Bishop Higi here again. And we are all so proud of our young people. I offer my thanks to Connie Anderson and our entire Confirmation Formation Team for their excellent work and faithfulness to our candidates. To put on a truly successful Confirmation formation program takes a whole lot of work, and time, and sacrifice. But one look at the faith and love that was so evident in the faces of those young people on Friday night, and you just knew that we had done it right. Congratulations to everybody who was involved!

Next weekend, the seventh Sunday of our Easter season will be replaced by our celebration of the Feast of the Ascension. The U.S. Bishops have perpetually moved the Feast Day from Thursday of the seventh week of Easter to the Sunday before, so that all of us can celebrate the Feast Day together. Of course, that was supposed to be what was happening when it was on Thursday and it was a Holy Day of Obligation. It is difficult for me to understand why they gave up on this. I worry a lot about the Holy Days. We’re not taking them as seriously as we did just a few years ago. The Feast of the Ascension is now on Sunday. Several of the other Holy Days are not obligatory when they fall on a Saturday or a Monday right next to a Sunday with the Lord’s Day Masses. I worry that we are “dummying down” our Faith to the lowest common denominator. If we keep expecting more, eventually we are going to get more. If we as Church keep expecting less and less, that is exactly what we are going to get. Shouldn’t all of us be striving to be more and more committed to Jesus, and not less so? Here at St. Maria Goretti, we want more. We expect more. When we raise our own levels of Faith we end up raising up the whole Church! Let us strive for the very best in our relationship with God. That’s what we want. Anybody can do just the bare minimum to get by. Who wants to just “get by” when it comes to our Faith?

Next weekend, we are also going to be doing a little bit of shifting of our own here at St. Maria Goretti. We will be holding our annual Ministry Fair next weekend. Those of us who have been around here for a couple of years realize that we usually do this on the Feast of Pentecost, which is in two weeks. But this year Pentecost falls on Memorial Day weekend. And because we have so many people traveling over the long weekend and because there is a certain race taking place out at 16 th Street and Georgetown Road, we have moved it up a week this year. The Ministry Fair is one of the most important events of the year here at St. Maria Goretti. It gives all parishioners a chance to find out about and to sign up for any of the various Parish ministries they might feel called to join or participate in. Representatives of all of the Parish’s dozens of ministries will be on hand in one place, to help us hear God’s call to service. Please plan now to attend the Ministry Fair next week. It will be offered after all Masses. And this year it will be held in the Stuart-Gadus Fieldhouse to accommodate the crowds. I hope to see you there next weekend.

All of us need to be serving in some way. True stewardship is not just about our money or our treasure, but is also about sharing our time and our talents. From the very beginning, this Parish has had a beautiful tradition of everybody helping out and everybody getting involved to make the miracle of St. Maria Goretti Parish happen. How can you help out more? How can you get involved? What can you do to make our Parish better? Come and find out next weekend at the Ministry Fair!

Next Saturday night there will a special “On This Rock…We Build Our Church” Campaign dinner for new families to St. Maria Goretti. This is specifically to invite our new families to be a part of our campaign for our new church and to inform them about what we are trying to do at this time and how we hope to accomplish our goals over the next few years. If you are new and would like to join us for this fun evening, please contact Carolyn or Chuck Bullard at 815-1989 or Dave or Elaine Cox at 733-3566 to reserve your spot.

These are great days. There is so much going on. Nobody is going to be bored!

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

There are two ways to get to the top of an oak tree;
struggle to the top or sit on an acorn until it grows.