Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

If you are reading this after you picked up your bulletin after Mass, and you did not stop over at the 2004 Ministry Fair, turn around! Come back! We really need everybody to let the Holy Spirit work and to stop by your favorite ministries’ tables in the Stuart-Gadus Fieldhouse. The Ministry Fair is taking place after all of our Masses this weekend. I will see you there.

This past week St. Maria Goretti Parish sent home to Heaven another beautiful soul. Sonny Scholl’s funeral was this past Monday. This has been a tough year on the Parish that has had very few funerals in the past several years. We still miss Kathy, Melody, and Karl, and numerous parents of our extended SMG family. And yet I know that all of these were probably at the welcoming party for Sonny in Heaven when he died last week. Sonny’s life and death remind me very much of how important it is to take the time to do the “little things” of being kind and friendly. Sonny spent much of the last few years confined to a wheelchair. But he was at 9:00 o’clock Mass almost every Sunday. His wonderful wife, Maggie, took good care of him. How very much he enjoyed shaking hands, greeting people, the kind words, and many other acts of hospitality that he both received and gave when he came here to Mass. It’s what makes us a community. Sonny is such a powerful reminder to all of us that we really need to keep reaching out to each other. We have no idea when our kind word, or a joke, or gesture is going to make that special difference in another person’s life. If there is any place in this entire world where a person ought to be able to go and experience genuine concern, love, affection, and kindness, it should be at any one of Jesus’ Churches. Each one of us is an instrument of that love and concern. It is not enough to “run” in here and just “go to Mass”. We need to take the time to greet each other, to care about each other, and to express our concern. Sometimes we simply have to make time. Everybody is busy. Everybody has a lot to do. Everybody has a lot of responsibilities. And yet, in the middle of our “busyness”, we still need to care. Wasn’t that one of the most amazing aspects of Jesus’ walk to His own death? Even carrying the cross, Jesus had time and compassion for others! How can we ever not do the same?

Quite obviously, as our Parish family grows larger by the week, all of us are going to need to do more and more of this. Now more than ever, if you see someone at Mass that you don’t know, please introduce yourself and find out who they are. We can’t be a Parish family when we don’t even know each other. Our Welcome Committee, under the leadership of the awesome Jane Hitch and her amazing gang of hospitable people, are working in over-drive to reach out to our new folks. But this is the task of all of us, not just a few. One of my most consistent prayers every day is that our Parish will continue to be a welcoming, friendly place where anybody can come and experience the love of Jesus. May this be the case not because we talk about it, but because we do it every time that we are together. When we move into that new church in December, all indicators are that we will experience rapid growth as a Parish unlike anything we have seen up to this point. Let us be ready and waiting for our new brothers and sisters. May we be prepared to welcome all who God sends our way.

This weekend, in conjunction with the Ministry Fair, we have the initial sign-ups to help out with our Italian Festival. This year’s Italian Festival is planned for Saturday, July 10 th. This is one of the biggest and most exciting events of the year for our Parish. Attendance records indicate that at no other time do more people visit St. Maria Goretti Parish each year, than at the Italian Festival. It is a great day and a true opportunity for Evangelization. You can help us out. Literally hundreds of volunteers are needed for the festival. How are you going to help out? Get the whole family involved. It is a very fun day!

Next weekend, we will be celebrating the Feast of Pentecost. What a great Feast Day to end our Easter season. Let us pray in advance for a continued outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all of us. The Holy Spirit makes all the difference in the world!

Have a great week! Enjoy the nice weather. Hopefully, they will be able to get a lot more done on our new church!

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

You have not really learned a commandment
until you have obeyed it.