Happy Pentecost! I hope and pray that this finds you well and at peace this Memorial Day weekend. We welcome all of our visitors who join us for this holiday weekend. May the Holy Spirit be upon all of you!

I want to thank the hundreds of folks who took advantage of our Ministry Fair last weekend. It was so good to see so many of you checking things out in the Stuart-Gadus Fieldhouse. My thanks go to all of those who stepped up to be available for each of the ministries. With five different Masses, it was quite a commitment on the part of all of the ministry leadership. You can tell the love and commitment that people have for what they are doing for God by their willingness to call others to the same ministry. My special thanks go to Jennifer Murphy, our “volunteer” volunteer coordinator, who along with our Parish Council organized this entire event. Jennifer, you are awesome! Thank you!

This past week we welcomed our summer seminarian, Jack Weldon, to our Parish family. Jack moved into the Rectory last Sunday night. It is our great pleasure to have him with us for the summer. Jack is gone this weekend at the ordination of a friend, but you will all be seeing a lot of him very soon. Next weekend, next Saturday in particular, Jack is going to be ordained himself. In one of the most beautiful rites of the Church he will become Deacon Weldon. There are several of us, including Fr. Dale and myself, who will be going up to the Diaconate Ordination next Saturday. If you would like to go, we will carpool up to Lafayette leaving St. Maria Goretti at 9:00 AM sharp. This is, of course, a great way for all of us to support our new seminarian/Deacon. And, even more, this is a great way to encourage vocations in your own children. I am always amazed at how many Catholics have never been to an ordination of any kind. And that’s too bad, because it really is a very beautiful, moving ceremony. So what are you doing next Saturday morning? Want to go with us? If you can’t be there next Saturday, let us all remember to keep the new Deacon in our prayers. It is going to be a wonderful summer and we are blessed to have Deacon Weldon here for his final summer seminarian experience before he becomes a priest next summer.

These are busy days. School is wrapping up. There are lots of graduations this week. We congratulate all of our graduates from here at St. Maria Goretti. We are proud of all of you! Our prayers and our love go with you as you move into the next phase of your life. This Thursday evening, we will have our second annual summer kick-off celebration. This very popular event is sponsored by the St. Philip Neri Oratorio, the Holy Name Society, and the Altar Rosary Society. There will be live music, great food, and a fun time for everybody. We would love to have YOU join us. Plan now to attend. Check out the details listed elsewhere in this bulletin. They are asking all of us to bring a lawn chair or blanket to sit on outside and a covered dish to share. It’s going to be a great time.

Our monthly Family Holy Hour is this Friday night. What better way to teach our children about the importance and centrality of Eucharistic Adoration in our Catholic Faith than by bringing them to Family Holy Hour and letting them experience this awesome encounter with God with music, readings, and prayers. Maybe we would all understand Adoration better, and use it more, if we would attend Family Holy Hour. It’s a great place to start. It is at 7:00 PM in church.

These are definitely days to stay strong in our Faith! We have so much to pray about and to work towards. We read so much of the bad in the paper every day. It’s not supposed to be like this. The way of the world is never going to work for anybody. Even those who appear to be “successful” in the eyes of the world will tell you that it is all a fleeting illusion. Jesus’ way is what lasts. Faith, Hope, and Love are what go on forever. May we support one another in staying strong!

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

True Courage is being the only one who knows that
you are afraid.