Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Happy July! Next weekend is our annual Italian Festival for the Feast of St. Maria Goretti! I can’t wait! It is always one of the most fun events of the entire year. I sincerely hope that you can join us next Saturday evening. It’s going to be the best one yet!

Special thanks go to everyone from the Holy Name Society and all who helped to make last weekend’s celebration for Fr. Weldon, such a success. Fr. Weldon mentioned several times how happy he was to be back and how much he appreciated St. Maria Goretti’s support. It was a beautiful Mass and evening. Let us keep Father in our prayers as he begins his new assignment this week.

You may or may not have heard last weekend, that St. Maria Goretti now has it’s own seminarian. Josh Bennett. Josh is 24 years old and has been attending Mass here at St. Maria Goretti for three or four years now. Josh is from Michigan. He is currently working as an engineer for Turner Construction in Indianapolis. Josh will now be engineering and building the Kingdom of God for Jesus! Josh, we are all so proud of you, and as your Parish, we promise to pray for you as you begin your discernment for the priesthood for our Diocese. Congratulations! Guys, this is a big deal! The Elijah Cup is working! Hopefully, someday, we’ll have all kinds of priests, sisters, and deacons from St. Maria Goretti, serving the Church everywhere. What a profound effect we could have on the whole Church in this way! Let us keep praying for vocations.

This Wednesday is the Feast Day of St. Maria Goretti. What a wonderful opportunity for all of us to remember our Patroness and to ask for her prayers. We are so blessed to have such a young Patroness who loved Jesus so much. St. Maria Goretti is a great example for all of us, no matter how old we are, or whether we’re male or female, or whether we’ve been the victim of a violent crime or not. St. Maria Goretti reminds us that anybody can become a saint if they stick with God, and let God work in their lives. For myself, there is something terribly humbling about the life of this little girl. I never thought that a saint who was a little girl and who died so young, could possibly have such an effect on me. But she does! St. Maria Goretti ought to make each one of us re-consider how much we love God and how committed we are to Him. If this little girl could do it with all of her heart, and all of her soul, and all of her body, then we’ve got to know that we can do it too. Enjoy the Feast Day this week and our celebration next Saturday at the Italian Festival. These days are meant to inspire us!

We will have a special Mass on the Feast Day in the main sanctuary with the relic of St. Maria Goretti. Mass will be Wednesday evening at 5:30 PM. I hope as many of you as possible will be able to join us. If you would like to bring fresh flowers from your garden at home to put in front of our new statue of St. Maria Goretti, please do so. It is another way of showing our love for our Patroness. Wouldn’t it be great if the whole alcove was filled with flowers for the Feast Day and the Italian Festival? It is going to be a great week. Enjoy it all!

We’ve got a big concert coming up. Tony Melendez, one of our former Pope John Paul II’s favorite singers, will be here at St. Maria Goretti in concert on Friday evening, July 29 th , at 7:00 PM. This is a Diocesan sponsored event that we are hosting here at St. Maria Goretti. I think that maybe our size might have something to do with it. There will be many visitors here that night from all over. Tickets are $10 a piece and will be available after Masses in the next couple of weeks. Put this on your calendar now! You are not going to want to miss this concert. If you haven’t seen Tony on EWTN or in concert before, Tony does not have any arms. He plays guitar with his feet! This guy has more musical ability in his little toe than I do in my whole body! His band is even called the Toe-Jam Band. I kid you not! He makes great music. Hey, could the Pope have been wrong? It will be a very special night. Again, plan now to attend.

This is going to be another great month! May God make it not too hot, so that we can all enjoy it.

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

FREE TRIP TO HEAVEN. DETAILS AT MASS THIS WEEKEND.