Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Today is a BIG DAY around here at St. Maria Goretti. This morning, our P.R.E. – Parish Religious Education – begins it’s 2005-06 year. As with our school a couple of weeks ago, we are so please to welcome our young people back to religious education classes. Things just don’t seem “right” when they’re not here. This year there are expected to be over 500 young people in these classes!

Once again, I’d like to publicly offer my sincerest thanks and respect for our D.R.E. – Director of Religious Education, Connie Anderson. Connie is an amazing woman. She has great Faith, and love, and a peace that is contagious to all who come in contact with her. Connie works so hard for St. Maria Goretti and has now for several years. She and her husband, Tim, are always first to volunteer, first to help out, and are constantly coming up with new and greater ideas for St. Maria Goretti. Connie, from all of us, Thank You for ALL that you do! May God bless and reward you!

Secondly, I’d like to thank the dozens of volunteers who generously accepted the great responsibility to serve as Catechists for our religious education program. These individuals are there every Sunday and Monday evening, teaching our children. They don’t get paid. They don’t get a lot of recognition. These wonderful individuals do this for us every week because they love Jesus and they love His Church. I cannot put into words how grateful I am to each one of you for what you do every week! Our kids know they are loved and they know that we care enough about our Faith to teach it well to them. I am so proud of what’s going on in religious education at St. Maria Goretti. In many parishes today, religious education for children is in a terrible state. We take the Faith formation of our children very seriously. As parents of those children, I would ask that you do the same. Let us work together this year to achieve the absolute best that we can! Forget the minimum! Let’s shoot for Heaven!

Also tonight, our high school youth group, T.R.U.T.H. - Teens Reaching Up To Heaven – has their annual Fall Kick-off. All high school students of the Parish are invited to join in this year’s group tonight at 6:00 PM in the new Youth Room located in the basement of the new church. As with the catechists for P.R.E., I’d also like to express my appreciation to all of our high school youth ministers, who give up countless hours preparing and facilitating our high school youth program. Youth Ministry has always had a very special place in my heart. This is work that is absolutely essential to the future of our Church. While our youth are active members of our Church today, tomorrow they will be the leaders. We are raising the next generation of priests, and sisters, and musicians, and coaches, and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, and Parish Council Presidents. If we don’t get this right, who will fulfill these roles in the years to come? I pray that all of us would take seriously our commitment to Youth Ministry. Parents, we need your son or daughter to be there. My dear, young brothers and sisters in high school, no matter where you go to high school, your Parish needs you to get involved and become part of our youth group. Many volunteers are still needed to help out in youth ministry from all different age groups, on all different levels. St. Maria Goretti loves its youth. Our patroness was a youth! How can we, all of us, better inspire our young people to love and serve Jesus, and to love and serve His Church? Now’s our time to do it!

If that were not enough for one day, the Holy Name Society does have their annual kick-off tonight also. I wrote about this last week in the bulletin. If you are an adult male of this Parish, and by adult I mean out of high school, we need you to come and join the Holy Name Society tonight. It’s a great group of guys! You won’t be disappointed.

These are wild days. Our nation is still reeling from effects of Hurricane Katrina. This weekend we take up a second collection to aid all of those who lost everything. We can’t begin to imagine what it is like for those people down south. But all of us can do our part to help them out. When the collection basket comes around, please give generously. Who knows when WE might be dependent on the generosity of others in our lifetimes?

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

What if God is asking US for a sign ???