Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This is an extraordinary weekend for all of us here at St. Maria Goretti, as we celebrate our first Ordination. Yesterday morning, at our Cathedral in Lafayette, Steve Miller, our former business manager and our brother in Christ, was ordained a Permanent Deacon of the Catholic Church. Steve was one of five men ordained in our Diocese’s first-ever permanent Diaconate class. It is the hope and prayer of all of us that Steve will be the first of many deacons, permanent and transitional, priests, sisters, brothers, and lay ecclesial ministers to come out of our Parish family. On behalf of all of us, I offer my sincere congratulations to Deacon Steve and his wife, Melissa, on this happy occasion. We are all SO proud of you. It is a big weekend for all of us. Giving ordained ministers back to the Church is one of the greatest signs of life of any Catholic community. This weekend, let us rejoice and give thanks to God for what He has done in our brother. May all of us stay open to God’s call in our life!

Next weekend, we welcome Fr. Gus Gordon to our Parish. Fr. Gordon is from the Catholic organization, Food for the Poor, Inc.. Fr. Gordon was ordained in 1969 and belongs to the Archdiocese of Castries in St. Lucia. He has worked in hands-on ministry in Alabama serving the poor and hungry, and has preached on behalf of Food for the Poor for seventeen years. Father Gordon will share with us what he has witnessed about caring for the poor as a means of living out the Gospel mandate to love one another. Food for the Poor provides direct relief to the poor throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. We all need to hear this. Not only because we have a responsibility to help our brothers and sisters in need, but also because we need to remember just how blessed we truly are every day. Thank God, most of us have never really known what it is like to go day without food because there is no food. And yet, one-third of the world’s population will not have enough to eat today. We can’t feel guilty, because that’s not enough. We need to live more simply so that our brothers and sisters can simply live. We need to pray. We need to simplify. We need to do what we can to help. And most of all, we’ve got to get out of our TV-induced stupor and realize that there’s more going on in the world than just what CNN decides to show us. People are dying because they are starving to death. It would not take much from us to make a big difference. And yet, if we continue in our complacency and ignorance, nothing is ever going to change. Fr. Gordon is coming to St. Maria Goretti to help educate us. We need to know the way things really are.

In the past two weeks we’ve cried with the people of New Orleans and Louisiana and Mississippi. All of us have been moved by the suffering of so many. Last weekend, in typical St. Maria Goretti fashion, our Parish family came through with over $38,000 for Catholic Charities. This weekend, we are stock-piling our food pantry, as we’ve been asked to do, to prepare for whoever needs it. We are compiling a list of families willing to take refugees in, and other families who are willing to help them. It is a time for heroes. And it is a time for helping others in need. Why hear from Food for the Poor now? First of all, for the past six years Food for the Poor has wanted to come to SMG, and I’ve always delayed them because we were preparing to build, or building our new church. This visit next weekend was set up several months ago, long before we knew of the situation we’d be in because of Hurricane Katrina. We are keeping the invitation and looking forward to welcoming Fr. Gordon because we also need to remember that for many people in the world, the way the refugees from the hurricane were living in those dark days after the disaster, is the way that they live every day. The hurricane and its effects were terrible. Many people live in terrible situations every day without any hope of anything ever getting better. Again, we need to know. Please welcome Fr. Gordon to St. Maria Goretti and take care of him while he is here. He comes with a prophetic message.

I will not be here next weekend. Please take care of Fr. Dale and Deacon Steve too, as they carry an extra load in my absence. I will be traveling with my family for the next two weeks. Please pray for us and for a safe journey, as we go back to the “Old Country”. God bless you. Let us be grateful for all of our blessings.

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

What we do in life echoes in eternity.