Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

And so we come to the last week of our liturgical year and we celebrate today the Feast of Christ the King. Today we remember that Jesus is to be Number One in our lives. It is a great Feast Day. We also look forward to beginning the new liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent next weekend. These are exciting days.

We are now seventeen days away from the Dedication of our new church. Things are coming along quite nicely. In the next few days, they will begin installing the pews. Everything is coming together. We have been asked by our builders to remind everyone that the new church is an active construction zone and, as such, remains off limits to non-construction personnel. I would ask that all of us do our best to respect this. I know how excited all of us are, to see what’s been going on. It is just not helpful at this time for us to have lots of people stopping by to check things out. There’s still a lot of work that has to be completed in the next couple of weeks. Let us all keep this project in our prayers.

As we begin our new liturgical year, we are coming up on the two-year anniversary of on-going Adoration here at St. Maria Goretti. You will be hearing about our plans to expand Adoration at our Masses this weekend, as we move Adoration into the Daily Mass Chapel of our new church. The move will take place following the 5:30 PM Mass on Thursday, Dec. 9 th. To make this expansion work, we quickly need to find many new adorers to pray with our Lord, especially in the new hours from 9:00 PM until midnight during the week. It is my sincere hope that if you are not currently doing an hour of Adoration with our Lord each week, that you would seriously consider doing so at this time. The power of Adoration is awesome. Miracles happen in places where people make a solid commitment to spending an hour with Jesus each week, in constant, on-going Adoration and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. We have seen the difference that it makes. Adoration gives the Catholic Christian a strength and power and peace to face anything. If you are not already doing an hour, please sign up for an hour this weekend. Families can take an hour and share it. Why not ask a friend to share an hour with you? Or how about getting a group of friends to share an hour together? I would even like to challenge our youth to also make a commitment to spend an hour a week with Jesus. We can waste so much time in our lives. There is no better use of our time than to spend it in Adoration with Jesus. It is making an investment in our future in Heaven.

We also want to remember that Pope John Paul II has declared this year to be a “Year of the Eucharist”. This year in a special way we as a Church recall what a great gift Jesus gave us at the Last Supper. Adoration is a great way of remembering this and keeping this year. Another great way is by going to Mass more often during the week. You know, the Catholic Church says that the minimum that we need to do each week is to come to Mass together on Sundays. That is how important Mass is to our spiritual well-being. And yet, how much more beneficial is it to come to Mass more often. The new Daily Mass chapel in the new church will seat over a hundred people. Wouldn’t it be great that we had so many people at daily Mass that we actually had to use the main church? More and more Catholics are realizing the great value of going to Mass every day. As we head into our season of Advent next weekend and begin our preparations for the celebration of the Birth of our Lord Jesus, a great thing to do to get ready is to go to daily Mass. Can’t make it every day? Then why not come a couple of days a week, or even one extra day a week. You would be amazed at the peace that going to daily Mass can give you. Think about it. Why not give it a try?

Thanksgiving is this week. I hope and pray that every one has a wonderful and safe holiday. If you are going to be traveling, have a safe journey. If you are going to be in town, please consider coming and joining us for our Thanksgiving Day Mass at 9:00 AM. I always have loved this Mass because everybody is there to truly give thanks to God from their hearts. I bet God likes it too! Have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin