Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

      We come here this weekend with praise and thanksgiving to God, and with faith and trust in His promises when it comes to our crosses and challenges.  July 2006 is now almost history.  August starts this week.  And the beginning of our new school is now just two weeks away!

      Around here at St. Maria Goretti, we are not only getting ready to open our own school for the eleventh school year, but we are also getting ready to kick-off all of our youth programming for 2006-2007.  Parish Religious Education (P.R.E.), our high school youth group, T.R.U.T.H., our jr. high youth group, H.O.P.E., and Sacramental preparation for First Reconciliation, First Communion, and Confirmation, all are getting set to begin.  As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, what is already obvious to all of us already working with these ministries, is that they are going to be bigger and better than ever.  As a Parish family, we are going to try to do more than we ever have for our young people, and there are more young folks than ever before.  We need an army of catechists and youth ministers and volunteers to make this happen.  I would ask each one of you, whether you have children or not, to prayerfully consider what you might be able to do to help in these ministries.  We need lots of people.  We are blessed now for the first time to have both a full-time Director of Religious Education, the wonderful Connie Anderson, AND an awesome full-time Director of Youth Ministry in Jeff Stankovsky.  These are two gifted, Spirit-filled, and very capable individuals who will lead us in ministering to our children and youth.  But Connie and Jeff cannot do it by themselves.  They need us.  They need our help, our ideas, and our hands.  PLEASE consider how you might be able to help.  If you would be interested in getting involved with working with P.R.E., or our younger children, or even in Adult Religious Education, please give Connie Anderson a call at our Parish Office.  If you would be interested in working with our Jr. High folks and our High School students, or helping out with Confirmation preparation or the new High School Bible Study, please give Jeff Stankovsky a call at our Parish Office.  Guys, this is a big deal.  We need to do this with our very best.

       I suppose that it is natural that a Parish that is under the patronage of St. Maria Goretti, one of the patron saints of youth, to have a special commitment to raising Faith-filled kids and youth.   Fr. Dale, Fr. Joshua, and myself, our entire Parish and School staffs, AND this Parish family have always taken this very seriously.  We must ALL know that if we don’t pass on our Faith to our children and our youth, it can die out.  One only has to look at the Church in France, and Spain, and as hard to admit as this is, even Italy, to see the terrible damage that gets done when the youth are left out of the Church.  Our young people have always been an integral part of our Parish community.  We are so proud of all of our young people!  Together we must always make it our priority to pass on our Faith to the next generation of Church leaders.  I was very moved last May at First Communion, when as the children were coming down the aisle and receiving Jesus for the first time in the Eucharist, I couldn’t help but wonder which of them would teach in a Catholic school, or which of them would be priests or sisters, or which of them would be active in Christ Renews His Parish, or the Holy Name Society, or the Altar Rosary Society, or the St. Philip Neri Oratorio.  The possibilities are endless with these kids, especially if we do our job right as Catholic parents and as a Catholic community.  We are committed to our School, our Parish Religious Education Programs, and our Youth Groups and Ministries.  We just need lots of help AND lots of prayer to make it all work.

        Next weekend, we will be very honored to welcome Fr. Kohler from the Spiritans (until just recently “The Holy Ghost Fathers”).  The Spiritans are a Missionary Order who take the Gospel out to all of the world.  On one weekend, each year, every Catholic Parish in the world is asked to host a Missionary Order, so that we can all be a part of their important work for the Church, by both our prayers and by our financial support.  We were assigned the Spiritans by the Diocese’ Missionary Cooperation Plan for 2006.  Next weekend, is our Missionary weekend, and there will be a second collection to help support them.

        Don’t forget Seminarian Josh’s summer series on the Sacraments meets again tomorrow, Monday evening, July 31, at 7:00 PM.  We can all learn more.

                                                                          In Christ,

                                                                          Fr. Kevin

               A mother or father can touch a whole generation just by loving their own child well.