Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     Happy August!  Welcome to St. Maria Goretti!  We especially welcome any new or visiting folks who are joining us for the first time this weekend.  It is good to be together today for the Feast of the Transfiguration.  We take a little break today from Ordinary Time and celebrate this Feast that recalls the day that Jesus’ glory was revealed on Mount Tabor to Peter, James, and John.  On this Feast Day, we pray that Jesus will continue to reveal Himself to all of us on a daily basis.

     As I mentioned last weekend in this space, we welcome Fr. Vincent Stegman, C.S.Sp., from the Fathers of the Holy Spirit (The Spiritans).  Fr. Stegman’s religious order used to be known as the Holy Ghost Fathers.  And this Order specializes in Missionary work around the world.  Fr. Stegman is here for our annual Mission appeal.  On this one weekend of the year, we are asked as a Parish family to pray for and to help financially support the Missionary activity of the Church.  We might not all be able to leave our homes and go off to strange and far-off lands, but all of us can pray, and all of us can make sacrifices here so that the Missionary work of Jesus can continue throughout our world.  Welcome Fr. Stegman!  It is great to have you with us this weekend.  We will be hearing from Father at all our Masses this weekend.

      Having Fr. Stegman with us this weekend, also reminds us that each one of us need to be a “Missionary” here in our own community.  This is particularly important for us right now, as we get ready to kick-off another great season of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.   On Monday evening, August 14^th, will be the opening session of the Pre-Catechumenate for the RCIA.  NOW is the time for all of us to be asking our non-Catholic friends, neighbors, and co-workers if they have ever considered joining the Catholic Church.  For all of these people, we may very well be the only “Catholic Missionary” that they will ever meet.  I cannot tell you how important it is that all of us take seriously this responsibility to be reaching out to our brothers and sisters in true Christian love and concern.  Today, the truth is that if we don’t reach out to these folks, somebody else will.  And oftentimes “others” will only bring a small portion of the truth to these individuals.  Our Catholic Faith offers us the whole story and the whole truth.  As Catholics, we have something really worthwhile to share with others.  Then why don’t we do it?  Now is not the time to be bashful.  We don’t need to beat anybody over the head with our religion.  But nor should we be afraid to invite, out of love and concern, anybody to come and join us as Church.  We must always remember that Jesus died for all of us, and that all of us are invited to His Kingdom.   Who could you invite to consider the Pre-Catechumenate?  The Pre-Catechumenate is one of my favorite parts of the RCIA because nobody has to join.  Nobody has to sign-up.  It is just a chance to ask some questions, to get some right answers, and to consider if being Catholic might not just be God’s plan for you.  It’s time that all of us took more seriously Jesus’ call to evangelize the world, all of our world.

      Our Monday evening Adult Education series on the Sacraments wraps us this week.  The final session is tomorrow evening, August 7^th, at 7:00 PM in the Parish Narthex.  I was able to attend last week and thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and excellent discussion.  I like to thank our own seminarian, Josh Bennett, for all his hard work and commitment this summer, not only to the Adult Religious Education series, but for everything that he has helped out with this summer, including the starting up of the Temple Knights of the Holy Eucharist.  This Tuesday, Josh heads home to Michigan for a quick visit with his family for a few days, and then he returns to Emmitsburg, Maryland, and the second-year of his Pre-Theology studies there.  Thank you, Josh, for everything this summer!  Our prayers go with both Josh and our new seminarian, Clayton Thompson, as both of them prepare to head off to seminary in the next couple of weeks.

       Next weekend, we will be back in Ordinary Time with the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.  I will be gone this week.  Please keep me in your prayers.  We are also starting to shoot the pictures this week for the new Pictorial Directory.  Make sure you smile for your picture!

                                                                         In Christ,

                                                                          Fr. Kevin 

                                           It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.