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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Welcome to our celebration of the Thirteenth Sunday in
Ordinary time! Yesterday, we began our Novena to St. Maria Goretti. This year
we get to have two Sunday fall within the nine days of our Novena prayer. Today
is the second day of the Novena, and we will be praying the Novena prayer after
Communion at all of our Masses today. Next Sunday, July 5th,
we will conclude the Novena. The Feast of St. Maria Goretti, July 6th,
is the next day. We will have a special Feast Day Mass on Monday evening, at
5:30 PM in the Main Sanctuary. As always, if you can’t pray the Novena prayers
with us here at Mass every day, please feel free to take a copy of the Novena
home to continue the prayers all this week. This is a great week for all of us,
as we get ready to celebrate our patroness’ Feast Day.
The coming Feast of St. Maria Goretti also means that we
are right around the corner from our 2009 Italian Festival to honor her. The
Italian Festival is Saturday, July 11th,
beginning with the 4:30 PM Mass and continuing that evening until 10:00 PM.
We’ve got a great band, a whole lot of delicious Italian food, all kinds of fun
games, including some brand new ones this year, and of course, lots of wonderful
people to share the evening with. One of the primary goals of the Italian
Festival is evangelization. We celebrate our Patroness and our community, and
we invite the larger community of Westfield to come and join us in our joy and
exaltation. Every year, we have more and more visitors to our Parish for this
event. I sincerely hope that each one of us might consider who we could invite
to come and celebrate with us that evening. Our friends, our neighbors,
co-workers, fallen-away Catholics, anybody and everybody are all welcome to come
and join us. For many people, it is their only exposure all year long to the
Catholic Church. And if that is only done over “elephant ears”, which are
originally Italian, by the way, I just have no idea how to spell the Italian
word for them, or over breadsticks, so be it! Remember Jesus made a great
number of conversions over some fishes and loaves two-thousand years ago. You
should see what the Holy Spirit can do with a little gelato! Now is our time to
invite folks to come and join us at the Italian Festival. Who could you invite
this year? Too bashful to say anything? Why not buy one of those extra stylish
2009 SMG Italian Festival T-shirts and spread the word that way? They make
excellent conversation starters!
Inviting guests to St. Maria Goretti, in particular,
inviting non-Catholic guests or guests who are not in good standing with the
Catholic Church, to come to Mass, does come with some responsibilities. In the
past six weeks, I’ve had three different situations, where three different
visitors have come down the aisle at Communion time, not to receive a blessing,
but to go to Communion. This created confusion and conflict down front at the
Communion station, as in two of the cases, Communion had to be withdrawn. It is
extremely important that if we are bringing non-Catholic friends and family to
join us for Mass, and we should be doing that, that we must let them know that
they cannot receive Communion, and that they may receive a blessing, if they
cross their arms over their chest. We want to be very hospitable to our guests,
but all of us know how very important it is that we be Catholic in order to
receive Holy Communion. Communion is all about our union in the Faith,
especially our unity in our belief in the Eucharist. Anytime any non-Catholic
tells us that they want to join us for Communion and the Eucharist, it is one of
the best and surest signs that they should be Catholic!
Another reminder for all of us to remember is how
important it is for us to remember to say “Amen”, before we receive both the
Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. That “Amen” is not optional. In
fact, you don’t say “Amen”, the priest, deacon, or Extraordinary Minister of
Holy Communion is NOT supposed to give you Communion. It is that big of a
deal. Please help us out with this by clearly responding “Amen” after both “The
Body of Christ” and “The Blood of Christ”. That “Amen” is truly one of the most
important words that we are going to say all week long. Besides, if you fail to
respond, the priest, deacon, or Extraordinary Minister may think that you are
NOT Catholic because you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing. Just
say “Amen”. It is as simple as that.
We’ve got a great couple of weeks coming up. I am so
excited about the Novena and the Italian Festival. Have a great Fourth of
July! Please don’t forget about our campaign to help our seminarians!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Unfortunately, too often we worship our work, work at our play,
and play at our worship.
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