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Dear
Parishioners,
Last week, we
held our Junior Jam program for junior high students.
These young people spent two
days working, praying, and reflecting together. They did
some work here on the parish grounds.
They helped others by doing some work for the elderly who
are not able to do some things
around their homes, and they served meals to the poor and
homeless. There were 21 young
people from our parish and from some of our neighboring
parishes. They all seemed to enjoy
the two days and learned a lot from the experience.
I am grateful
to Diane Bruce for initiating the program and to Keith
Johnson, Michele Muzilla, and Cynthia Doyle for carrying
the program through to completion. I am also grateful to
the K of C for preparing the hamburgers and hot dogs
for the kids at the end of the program. Opportunities like
this are very important for our young people so that
they can learn first hand how
to live out the words of Jesus in the Gospel. Please pray
for these and all our young people
that they will be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit
in their daily lives.
Our next
window from the newly installed stained glass windows in
the east vestibule is the window of St. Anthony of Padua.
St. Anthony is a very popular saint with many people,
especially among the Italians. Saint Anthony was canonized
(declared a saint) less than one year after his death.
There is perhaps no more loved and admired a saint in
the Catholic Church than Saint
Anthony of Padua, a Doctor of the Church. Though his work
was in Italy, he was born in
Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian Order and then
left it and joined the Franciscan Order in 1221, when he
was 26 years old. The reason
he became a Franciscan was because of the death of the
five Franciscan protomartyrs -- St.
Bernard, St. Peter, St. Otho, St. Accursius, and St.
Adjutus -- who shed their blood for the Catholic
Faith in the year 1220,
in Morocco, in North Africa, and whose headless and
mutilated bodies had been brought to St. Anthony’s
monastery on their way back
for burial. St. Anthony became a Franciscan in the hope of
shedding his own blood and becoming
a martyr. He lived only ten years after joining the
Franciscan Order.
He is
typically depicted with a book and the Infant Child Jesus,
to whom He miraculously appeared, and is commonly referred
to today as the "finder of lost articles"
because his preaching of the truth of the Gospel was so
simple and so direct
that it brought many people back to the Church who had
lost their way. Upon exhumation, some 336 years after
his death, his body was found to be corrupted, yet his
tongue was totally incorrupt, so perfect were the
teachings that had been
formed upon it. His feast day is June 13.
Many people
may not realize all the work that is done behind the
scenes in our church building to keep it as beautiful
as it is. Many people make
this possible, including our volunteer church cleaners,
our decorators, and especially our sacristan. The
sacristan is the person who takes care of the day-to-day
needs of the sanctuary and all that is needed for the
offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Ever since
1976, this very important job has been faithfully carried
out by Joan Clark. Joan
has been taking care of the altar linens, the altar
cloths, the vestments, and the cleaning of the sanctuary
and sacristies. She has done so much to make sure our Lord’s
house is not just clean but also beautiful. I know
that this has been a labor of love for Joan; her love for
the Lord, and for her parish community. I am sure we are
very grateful for all the hard
work and devotion Joan has shown in this ministry to our
parish. I am personally very grateful
to Joan for all that she has done with such kindness and
with such a happy spirit. We ask that God will continue
to bless Joan and her family and reward her for her
goodness. Our new sacristan is Sue Komjati, who I am
sure will do a fine job, too.
This is
Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, you will find in
the bulletin an insert with more information on this
very important matter. Please
take the time to read over the information and try to
learn as much about this as you can regardless
of your age or circumstances. As Catholics, we need to be
informed as to what the Church teaches and why so
that we can share our faith with others and defend it if
need be.
Flix Pick of
the Week: THE ULTIMATE GIFT. When his wealthy grandfather
finally dies, Jason Stevens fully expects
to benefit when it comes to the reading of the will. But
instead of a sizable inheritance, Jason receives a test, a
series of tasks he must
complete before he can get any money. The test helps Jason
to learn something that his grandfather
tried to teach him while he was alive. This is a story
that reminds us that life is a challenge filled with joys
and sorrows, but we can get
through them when we love as Jesus does.
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