Greetings in Christ! It’s First Communion Weekend here at Holy Family and I couldn’t be more excited. Praise God for our parents who understand the vital importance of this Most Blessed Sacrament. Praise God for our teachers who helped prepare them for it. Praise God for all of you who contribute to our parish so that we can do all these things. God is so good.
Next weekend is Ascension Sunday, when we remember and cherish Jesus ascending to Heaven after His resurrection. We’ll get into the “Why” He did it at the homily. In terms of the “How” Jesus did it, I really have no idea. The weekend after that is Pentecost, when we celebrate Jesus pouring out His Holy Spirit on all of us.
Our Garage Sale was a huge success. We had over 60 volunteers who worked their tails off to help us gather and sell as much as possible. Because of the sacrifice of these volunteers and the many who donated things to be sold, we were able to raise more than $14,000 for our parish: Praise God!
Last week, I needed to ask your forgiveness for messing up my Christmas thank you’s; now I get to ask it again for messing up a sacramental decision.
In the last couple of years, we’ve had some situations where we baptized kids who were seven or eight years of age. There were lots of reasons for this, but in general, these were children who were in class preparing for First Communion, were unbaptized, and whose families sought baptism for them. Whatever the reason, what I found out is that Church Law requires me to baptize AND CONFIRM (at that same time) anyone whom I baptize at or past the age of seven.
How does this mistake affect you? It really doesn’t. This was a mistake I made based on ignorance, but there are no implications on the grace of the sacrament. I let our Diocese know and I will not make this error again. I apologize; please forgive me.
Thank you so much for letting me be a part of this Holy Family. I am so very grateful.
Your Priest,
Fjk