Pop Quiz: Today Jesus is tested by a scholar who asks him, “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest?” Jesus responds “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” How are we in loving God (first and greatest) and loving our neighbor?
Part III: This Sunday is part three of our reflections on the Sunday experience. I’m learning a lot and I hope you are too. But most importantly, I hope we all see how incredibly important is Sunday Mass. It’s literally how we are saved by a Savior who loves to save as He desires to be in union with us.
Building: Our building committee meets every two weeks. On the weekend of November 11 – 12 I will be giving a state of the parish address at all the Masses. After each Mass there will be an opportunity for you to see the plans and visit with the building committee if you have any questions. A question I frequently receive is ‘when will the renovation start?’ We are looking at July 2018—if all goes well. Another question is about the pews. Yes, they will be spaced further apart!
Our Mother and Friends: This evening I will be talking with the Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) group on our Blessed Mother and the Saints. Some religious denominations think Catholics worship Mary or the Saints. We don’t, of course. But we certainly love them. They are our family! It’s encouraging, too, that more and more people are interested in joining or rejoining the Catholic faith.
Marching in: This Wednesday, Nov. 1, is All Saints Day. This is a special feast day (and holy day of obligation) in which we celebrate the saints, known and unknown. Attending Mass is a wonderful way to honor the saints, who intercede with God for us. They are our family cheering us on to Victory, so that where they are we also may be—with God for eternity!
Souls: This Thursday, Nov. 2, is All Souls Day. Attending Mass on this day is a great way to remember and pray for those who have died. Beginning November 1 through the month of November we will have the list of names of those who died this past year on banners.
Renewal: Really excited that our men’s Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) retreat is filling up, although there are still some openings. As we’ve mentioned in the past, would be wonderful if every adult parishioner could make a CRHP retreat or participate in ALPHA or both. ☺
Meaning of Life: Our ALPHA series is going quite well. I’ve been hearing a lot of positive feedback. The series delves into the deepest questions of the human heart. A new series will begin early next year.
Fr. Solanus: Our 8th graders visited the Fr. Solanus Casey Center last week with Fr. Dan, celebrating Mass with them. Everyone had a wonderful time learning about our newest Blessed Saint. Looking forward to his Beautification on November 18.
Recycling: A month or so ago I mentioned recycling. This past month we met the four-ton goal which provides a greater rebate. Thanks for recycling and using our bins.
Gift Cards: A great Christmas idea is gift cards. You can help our school by purchasing those cards through a school sponsored program called SCRIP. We have people in our school lobby on Tuesdays and Thursdays after 8:00 a.m. Mass until noon selling the SCRIP cards.
Fall Back: Next Sunday, November 5, at 2 am, the clocks fall back one hour. Always look forward to the extra hour of sleep. ☺
Love and prayers,
Msgr. Jerry
Saint quote of the day: “Compassion is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers, but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create.”
St. Martin de Porres (1579 – 1639) His feast day is November 3.