PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS. The Feast of the Sacred Heart this year is on Friday, June 7. Since the Feast of the Scared occurs on a Friday we are permitted to move the celebration to the weekend because it is our patronal feast. So, we will celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the weekend of June 8 and 9 at all the Masses. Following the 5 PM Mass on Sunday, June 9 we will hold our parish picnic. The Family Life Commission and the Parish Council will be working to plan the event, but more help and ideas would be most welcome. So, if you would like to help plan this parish gathering, please call the parish office as soon as you can. In the meantime, we can all pray for good weather, or we will have to have our “picnic” downstairs in McMahon Hall.
This year our celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus will coincide with Fr. Pat’s final weekend here since his four-year assignment will be complete. So, we will celebrate a day of thanksgiving for all that Fr. Pat has done for our parish over the past four years. He has done so many wonderful things here, his work with our youth, our school and PSR, along with his teaching in the Becoming Catholic series preparing those who desired to enter the Catholic Church, and in addition to all the regular day to day ministry of a parish priest. He has been a great asset to our faith community helping all to grow in Grace and Service. May God bless him in his new assignment.
Parish Council Nominations. Next weekend we will hold our annual nominations for parish council. There will be nomination ballots in the pews which you can fill in as many as five names. All parishioners 18 years of age and older as of April 1, 2024, are eligible. Those presently serving on the parish council are NOT eligible and neither are the members of their households. Please take some time to prayerfully consider someone you would like to nominate. If you choose, you may volunteer to run for parish council by nominating yourself.
I hope that everyone who was able to watch the solar eclipse last Monday thoroughly enjoyed this great wonder of God’s creation. How much the Father loves us that He gives us the earth and heavens to thrill us and entertain us as well. He also instructs in all that He has created. I really do not understand how anyone who witnesses such an event can walk away and still not believe in God. These wonders of nature do not just happen by chance. These are the things that God has created to show us His love and to teach us about the universe He has created. We should always treasure these gifts from God. As we read in the Psalms: “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Ps. 19:1
I hope that many will continue to be inspired by last week’s celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday realizing how important God’s mercy is for all of us and that it was for this reason that Jesus was sent by the Father to us. Jesus is the mercy of God proclaimed by His own suffering and death on the cross and His final victory over sin and death by His resurrection. Mercy is much more than forgiveness or pity; mercy is the way that God loves us. He loves us so much that He first of all became one of us and then offered His life for our sins. There is nothing that God would not do for us so that we could one day be with Him in heaven. He is constantly offering Himself to us as a sacrifice so that we can come to know the depth of His love. As God has shown us His mercy so HE calls us to extend that same mercy to one another by forgiving our brothers and sisters from our hearts. We must be able to apply His teachings to every aspect of our lives.
There is much being said today about immigration and what we as a country must do to fix this problem. We have an obligation to know what the Gospel and the Church has to teach us about this issue. For information on Catholic ministries serving migrants and refugees, go to https://www/usccb.org/ migrationministries. I encourage everyone to read over this article so that you can understand what the Church is saying and more importantly what Jesus is asking us to understand. Please pray and ask God to truly guide your minds and hearts concerning these immigrants and migrants who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. These are people looking for something better for themselves and their children much like our own ancestors who came to America.
