To My Spiritual Family of Holy Redeemer and St. Anthony,
Remembering the Souls in Purgatory: As November continues, so too does our prayer for the souls in purgatory. Remember to scribe the names of your loved ones in our Books of Remembrance. Deacon Ray and I will be praying in a focused way for those listed on those pages. May God grant eternal rest to all of our deceased family members, friends, and parishioners.
Thank You to All Who Served: A happy Veteran’s Day to our cherished military vets and their families. Thank you for your service! We honor you! Our beloved United States of America is free because you gave so much to keep her free. Through the years, many of our parish veterans have given the last, full measure of devotion. May they now enjoy an eternal reward. And to those families who think daily of your sons and daughters as they continue to serve, may God bless your children in uniform, and may they return home safely and soon, so that you may again hold them in your arms.
National Vocational Awareness Week: Fr. Scott, Jabo, our parish “native son” and the Vocation Director for our diocese, has sent us the latest poster featuring our current seminarians. I invite you to check it out. Even in these days of secularism and growing anti Catholicism, there are young men willing and ready to answer the Lord’s call. Praise God for that! Our local orders of religious women are also deserving of our prayers. They have seen their numbers diminish greatly (sadly, the communities that are growing do not serve in our area) and yet they continue to do wonderful work in serving the poor and forsaken. Please pray that many young people will respond affirmatively when God asks for their life time “yes!”
Can You Hear Me Now: Work is scheduled to begin at Holy Redeemer next week on the installation of our updated and (hopefully) improved sound system! You have heard me lament many times over the fact that some of you struggle to clearly hear what is being said from the pulpit and altar. These changes are an earnest effort to make that better for you. Please do your part and help us out by wearing your hearing aids to Mass. Remember, too, that we have a number of hearing help devices that are available for your use. Retreat Day for Our Confirmation Students: Monday, November 7 is an important date in the lives of our sophomore confirmation students - the day of their retreat! Although their reception of the sacrament will not occur until April 2023, the difficult, interior work of preparing their hearts is well underway. We welcome Nicholas Heise, the outstanding youth minister from nearby Elk County, as their retreat master. Nick intends to take a deep dive into some of the challenges faced by our contemporary Catholic youth, including questions regarding the LBGQT movement, the devastating loss of friends who take their own lives, and other relevant and vital issues. May I ask you to pray for our confirmandi? If you took a clothespin with the name of one of our confirmation students, will you consider fasting for that student on the retreat day? The evil one wants the souls of our kids. Unfortunately for the devil, he has to go through you and me to get them.
National Catholic Youth Conference: We are happy and blessed to be taking 16 of our Catholic teenagers to this week’s NCYC in Long Beach, California! You can check out all that we will be experiencing by going to www.ncyc.us. Jennifer and I, on behalf of the kids, the other adult chaperones, and the NCYC moms and dads, would like to thank everybody who generously donated to make this conference possible. Personally, I feel like an old war horse. I’m not quite sure how many of these events I still have left in me?!?! Please know that I will be with the group and away from the parish beginning Wednesday, November 9 and until our return late on Sunday, November 13. Weekend Masses will be covered by South Street’s own Fr. Philip Oriole. It’s always a joy to welcome Fr. Phil and his smile back to Holy Redeemer! I am grateful that he is so willing to help us out. Our NCYC pilgrims thank you in advance for your prayers!
God bless and see you all when I return.
Mary, Mother of the Holy Redeemer Pray for us! St. Anthony Pray for us! St. Joseph Pray for us! Fr. Steve