To My Spiritual Family of Holy Redeemer and St. Anthony,
All Saints and All Souls: Our bonds with those we love are not broken by the sting of death. Jesus Christ has destroyed death and he has passed through the veil! Through the power of Christ’s salvific act, we share an exchange of spiritual gifts with the souls in purgatory and with the souls enjoying the unending peace of heaven. The Church points us toward these realities with the celebrations of All Saints Day and All Souls Day (please see the box in this bulletin with the available Mass times). Remember that All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation. As committed Catholics we are expected to be at Mass. On All Souls Day, there is not an obligation of law, but their does exist an encouragement of love. Most of us, having breathed our last, will need the purification of purgatory before entering into the perfection of heaven. All Souls Day offers us a privileged opportunity to offer prayer and sacrifice to hasten the release of the souls in Purgatory (see 2 Maccabees 12). Each priest throughout the world is permitted to offer three Masses on All Souls Day (normally, priests should not offer more than two Masses per day). Here in the parish, we have the beautiful tradition of offering the final Mass of the day in remembrance of those parishioners who have passed away in the last year. If you are able to join us for this solemn commemoration, please do so. We would love to have a full church. This “Mass of Remembrance” is 7:00 pm at Holy Redeemer on Tuesday, November 2.
Ignite the Fire at Holy Redeemer: Please recall that one of my important roles as your pastor is to be the CRO – the Chief Reminding Officer! Remember, then, that our #1 focus right now is in igniting the fire. What does this mean? How does this happen? Why should we care? It is actually pretty simple, yet profound. If the fire of God’s love is burning in my heart, and the fire of God’s love is burning in your heart, then by the laws of divine physics, the flames of love will leap from my heart to your heart, from your heart to my heart, from one person to another person, to the whole parish, to the entire community, and please God, to the far corners of this planet we inhabit. That’s what it means to ignite the fire! This is our call. This is our mission. Through prayer, sacrifice, good works, kind words, fasting – let the fire burn!
Pastoral Planning and Prayer: Pastoral planning is the bishop’s effort – in conjunction with each of us – to preach the gospel of Christ and to vivify the Church in our corner of the vineyard. As we’ve been pointing out for some time now, we have a shrinking population, a smaller percentage of people attending Mass, and a smaller number of priests to serve. All of this means that we have too many church buildings. This is why we are making the difficult decisions throughout our diocese to merge, partner, and shutter. Prayer is essential to this. Bishop Persico is asking us to pray the “Pastoral Planning Prayer” that he authored some years ago. You can find copies of this prayer in our churches and in our pews. I carry this prayer in my breviary and pray it regularly. Will you please do the same?
National Eucharistic Congress 2024: We are going to Indianapolis next July 2024 to join in the historic National Eucharistic Congress, the first one to be held in the United States in many decades. A number of you are already registered and ready to participate. We do have more openings, though. Please consider joining our pilgrimage group! I’d love to discuss it with you. Just let me know that you are interested!
God bless and have a beautiful week!
Mary, Mother of the Redeemer – Pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe – Pray for us! St. Anthony – Pray for us! St. Joseph – Pray for us! Fr. Steve