A note from your Pastor: Fr. A.
w What’s new? This page! Considering the limited space of this bulletin & my potential wordiness, from now-on if I have remarks (titled: “A note from your Pastor”), it will be as an insert.
w The shelves of Madison’s Food Pantry are nearly empty. Let’s pitch-in & re-stock items there, especially toiletries (soap, tissue, diapers).
w If you haven’t yet, please pray about & respond generously to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal.
(When we enter 2014, the larger “Ignite the Faith” capital campaign will begin & I’ll give a fuller explanation about that.)
w As a public witness & to cap the world-wide Year of Faith, Norfolk’s Sacred Heart Pastor, Fr. Dan Andrews, is organizing a “walk of faith” (“camino de fe” in Spanish) on Nov. 9 – from Warnerville to here, St. Leonard (ending in time for our 5 p.m. Mass, then a pot-luck & slide-show). It’s an eleven mile distance using county roads. Sound interesting? Would you like to participate? Think about it, circle the date on your calendar & lace-up your sneakers.
w Regular media & the Catholic Voice covered the tragic story of Catholic teens involved in a car crash near Gretna earlier this month: a boy dead, 15; and two girls injured, 15 & 16. God rest his soul. God aid their healing/recovery.
Regardless of the circumstances of what happened, this is the underlining truth. That morning, all three were healthy, energetic, beautiful – no problems. By evening in a vehicle, one perished & two seriously hurt. Then everybody cried.
If we love our children, what more efforts can we do to ensure that they stay alive? Aren’t they worth our constant protection?
My point isn’t about predicting the future: “if we only knew what was going to happen.” The future can be shaped by us now, controlled by us now. Our children can be spared grief by what we adults do now. What prevention are you going to do now?
w I had my first Madison Tyson plant visit on Oct. 17. My second will be Nov. 4 (a clergy breakfast).
The purpose was an introduction to the new employees from the country of Burma (a nation of southeast Asia, between India & Thailand). Typically, these new workers are quiet, but they have a complicated culture. Let’s extend a welcome to them.
w Norfolk AseraCare Hospice had a clergy breakfast the other day. It was to appreciate those in ministry & explain the positive, life-affirming aspects of hospice. If you don’t know what Asera can do, find-out how good it is. You’ll be surprised.
w The Oct. 18 issue of the Catholic Voice, front page, focused on the reverence for the dead & funerals.
The complete liturgy of Catholic burial has three parts, or better said, movements: vigil (wake), Mass & committal (cemetery). The format is contained in the dark-blue book you see the clergy carry: “Order of Christian Funerals,” approved & published for the U.S. in 1989. So, that’s the standard we must follow.
All Souls Day (Commemoration of the Faithful Departed) is Nov. 2 (side-by-side the Solemnity of All Saints, the day prior). Mass here that Saturday is 9 a.m.
w Our “Husker Hoe-Down” fundraiser is Nov. 23. Tix are disappearing! Get yours.
w Attention all parishioners . . . Very shortly you’ll receive an opinion survey to fill – about our school & future of our school. Knowing your thoughts & ideas will help our School Board to make decisions. Please respond to it.
w Last Thursday I received a fone call from Nativity Catholic Church, Sioux City, IA. It would like me to talk history to the R.C.I.A. candidates there on Jan. 23. I’m flattered by the invite. I’m glad I have a talent to offer.
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