It has been a little over a month since my dear mother, Ebby, passed into the loving, merciful arms of the Lord. I am going through the ups and downs of the loss of the most significant family member in my life, my mom, the one who gave birth to me and cared for me and the rest of my siblings in a selfless way throughout our upbringing and beyond the time we left home. One thing that I am reminded of is the fact that everyone's circumstance is different when a loved one dies and the ways of grieving the loss of the physical presence of the person are varied for each person. I feel, overall, that I am doing better than I imagined I would at this point and I know the sources of comfort and consolation that have been there for me and, importantly, that I opened myself up to them in the time since my mother "passed". First and foremost is my spiritual life which is nurtured daily through the celebration of Mass and my holy hour. The comfort and strength I have received and am receiving from the Lord cannot be overstated. The Lord, in the sermon on the mount, pointed out that blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Mth 5:4). The Lord is at my side and his presence and the life he has won for all of faith-filled people, like my holy mother, causes me to long for, and look forward to the day I will see my Lord face to face, and see my mom, dad, and all my loved ones who assed from life to life. I have also been uplifted by so many people, especially my faith family here at Sacred Heart Church, and many of whom have expressed in various ways their thoughts and prayers for my mom and myself and other family members, especially Danny. Invitations to share a meal and conversation with parishioners has definitely been a help, as I have had the opportunity to relax and share about my mother to more than a few listening ears. Of course, the fact that I stay pretty busy doing the Lord's work has been helpful to me as I seek to be a blessing to all, especially the sick and bereaved. I have also been sharing instances where I believe the Lord AND my mother are speaking to me with encouragement and challenges for me as I continue my journey to the Lord. My mom has always encouraged me in my priesthood, and now she is doing so in a new and more frequent way. I must admit that there are two things that I am now and will continue to struggle with at least for awhile. Going into my mom's house where she lived for all of my almost 64 years of life and a few years before that, creates an empty feeling in me and a sadness that I cannot see her or have conversation with her as I did for my whole life when I went "home". I'm also adjusting to evenings that were often spent with her, that are a challenge to fill in other meaningful ways. Finally, there is currently some family discord going on that was not present or lasted very long when my, the peacemaker, was here. I ask your prayers that the peacemakers among my siblings will prevail in efforts to bring us together in family gatherings and in other ways. What I've said many times to people in a time of grief and transition of life, I have come to experience personally in this time after my mom's death...with faith, family and friends we can get through the most difficult of circumstances taht life presents to us, especially the death of a loved one. I thank so many of you for your thoughtfulness and care for me!
One of the many blessings of having a parish pictoral directory is that it helps us to identify and, hopefully, have occasion to meet and get to know our fellow parishoners, some of whom have been here a long and some a relatively short time. The parishioners who have been here 15, 20 or even more years, will hear a name and say "I don't know that person" which, in many cases, is someone who has not been in the parish all that long. One parishioner, Kathy Clark, our VIP for the month of July, has been in the Village only 6 years with her husband, Shawn, and has become more familiar in the parish (and community) because of her willingness to get involved and use her time and talents for the Lord in service to others. She has taken on leadership roles (i.e. president, vice-president and database administrator) of the Ladies of Sacred Heart and now for the glory of God and the benefit of the parish, the coordinator of our Eucharistic Adoration Ministry. In the "Walking With Purpose" lady's bible study group, she serves as a group facilitator, helping our ladies to grow in their life in the Lord. Liturgicallly she works behind the scenes as a sacristan, and is most recently a memeber of our family assistance committee. While all this keeps her plenty busy, she has worked part-time with Good Sam's services for the home-bound, has gotten involved in HSV Players (and our parish dinner theater in 2022) and has worked helping people with visual impairments through FOCUS. Kathy is one of those special people who has a hard time saying no when asked to do something or who steps forward on her own when a need arises to join in some effort or ministry. Doing all of this (and probably more than this) in just six years of living in the Village and being a member of Sacred Heart Church, I have no doubts that she will add to this list of ways she gets involved and continue to be a gift to those whom she serves. One more thing I want to mention is that Kathy assists her husband, Shawn, when he takes on the task of livestreaming our Sunday Mass, which blesses those who cannot come to Mass and others as well. God bless you, Kathy, a well deserved choice as our VIP for the month of July!
The Gospel for this past Tuesday was Jesus urging his disciples (and now us) to ask "the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest" (Mth 9:38). While in these post-Vatican II days, it is appropriate to speak of all the baptized as being "laborers" who bring people to know love, and serve Jesus Christ and be happy with him forever in heaven (as the Baltimore Catechism taught most of us), many have traditionally seen this passage as Jesus' call for us to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. In our diocese, your prayers and those of others have helped in leading a significant number of men to commit thenselves to the Lord to priesthood for service of our diocese. In addition, our parish has a wonderful history and a growing reputation of supporting our seminarians in the practical need of finances to form them in all the ways that prepare them to serve God's people in the priesthood (and those who don't finish as potential lay leaders of the Catholic faith or as permanent deacons). While, sadly, over the last 10-12 years we have lost some of our most generous contributors to our seminarians through death or moving away, some new parishioners and others have joined the effort and helped our fundraising amount at our Taste of Faith evening to stay consistent and not drop much, if at all. I pray such will be the case this year as I urge all of you to consider joining us to see and talk with many of our current seminarians (as 18 of them are expected to join us) and hear from at least one of them who will speak to everyone present, as well as hear about our seminarians fromour vocation director Fr Hebert. Additionally, during the evening, we will hear from our bishop, Anthony Taylor and from one of our young priests, Fr Joseph de Orbegozo, (who is one of many who has benefitted from our support) who will share some relfections about his early priesthood which includes his current position as Rector of the Cathedral of St Andrew as well as an instructor of our seminarians in philosophy at our diocesan "House of Formation". Add to all this a delicious meal (see bulltin announcement to get the menu) from Chef Johnna and a raffle for gallons of my homemade ice cream, and I believe attendees will leave satisfied in more ways than one, especially all who give (hopefully generously) that night to the effort to form laborers for the Lord's harvest. Please note if you cannot join us that evening for whatever reason, we welcome your contribution to this effort by making your check out to Knights of Columbus (putting on the meo line "semnarians") and place it in the collection or mail it (if possible before the July 28 event) as we like to present a check for the total amount of money collected to Bishop Taylor and Fr Hebert righ before our event concludes!