News - September 2022 RSS Feed

The last weekend of September has arrived and the Autumn Season has begun. It seems like the year is moving quickly to a close. Since things seem more normal than they have been, we are working on and planning more parish activities now than we have been able to have over the past two years. Read more.

This weekend we observe Catechetical Sunday. This is a way for us as a parish to recognize the hard work and dedication of the teachers in our school and the many volunteers who step forward to assist both in the Summer Religious Education Academy and the traditional programs throughout the year. The prayer of blessing, recognition by those assembled at the 9:30 am Mass, and Knights of Columbus breakfast, do not even touch the amount of debt and gratitude that we as a parish owe to them for their commitment. I want to thank Mrs. Lori McCahill who oversees the catechetical programs for the school and Mrs. Nancy Arkin who serves as parish Director of Faith Formation. Nancy not only oversees all of the teachers and the programs, including most of those listed below, but she is also responsible for the adult faith formation programs of our parish. Much planning and logistical work goes in to making this a success. Read more.

Today we observe the twenty-first anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and those who died in Shanksville, PA. It is hard for those of us who remember that infamous day so well to believe that a generation has passed since the events of that day and its consequences. While at the time we as a country rallied around the president and our shared national identity and goals, we are painfully far from that sense of unity today. We pray today for the souls that were lost on September 11, 2001 and for all those who died as a result of that day. So many lives were lost from medical conditions, as a result of mental health issues, and in the wars that were fought in the aftermath of the attacks. The toll on our country is immeasurable but never insurmountable. We pray that we might find a unity of purpose and direction as a nation, so that we can hand on to the future generations the freedoms and rights that we have. Read more.

Happy Labor Day weekend! While this has become the unofficial “end of summer” Labor Day is a reminder to us of the important role that the Labor Unions played in our country to protect the rights, safety, and dignity of workers. Pope Saint John Paul II wrote extensively on this topic in his 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens. There he reminds us that our work -- whatever form of work that may be -- is a dignity given to us by God and that we deserve to work in safe conditions, in solidarity with other workers, and earning a just wage and benefits. It is the worker, and not either the corporation or the state that should benefit most from our labor. This is a polarizing issue in our country these days, and something that impacts the wallets of each of us. Read more.