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Dear friends, 

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This Sunday, we have 58 people going on a pilgrimage to Italy/Rome, please keep praying for them. If you have a prayer intention that you would like them to bring on this pilgrimage please submit them to the office so that we can keep your intentions in our prayers. 

 

Join us for our next local Jubilee year Pilgrimage on October 25th. This will be to Baltimore (St. Jude Shrine, St. Alphonsus Shrine, Cathedral of Mary our Queen and St. Marys' Seminary).

I would like to continue to thank you all for joining us this past Tuesday for our Candlelight Rosary.

 

As we journey through the month of October, I would like to encourage us all to promote and reinforce our devotion to the Blessed mother. Mary is our icon of discipleship; the rosary becomes a great tool for our prayer and faith growth.  

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This weekend we hear how Jesus, continuing his journey to Jerusalem, heals 10 lepers. This story is a lesson about faith and reminds us that faith is sometimes found in unlikely places. Ten people afflicted with leprosy cry out to Jesus. Struck with pity, Jesus heals all 10. However, only one is described as glorifying God and returning to thank Jesus. The one who returns is a Samaritan, a foreigner. In the Jewish circles in which Jesus lived, Samaritans were looked down upon because of the differences between the two communities in their observance of Judaism. It is significant, therefore, that Jesus commends the Samaritan for his faith, which has been his salvation. Throughout Luke's Gospel, faith is found in surprising places. 

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Another lesson for us in this Gospel has to do with salvation. All 10 of the lepers were given the gift of healing, but in his gratitude to God for this gift, the Samaritan found salvation. Our salvation is found in recognizing the gifts we have been given and knowing to whom we must offer our thanks.

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For our parents, I would like to add that let us use this weekend also to help our children to grow more in the spirit of gratitude. My assumption is that among the many tasks that parents have, is to help foster the gift of gratitude, particularly gratitude to God for all God's goodness to us. 

 

Let us all this week read from the Gospel of Luke 17:11-19. Ask yourself how perhaps you can become more grateful for the gifts that God has given you. Maybe write down some of the gifts from God to your family and offer a prayer of thanksgiving for all of God's goodness to you.

 

On October 26th at the 8:00am Mass at St. Patrick and at the 8:30am Mass at St. Joan of Arc, we will be celebrating the Blue Mass. Praying with and for our Police officers, firefighters and first responders. Please join us in lifting up prayers for them. 

 

May God Bless you always.

Fr. Francis