07/26/2026

Dear Friends,

This weekend we take up our once-a-year special collection for the “Mission Appeal.” This year’s cause is HEAL (Home to Enhance African Life), and its mission is to form servant leaders among poor and marginalized children through poverty relief, formal education, advocacy and skills training. More information about this is in this week’s bulletin.

Ville-a-Palooza is next Saturday- in the parish-owned ballfield (Canaryville Little League) a series of local bands will perform. From mid-day to midnight, admission is $25. Google it to find the website with more information (be sure not to confuse with Little Village’s Villapalooza), or look it up on Facebook.

Last week I had dinner with couple (now a family with children) from my previous parish. They have been wrestling for a number of years with the idea of becoming Catholic. He was raised Baptist and she was raised Presbyterian, but they have been drawn to Catholicism and have mostly been attending Catholic Mass on the weekends. They really feel a longing to receive the Eucharist and have worked through most of doctrinal issues that were getting in the way. I hope they will prepare in earnest soon and be received into the Catholic Church!

If you or someone you know has been curious about Catholicism and would like to “stick your toe into the water,” we are approaching the season for ALPHA and OCIA. Please feel free to reach out to Peter Fagan or me for a conversation. It’s not a “one size fits all” process, though for most it involves weekly group meetings with the sacraments of initiation received at Easter. Baptized Catholic but never made First Communion or received Confirmation? Baptized in a Protestant denomination? Never baptized? We can work with you! These programs are not “hard sells,” but opportunities to ask questions and invite the Holy Spirit to do its work.

May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today!

​-Rev. James F. Hurlbert