Fr. James Hurlbert, Pastor
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Dear Friends,
Recently, the world followed efforts to find and rescue those aboard a submersible vessel that had been launched to view the remains of the Titanic. Sadly, we learned that it imploded, killing all five people aboard. Shortly after that I came across a poignant article contrasting the attention and money spent for that operation with the lack of attention and money spent in response to another crisis that week: a sinking boat crowded with migrants trying to get from Libya to Italy, which resulted in hundreds of deaths. Many lives could have been saved by exerting a little more effort. It got me thinking about a term we learned in the seminary: “ontic evil.” It is the notion that for every good action, there is a corresponding “evil” - the idea that there is always something better we could have done. We do something good… but could we have done something else better? I suppose that’s always the case. But while it is healthy to evaluate where we’re spending our money and turning our attention, knowing that we cannot do it all means that we have to do something- right? Maybe searching for explorers in the deep sea seemed more adventurous and glamorous than pulling drowning refugees and asylum seekers out of the water. Anyway, last week in my homily I talked about people’s need to “matter.” And I suppose that when choices are made about spending money and exerting effort to help those in need, there’s no avoiding the fact that some people seem to “matter” more than others… * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s “birthday” on July 4, we thank God for the many ways He has blessed us in our history and for continuing to manifest those blessings in our own time. Since the 4th falls on a Tuesday this year, morning Mass will be at St. Gabriel. We will bump the time back to 9am that day so that people can sleep in a little. May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! Dear Friends,
I got word that the priest from Lativia, Fr. Paul Klavins, received his visa and is due to arrive at our parish next week- so you should have a chance to meet him next weekend or the weekend after. I’m grateful for the help, and hope that he will be a good addition to our staff and our parish. He is on a one-year semi-sabbatical from his work in his home diocese, but will be working as a kind of associate pastor for us two-thirds time. His primary focus will be our Religious Education program. In addition, he will spend time with each of our school teachers and catechists, working with them to develop their lesson plans and curricula for their religion classes. Fr. David Colhour has been of great help the past year+plus, taking a Sunday Mass or two each month, and covering for me when I was away. We won’t be seeing as much of him now, although he has assured me that we can continue to call on him if needed for as long as he is stationed in Chicago (remember that he is a Passionist priest). I am very grateful to him for his help and support. Remember that the new “Split-the-Pot” system will be going into effect come July 1- information on how this will work is in the bulletin. Also- next Saturday is the First Saturday of the Month. Confessions will be available at Nativity of Our Lord church from 11am until noon. May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! Dear Friends,
First things first: Happy Fathers’ Day to all of our parish dads! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The long series of Sunday Solemnities is past, and we now shift into summer mode. Having celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi (The Body and Blood of Christ) last week, Catholics in our country now embark on a parish journey of participation in the National Eucharistic Revival (fyi, the website for this is www.eucharisticrevival.org). We will look at some of the resources provided and figure out ways to enhance our appreciation for and devotion to the gift of the Eucharist and fortify a living relationship with Jesus in Eucharist. Beauty in the liturgy elevates the minds and hearts of those who attend Mass, helping them to match their interior disposition with the externals of what’s being celebrated. We’ll seek to create more opportunities for people to personally encounter Jesus in the Eucharist, both within the Mass and through adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We also need to engage in robust faith formation, since we have found that the majority of Mass-going Catholics in the U.S. either do not understand or do not accept the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. There will also be a missionary thrust to this Revival, as each parishioner will be invited to reach at least one person to invite them back. Because many find a richer experience of communion when the Eucharist is offered under both species, we will re-introduce the chalice for the congregation in the Fall. I have heard that when it was available before COVID, only a few in our parish usually partook of that. This is always optional, but we’ll work on promoting it so that more might at least try the experience to see if it increases the sense of participation and communion. May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! Dear Friends,
Having talked through this with our Parish Council, Finance Council and staff, I wanted to let parishioners know that, beginning with our new fiscal year (starts July 1), we will report our Sunday Stewardship donations in the bulletin as a complete parish, and not by campus. Not everyone was on board with this move, but most agree that a united parish should have a united financial report. Also, you have probably seen (it has been in the bulletin each week for the past couple of months) that we will be combining our Split-the-Pot/50-50 as well. The revised rules for this are being finalized and will be published soon. The chances to win will be reduced (since we’ll have more players), but the winning pot will be increased (maybe even doubled). About 10% of current registered parishioners joined the united parish- we have had 140 new households register since our parish’s founding in July 2019. In addition, our electronic giving (which makes up a growing percentage of donations) makes it difficult to know with which campus the donor feels more aligned. Looking at the report as it has been being published gives a skewed picture (though I think the majority of the electronic giving currently comes from those who worship more regularly at Nativity of Our Lord). That said, the main reason is to reinforce the fact that we are in this together. We sink (I hope not) or swim (I hope so) together. 😊 Just to check whether this reporting style is in line with what others are doing, I looked online at some other parishes that were unified and maintain multiple worship sites. I did not see any that report their Stewardship income by worship site. (I was actually surprised to see that some do not report weekly Stewardship income at all.) We do have some funds segregated. If people specify building fund gifts to go toward specific buildings or building projects, that is certainly respected. If donations come in for a particular school, these are also directed to that purpose. But our Stewardship income, fundraising income, Split-the-Pot/50-50, and Mass intention income all goes into the same account and is used to pay the salaries, benefits and normal operating expenses for the parish. One caveat: we will maintain the ability to run reports of donations based upon where donors live; our database and donation records program makes that possible. I realize that some parishioners still cannot shake the concern that one of our churches is bound to close. While I do not see any discussion of this happening over the next 10 years, were there to come a time when we needed to analyze giving patterns by geography, that could still be done. Thank you for your financial support of our parish. As we approach the end of our fiscal year, we are behind in our budgeted collections, but our budgeted expenses were also down (since were unable to find a faith formation person to hire last year). This coming year our expenses will more closely match our budgeted income, as Fr. Paul Flavins will be joining us for one year (so we’ll need that money to pay him). May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! Dear Friends,
While the Easter Season concluded with last weekend’s Pentecost celebration, it is followed by two weekends with a focus on doctrine. This weekend is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity- a feast that takes us into the heart of one of the most obscure, but also most important, mysteries of our Christian faith: that the one God has been revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This article of faith is a real stumbling block to the other monotheistic faiths, Judaism and Islam. I think that it is because it’s so fragile that we invoke it so frequently- references to the Trinity occur often within the Mass. (Try paying attention sometime as we go through the Mass and count how many times mention of the Trinity comes up- you might be surprised.) Congratulations to those who graduated this weekend from our parish schools, Saint Gabriel Catholic School and Bridgeport Catholic Academy! As these young people move on to their next scholastic adventure, we pray that the Catholic faith has been instilled in them, and that they will grow in their relationship to Christ and stay close to the Church. This coming week is the final week for the other students and for the teachers- summer vacation is almost here! I am grateful to all our faculty and staff who dedicate themselves to the education of our kids. In a special way I want to thank Mr. Dan Flaherty for the past three years leading our parish educational ministry. He and I started here at the same time, and we have worked well together as a team. He had the unenviable task of re-opening both schools after the COVID closures and of beginning the process of uniting our parish educational ministry. I am grateful for the strides he has made in developing avenues for collaboration and communication, while supporting the individual culture and personality of each campus. We wish him well as he moves on to other endeavors closer to his home, and we prepare to offer a warm welcome to our incoming Director of Parish Schools and Principal of BCA, Ms. Kelly Bourrell. May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! Dear Friends,
This weekend we conclude our Easter Season with the feast of Pentecost. Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, His disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Church was born. What a momentous event it was, catapulting the timid and fearful followers of Jesus into powerful missionaries, many of whom paid for their convictions and proclamation with their lives. Just imagine how monumental their experience of the Risen Lord must have been, propelling them into their new roles and sustaining them in the face of brutal opposition, mockery and even martyrdom. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In December 2018, the former Attorney General of Illinois released a preliminary report on her investigation of the Illinois Catholic dioceses’ responses to the child sex abuse crisis. The present attorney general continued the investigation upon taking office, and you likely heard that he shared his report this past week. This release will likely cause hurt, pain and anger for all the People of God, including for us priests. At the same time, this can serve to unite us in solidarity as we work to support victims and strengthen our resolve to weed this out from within our own ranks and from our society as a whole. While it can be distressing to be reminded of stories of past abuse, stringent processes were developed in response to this and have been in place for over 20 years (more like 30 years in Chicago). Thank God, the occurrence of new crimes seems to have subsided. As you may have seen, the Chicago Tribune recently published an article that discussed the issue of false accusations against clergy- something that seems to have increased in recent years. This under-reported reality is additional fallout resulting from the true crimes that took place. Please pray for the five men ordained priests last weekend at Holy Name Cathedral, who will serve the Catholics of our Archdiocese. It takes a lot of trust, as well as determination and grit, to enter the priesthood when so much negativity around this vocation is swirling around. May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! Dear Friends,
After Jesus rose from the dead he appeared to his disciples on and off over the course of forty days. This weekend we mark His return to the right hand of God the Father, the feast of the Ascension. With His Ascension, Christ’s presence has passed into the Sacraments of the Church- this is where we know we can find Him, where we can encounter Him. Of course, His presence is not limited to the Sacraments. We often encounter Him in our relationships, and in the Scriptures, and in the poor. As Members of Christ’s Body, we ourselves can transmit the presence of Jesus through our words and deeds, as we live out our own discipleship. Jesus’ final words in Matthew’s Gospel are powerful and important: “All power in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold: I am with you always, until the end of the age.” On this Feast of the Ascension I have a wonderful announcement to make regarding our own need for ascending… ascending our church stairs: I signed a contract with the architect who will work with us to install a vertical platform lift at our Nativity of Our Lord church. Our hope is to have this up and running by Christmas. We will have a sidewalk level entrance on the front of the church leading to a small vestibule, where the lift will be accessed. People will exit from the space that is currently being used as the reconciliation room (I’ll have to find another spot for hearing confessions). A vertical platform lift is much less expensive than all of the elevator options we investigated, and I believe it will serve our purposes just fine. The only downside is that it will not accommodate coffins- we’ll still need to carry those up the stairs. I’ll have more information about design and pricing in the coming weeks, but couldn’t pass up letting you know about this on this particular feast day! May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! Dear Friends,
Happy Mothers’ Day to all the moms of our parish! I am grateful to the Madonna Knights of Columbus council, which organized the annual Canaryville Parade, and the Stockyard Kilty Band, which leads the parade each year and fills the air with the beautiful sound of bagpipes and drums. Thanks to all the dads and kids who march in the parade as a way of honoring and showing appreciation for all of the moms of our neighborhood. One way of honoring Mary, the mother of Jesus and mother of the Church, is through the annual May Crowning. Recall that the final decade of the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary is the “Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.” Last weekend many watched as Charles was crowned King of England. Mary’s reign is of a different sort. When Jesus was dying on the cross, the Apostle John and his Mother were there with him. He said to her, “Behold your son;” he said to him, “behold your Mother.” Mary is spiritual mother to all of us. This year we had May Crowning during the week at school Masses. In addition, I invited all those who made their First Communion last Saturday, and all those who received the Sacrament of Confirmation in March to participate at either the 9:30 or 11 May Crowning ceremonies this weekend. This past week we had orientation meetings for those who will now begin their one-year preparation period for First Communion and their two-year preparation period for Confirmation. I reinforced with the families that the primary preparation for these sacraments is weekend Mass, which is why you see kids handing in “attendance cards” afterwards. In addition to helping us track their preparation, it also gives the deacons and me an opportunity to greet them individually and work on learning their names. Finally, please see the information in the bulletin about plans for a Bible Study group and the initiation of a parish Men’s Ministry. Thanks to Deacon Rob Morris for taking the lead on both of these! May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! Dear Friends,
Congratulations to all of the young people of our parish who made their First Communion this weekend! May is a special month for many reasons, not the least of which is the joy of so many receiving Christ sacramentally in the Eucharist for the first time. We will highlight both our First Communicants and our recent Confirmandi in a series of May Crownings at Mass over the coming week and weekend. This coming week we will have initial orientation meetings for the next batch of young people who will now begin their formal preparation for Eucharist and Confirmation. I am happy to announce to you that Kelly Bourrell will be coming on board as Director of Parish Schools and Principal of Bridgeport Catholic Academy on July 1! She comes highly recommended, and our search committee met with her twice, once on each campus- and was extremely impressed. In addition to being at the committee interviews, I also met with her one-on-one, and feel very confident that she will do a wonderful job as the Principal of BCA and the “point person” for our parish’s educational ministry. She has a solid background, a dedication to the Catholic mission of our schools, and she talked with passion and conviction about educational strategies and curriculum development. She currently serves as Principal at Cardinal Joseph Bernardin School in Orland Hills. I have been praying to the Holy Spirit, asking that the right person be directed to our parish; and I believe that the Holy Spirit has come through for us. We will continue to develop our model of collaboration that allows the unique elements of each school to shine, while also exploring ways for working together that enhance both school communities and strengthen their parish connection. Finally, during the month of Mary and the month of Mother’s Day, we are taking part in the Baby Bottle Project, which raises money to help the Women’s Center give aid to women facing crisis pregnancies. You can take a bottle home with you and over the course of the month put in some money. We’ll return them at the end of May and the Women’s Center will pick them up. May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! Dear Friends,
We just finished the Spring ALPHA, and I am grateful both to those who facilitated this session (Deacon Rob Morris, Lori Serpico, Joe Parra, Jean Johnson, Anthony Dugo, Sharon O’Connell, Silvia and Angelo Herrera, Rita McArdle, Angelica Hernandez) and the 24 or so people who took part. Once again, those who attended were very positive about the experience. We will run the next ALPHA in the Fall, dates to be determined. This past week our Religious Education program also wrapped up for the year. I am grateful to our catechists (Lisa Chavez, Lorueen Allen, Patti Graf, Art Gray, Marian Strok and Jeff Hurlbert) and the families of the 60+ children who participated in this. Our parish will celebrate lots of First Communions in the coming weeks, the majority being for those in Second Grade at special Masses next Saturday. Please pray for those who will be receiving Christ sacramentally for the first time in the Eucharist. I find that the excitement and awe expressed by those receiving Communion for the first time is contagious. It helps remind me just how special this gift is. Please pray not only for the children, but for their parents: this gift will have lasting meaning if our parents continue bringing their little ones to Mass each weekend going forward. I always tell the kids that I hope they will receive Communion every weekend for the rest of their lives. The kids’ job is to make this easy for mom and dad by cooperating. During the week after the First Communion Masses, we will celebrate May Crownings at school Masses. We will do it then again at both churches, at the 9:30 and 11am Masses, on Mother’s Day. The Madonna Knights of Columbus Council always organizes a Mother’s Day parade through the streets of Canaryville, led by the Stockyard Kilty Band, which finishes off at our Saint Gabriel church. The bagpipes will march down the aisle around 9:30 and we will transition from that into the May Crowning procession to the altar. All in all, this will be a very festive day! May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today! |
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