Posted on September 1, 2022 View all Pastor's Letter
Dear Parishioners,
Incredible but we are already in the middle of August, time flies and we do not realize it. Blessed be God who allows us to be alive. Next Monday we celebrate the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is a solemnity but it is not a day of obligation, the masses will be the regular daily ones, but we will add one more in Spanish at 7:00pm.
The dogma of this solemnity was proclaimed by Pope Pius XII on November 1st, 1950 in the Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, in which the Pope declares: “…with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul and with ours, we pronounce, declare and define to be a divinely revealed dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God and always Virgin Mary, finished the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven”.
Mary is blessed among all men and women because she knew how to listen to the voice of God and accepted what the Lord asked of her and that did wonders for her. This is the reason for our joy expressed in the Magnificat. She strongly sings the revolution of love manifested in the gospel. That it is good news, it is resurrection, it is exaltation of the poor, it is a kingdom of love, it is the liberation of the oppressed. The “Magnificat” expresses all this.
I want to thank the brothers and sisters of the Serra Club for their support in prayer for the increase in priestly vocations, last Thursday. We had a very well attended holy hour. A thousand thanks for helping to organize this activity, especially Moira and Michael Leite for their enthusiasm and dedication to this beautiful ministry; I hope that we can do these days of prayer more frequently. I ask the Lord to raise up more vocations within our diocese and especially within our parish community.
At the parish level, on September 11th we will start the religious education program, and thank God we have several children and teens registered, but there are still many who were enrolled in the confirmation program last year who have not returned to register. I invite the parents to not leave registration for the last minute. I am very happy with the response of many parents interested in their children being formed in the faith, however, we still need volunteers to help us as catechists. Some of our former catechists this year will no longer be able to help, I ask you to please consider helping out with this program. Forming the church of tomorrow is always a commitment of all.
Finally, I cannot stop thanking everyone who is putting all their effort into organizing the festival that we will hold on the 20th of this month. Little by little we are seeing the results, especially in the purchase of raffle tickets, although I confess that only 25% of the parishioners have returned the tickets. I continue to encourage you to support us with this new challenge that will leave many economic and spiritual fruits for our parish family. Thank you for your wonderful support.
God bless you all,
Fr. Alex
