Dear Parishioners,

This weekend we celebrate the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. This weekend we are assured that God is eager to welcome us back, today, or any time. However, let’s always be aware of the times we might have strayed from God’s embrace. May we thank God for the assurance of peace and reconciliation.

Next weekend we will celebrate the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. As we come close to the end of the Church Year many of the Gospel passages that are provided for us by Holy Mother Church concern themselves with the Last Judgment. Our worthiness for eternal life can be indicated by the way we treat each other and the way we handle our possessions. As we come together next weekend, may we reflect on whether we are using our wealth for the benefit of others or if our own pursuit of wealth is blinding us to the needs of our neighbor. “You cannot be the servant of God and the servant of money.”

ACTS Retreat: From all reports, the Women’s ACTS retreat went very well. Thanks to all for your prayers. Thanks to the team and the retreatants. Thanks to the priests who offered their services for Masses, talks, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The next MEN’S ACTS RETREAT will be the weekend of March 26 – 29, 2020.

I cordially invite all the men of the parish, who have not yet experienced an ACTS retreat, to prayerfully consider making that retreat. Thank you.

Farewell: On Thursday of this week, our “summer Associate Pastor,” Fr Stephen Schumacher will be leaving us and returning to Rome for his last year of formation, working on his “License” (an ecclesiastical Master’s Degree), in Biblical Theology.  He will be staying at the Casa Santa Maria in the middle of Rome and will be studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He has a little note elsewhere in this week’s bulletin. Please continue your prayers for him. I want to thank him for all that he did here this summer, especially with Delmar Gardens Nursing Home, the many hours of confessions he heard, the time he spent with the students at school and with our youth group, and all of those other things that go along with being an Associate Pastor! May God bless you, Fr Schumacher, and please remember us at your Masses in Rome, especially at the tomb of Saint Monica, in the Basilica of Saint Augustine.

Adult Faith Formation: This new effort to help us all grow in the faith began last Sunday, after the 9:30 Mass, and ran until 11:15. The meetings will be in the Cry Room / Chapel until the Msgr. Schneider Hall renovation is completed (sometime next month). We will meet on the Second and Fourth Sundays.  I hope that some of you will be able to attend and learn more about our faith.        Brother Ben Keller, OP, will be the presenter next Sunday, September 22nd. In addition, over the coming months, Deacon Dane Westhoff, Deacon Carl Sommer, Seminarian Jacob Connealy, parishioner Dr. Jim McCullough (who teaches at Cardinal Glennon College and also teaches in the Permanent Deacon program of the Archdiocese) and I will be presenters. We might have some of the young adult group also make presentations as time goes on. All are welcome! It was a good beginning last weekend … and we thank Father Schumacher for his great presentation on faith! We will try to add in more time for questions as we go along!

Catechetical Sunday: Today is the National Observance of Catechetical Sunday. The theme this year is “Stay with Us.” Today all of our catechists (full time school faculty and PSR catechists will be formally commis- sioned for ministry to the community. Rather than just those people, today is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the role that each baptized person plays in handing on the faith and being a witness to the Gospel. All of our catechists will be commissioned today at the 9:30 A.M. Mass.

Missionary Plan of Cooperation: Each year each parish in the Archdiocese (and most of the country) hosts a Missionary to speak about their missions and take up a collection to assist the work of the church in their particular area. This year we have been assigned the Dominican Province of Nigeria. We will have a Dominican Priest from Nigeria, Father John-Mark Igboalisi, OP, here the weekend of September 21 and 22. He will also be available for Confessions that Saturday afternoon. I’m sorry that I don’t have any more information about the Dominicans in Nigeria, but Father will tell us all about their work next weekend.

Confirmation for our 8th graders will be celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Robert Hermann on Wednesday, October 9, with a special celebration of Holy Mass at 7:00 P.M. This weekend there are the names of the candidates for the Sacrament in baskets by the exits. I ask that you take a candidate’s name and pray for him / her in a special way these next three-plus weeks. If you would like to drop him/her a note, that would be great! Please prayerfully consider doing that for these candidates! Thank you.

Worship Committee: Our next meeting will be on this coming Wednesday, September 18. We begin in the Rectory Meeting Room at 7:00 P.M. Also that evening the 6th grade of our PSR will be receiving their Bibles at a special Prayer Service in Church. That very brief service will begin at 7:30. So I’ll leave the Committee Meeting for a few minutes and present the bibles to our students … then I’ll be back to the meeting! Troy Steffenson has agreed to be chairman of the Committee … so he’ll run the meeting for a few minutes!

Construction Noise and Daily Masses: Our morning Weekday Masses were moved from Church to the gym on August 5th, and will continue to be there for ONE MORE WEEK! We will be back in Church Monday, September 23. (The Saturday morning 8:00 A.M. Mass will be in Church as will, of course, all of the weekend Masses.) I have an agreement with the contractor that if there is a funeral they will suspend work during the Funeral. Regarding Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament: Because of the construction, Adoration will be 3:30 P.M. until 9:00 P.M. on this coming Wednesday, September 18. However, beginning Wednesday, September 25, we will resume the “normal” times for Adoration, namely, following the 8:15 A.M. Mass until 9:00 P.M. I hope all of our “adorers” will be able to resume their former times. Thank you for your patience with the building of the new elevator and the renovation of the Msgr. Schneider Hall and serving kitchen. Confessions will still be available from 3:30 – 4:30 on Wednesdays.

Changes coming: Effective September 30, we will only have the 6:30 A.M. weekday Mass. On Wednesdays, effective October 2, we will have an all school Mass at 8:15 A.M. (Please note that in addition to the daily 6:30 A.M. Mass, I will also have a Nursing Home Mass each Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 P.M.) Effective October 5, there will no longer be an 8:00 a.m. Mass on Saturday mornings. (There will be an 8:00 A.M. Mass on All Souls Day, November 2.) As  for the weekend Mass schedule, I’m still trying to do all I can to get some help for the weekends. Also most likely there will be only one priest hearing confessions on Saturday, beginning next weekend, although I do have a commit- ment from a Religious Order that they will provide a priest “as often as possible,” so, when there is only one priest celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation, on Saturdays, confessions will end promptly at 4:30, even if there are people in line. I’m sorry that this has to be done, but there are simply no more priests available. Pray for vocations and that people being called would say “yes.”

Faithfully yours,

Fr Joe Weber