When the Saints Go Marching In
Next Sunday we have our Wax Museum for potential patrons. The Wax Museum will be on November 6 at St. Joseph after the 9:30am Mass in the Parish Life Center and in the Immaculate Conception Center basement at 2:30pm. You’ll have an opportunity to meet the different potential patron saints for our family of parishes. The volunteers who are dressing up and presenting have been praying, studying, and preparing for this event and I’m very excited about it.
If you attend the Wax Museum, you’ll have an opportunity to vote to narrow our potential patrons from nine to three. Once we’ve narrowed the list to three, we’ll have a parish wide vote at the start of 2023 to select our top patron. Please pray that God may guide our votes and our hearts. Certainly God has a patron saint in mind for our parishes. Please ask God to reveal His choice for our patron saint.
The potential patron saints are:
– The Holy Face of Jesus
– The Blessed Sacrament
– St. Peter and St. Paul
– St. Mary Magdalene
– St. Louis and St. Zelie Martin
– St. Thomas Aquinas
– St. Pio of Pietreclina (Padre Pio)
– St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa)
– Pope St. John Paul II
This week the Church celebrates All Saints day on Tuesday, November 1. All Saints Day is a wonderful feast day. Throughout the year there are hundreds of canonized saints that we celebrate. This feast day is a reminder that there is a vast multitude of saints in heaven, many are formally canonized, but there is a vast multitude that go unknown. The great communion of saints intercedes for us; they pray for us. On top of that, they are examples of holiness in every walk of life. As the Letter to the Hebrews states, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us” (12:1).
You can see our Mass schedule in the bulletin. It is the first Holy Day of obligation that we’ve had in nearly a year. Just a reminder that skipping Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation, like Sunday, is mortally sinful. I don’t say that with any accusation or joy. Many Catholics have never heard that skipping Mass on a Holy Day or Sunday is a mortal sin. Notice that I used the word “skipping.” On the other hand “missing” Mass isn’t necessarily a mortal sin. If you’re sick, hospitalized, on an airplane over the ocean, or in so remote a place that there isn’t a Church, you aren’t bound by the obligation. Attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days is part of the bare minimum of being a practicing Catholic (See the Catechism 2042).
Finally, our second Open Forum will be on Thursday, November 3 at St. John Hall at 7pm. Please come with your questions, thoughts, and curiosities. There will be time to hear what the next steps are in our parishes and what has already occurred. You may be curious about Mass times, our potential patron, or a particular ministry. This is open to all parishioners. Next year there are two open forums scheduled, one each at Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Sean Wilson
