Dear Parishioners,

Here is some guidance on the next few Wednesday faith formation nights. These nights are open to all parishioners. This coming Wednesday (9/17), we have our first ‘Encounter Night’ 6:15-7:30. We will gather in St. Joseph Church for adoration, music, testimony, prayer. It’s just a time to be together and to encounter Jesus together. Then the next Wednesday (9/24) we will have our first ‘Group Night’, where you can take part in a group. So far, we have a few different options being offered. Check them out at the entrance of the churches to see if you would like to join one. Each group will be unique and different in how it is structured.

This year we have several liturgical feasts that fall on Sundays that take the place of Sunday, and there are a few coming up, so I just want to give you a heads up. This weekend 9/14, we are celebrating the Exultation of the Cross. We will be focusing on that at the weekend Masses. Then in November we have All souls on a Sunday (11/2). This feast commemorates all the faithfully departed. It is a special day where the church prayers especially for the dead. In the month of November, we pray for the faithful departed, but on this day, we celebrate Masses specifically for them. The very next Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. This is the Cathedral of Rome, and therefore is the mother church of the whole Catholic world. We’ll be celebrating that feast together on the weekend of Nov. 10th & 11th.

As we draw nearer to October, we will have the pasty project again this year at SJ. There are some new faces taking over the operation. Thanks to all the gals who have kept it going for so long, and thanks to the guys and gals who are taking over leadership roles. They usually prep on Tuesdays and bake on Wednesdays in October. So, if that is something you would like to be involved with, be in touch or just show up on the days when they work.

As I mentioned, we are celebrating the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The feast is every year on September 14th. This year because it falls on Sunday, we celebrate it in place of the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This feast commemorates the finding of the true cross by St. Helena in the early 4th century, and it also commemorates the construction of the basilica on the spot of Calvary in 335. St. Helena was a Christian and also Emperor Constantine’s mother. She is responsible for the recovery of many holy relics and items from the Holy Land that she secured during her travel to the Holy Land on pilgrimage. Some of these items were then brought to Rome, and remain there to this day. 

Some may scoff at the idea that items such as the Cross, nails and crown of thorns could have been kept for three centuries. However, if we consider how many artifacts of secular history have been cared for and preserved, I don’t think it is a stretch to say the early Christians would have known and preserved the history of important locations and items from the life of Christ. We are not obligated to believe these items are the true relics of the passion. However, having witnessed them myself both in Rome and in the Holy Land, I do not doubt the veracity of them. Our faith does not depend on such things being true, but it can certainly be profoundly moving to meditate on them and the part they played in our salvation. Looking at the nails that pierced our saviors’ hands and feet… observing the pillar on which he was scourged, gazing upon the burial cloth which his body was wrapped in while in the tomb… all of these are profoundly earthy and tangible items. If it can help the faith of some to meditate on them or to view them, then let us not scorn them. The Catholic faith has always been a combination of spiritual and physical. Just as we ourselves have both soul and body, the faith we live has both the spiritual elements that can only be grasped by faith, as well as those things which are physical and can be touched and discovered with the physical eye. As we commemorate this feast, let us thank God for the love He poured out upon on us, in mounting the altar of the cross for us.

In Christ,

Fr. Eli