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One of the Catholic vocab words that we are probably very familiar with is the term Holy Days of Obligation. These are days that we are obligated to attend Mass on. The first & primary Holy Day of Obligation is Sunday, but there are also 9 other Holy Days of Obligation throughout the liturgical calendar.

This weekend we welcome our Fr. Kishore for our annual appeal. Next weekend, on Sunday, October 24th, we will be celebrating the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick at the 11:00 am Mass. Those who are chronically ill, the elderly, those struggling with serious physical/mental illness, or those preparing for serious surgery are invited to sit at the end of the pews on either side of the aisle (or in the front row) & following the homily at Mass the Priests will come to lay hands & to anoint you with the Oil of the Sick. As we celebrate this great Sacrament of God’s healing mercy & love, let us pray for all of our sick brothers & sisters! Have a blessed week!

Next weekend, we will welcome Fr. Kishore Bathula, who will be joining us for our annual Mission Appeal. Since we will be doing the appeal on the same weekend at both St. Patrick’s & at St. Vincent de Paul, Fr. Kishore will share with us at the beginning of the 4:30 Mass @ St. Patrick’s & then during the normal homily time at the 5:00 Mass @ St. Vincent de Paul.

One of the great forms of prayer in our Church is intercessory prayer. So many of us have people and causes that we pray for on a regular, sometimes even daily basis. We pray for people who are sick, people who have died, we pray for peace, we pray for the unemployed, just to name a few. There are many ways and forms that we could ask our Lord’s intercession, one of those ways that we are very familiar with is through the offering of Masses.

What’s going on with the Stained Glass Windows? When are they going to be back in place? How much longer will it take? I wanted to answer some of those questions today from an update I received from Azure Studios who is doing the window work. Everything is progressing according to plan & though there are times when it may seem that not much work is being done, rest assured that work is being done.

How can we reconcile having faith with the faults and failings of the Church that have been done over time? It can be a tough proposition, as we hear the Church proclaim the news of a good and loving God, but then hear and see a very human Church living that divine mission out, to reconcile the two. There is no denying that there have been times in the course of history that evil acts have been committed against other people, sometimes in the name of God.

Where are we going? Every journey that we set out on in life has, among other things, a destination, the place where our journey is taking us. Maybe the destination is to the store to pick up some bread, or to the restaurant to grab dinner, or to a family member or friend’s house to visit. Our destinations may vary, but rarely do we set out on a journey without having at least some idea of where we are hoping to go.

Over the course of the past many years, our parish family has made a tremendous difference in the lives of so many people. We are getting ready to celebrate 175 years of faith & life at St. Pat’s in just over a year, in 2023. We have only been able to do that through the generosity of so many, those of us who call St. Pat’s home now & those who have given & sacrificed so much so that we can be here & worship today. The story of our parish family has been & continues to be a story of life, faith, & generosity. Over the course of the upcoming weeks we will be helping to continue to tell that story as we engage in an Increased Offertory campaign, “Alive in Christ: Building Community & Growing in Faith.” At St. Pat’s, our campaign will be held in the next 2 upcoming weeks, Sept. 12/13 & Sept. 18/19.

One day about a week ago, after daily Mass, a parishioner stopped me with a question, why do we put a part of the host in the chalice at Mass? It’s a good question and one that I thought more than just 1 parishioner might be wondering about so I thought that I would answer the question here.

 I just wanted to write a quick note to say thank you for all the prayers & support at the passing of my father. On behalf of my mom, my 2 brothers & me, my dad’s sisters, & our entire family, thank you!

This weekend, I wanted to provide an update on some of the capital projects that we have ongoing around the parish campus. First, an update on our stained glass windows. It was a number of weeks ago now that the stained glass window panels in the choir loft were removed. The panels were taken by Azure Stained Glass to their studios where they are working on the renovation & restoration process.