I begin again by thanking you. So many of you have made special efforts to mail in your weekly tithing or drop it off here at the office. Others have been giving online. Due to all of that, we are still functioning here at the parish. Thank you all very, very much and remember that God will not be outdone in generosity.

The last couple of weeks we have talked about trying to have an experience of the resurrected Christ in prayer. Hopefully, that is working out for you as you apply the “Lectio Divina” technique to the gospel passages. We are social creatures; thus our experience of Christ will also have a social dimension. That is what we experience at Mass as we receive Holy Communion. We also have a communal way of putting the zeal and enthusiasm from this experience into action, and that is in our Evangelical Catholic small groups. Most of you probably remember when we started these a few years ago. If you haven’t had the opportunity to join one and are interested—please contact Susan Swanke, our Adult Faith Coordinator. I strongly encourage you to do so. It is a great and fun way to continue growing in the faith while maturing in your experience of Jesus.

This week, we celebrated the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima on the 13th. She appeared the first time on this day in 1917 to three shepherd children in Portugal and began to give them what Pope Emeritus Benedict has called the most important revelation of our times. Her messages/revelations have been grouped in three parts called the “Secrets of Fatima”. At first, Our Lady told them not to reveal them until a later date. The first two were made public shortly after the apparitions ceased (Oct.13, 1917 was the last one). The third was sent to the Pope to be opened and revealed in 1960. It wasn’t revealed until the year 2000, and some claim that what was revealed then is incomplete. Regardless, it is still an immensely important event, and we can profit a lot by learning more about it.