Bulletin column from August 23, 2020

Dear Friends at Saint Frances Cabrini Parish and Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish:
 
Praised be Jesus Christ! As we make our way into the late days of August, 2020, we are continuing our journey through this very unusual year, marking our steps along the way both aware of our challenges as well as our blessings. 
 
I do not think I need to elaborate much on the challenges since we are all well aware of them by now, except of course to repeat what I have said often of late, namely, that God continues to be with us in the midst of them.  As baptized believers we know this in our bones and therefore we are not afraid of adversity, sickness, pain, and even death.  To paraphrase Saint Paul’s beautiful letter to the Romans:  there is not one thing we can think of that can separate us from Christ if we continue to trust in his power.  Only sin is ultimately deadly, and even that can be remedied by mercy if we sincerely ask for it.  Therefore, we go forward in grace, and without fear.
 
To mention a specific blessing that not all may be aware of:  we are in the midst right now of celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation for all of our High School students.  Like so many other things, High School Confirmation had been scheduled for this past spring and was canceled.  We made the decision to re-schedule the Confirmations in primarily two, main Masses for this August, with me as the delegated minister of the Sacrament. 
 
We are blessed with our group of High School Confirmation candidates in a special way this year.  Not only have I found them to be a very receptive and genuinely good group of young people to work with, but they also deserve credit for coming forward to deepen their connection to the Church in an era when so much is so uncertain.  They could probably offer dozens of excuses or reasons why they might have changed their mind and decided not to go through with it, in light of delays, Covid, fears of being at church, questions about why it is even relevant to be Catholic in America these days, etc, etc.   However, they have shown themselves to be eager to take this next step in their faith journey in the face of all the forces that would otherwise deter them.  We should be very proud of them. 
 
We were also blessed in July to celebrate the vast majority of our re-scheduled First Communions for the parishes as well.  How wonderful it was to have so many people in church, at Mass, being fed by the Eucharist, and gathered together as though all was right with the world. I really appreciate all the efforts of our formation staff, liturgy staff, catechists, and parents to get us through all of these important celebrations with all the challenges of late.
 
We also continue to receive a rather steady set of requests for weddings, and we have been celebrating them since early June, again with nice crowds and smiling faces at the Masses.  Granted, our wedding numbers these days are not nearly what they were many years ago, but we are still blessed with those who come forward to be married in the Church in our era when that is an increasingly unpopular thing to do. 
 
Father Carlos and I also continue to administer the Anointing of the Sick fairly often.  Many of the local facilities have begun to relax some of their restrictions just enough to allow us in to do routine as well as emergency anointings if we are persistent in our requests.  These visits for this Sacrament have been so moving and so important.
 
Baptisms were sparse earlier this summer, but they are picking up again now which is wonderful.  And, our Confession lines have continued to be very steady and long every single week which is such a grace for our communities. 
 
Even in challenging times, with so many obstacles, there are always reasons for hope in the future of the Church.  In this way, we do know that God is always with us.