Dear Parishioners,

Every two years In the Diocese of Joliet, each priest who serves in a parish is required to attend a convocation that begins on a Monday evening and concludes at noon on the Thursday of that week. These are conducted at nearby convention centers capable of accommodating large gatherings such as this with overnight accommodations, food and ample spaces for daily meetings and public prayer. For the past several years, these convocations have been hosted at the Hyatt Lodge in Oakbrook which is comfortably conducive for this time of learning, refreshment and conviviality.

In the world of leadership, there is a common practice: after the first one hundred days in office, we pause to reflect. What direction is this new leader taking us in? What tone has been set? Where might we be headed?

Dear Parishioners,

September 14th is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This ancient Christian festival, common to the churches of both the East and West, emerged in the early 4th century after St. Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, discovered the actual cross on which Jesus died. Her discovery of the cross came as the result of an excavation expedition that she organized in Jerusalem. In the process of her excavation of the church of the Holy Sepulcher three crosses were found. Of these three, the cross of Jesus was identified when it was touched to a dying woman who was subsequently healed. An alternative legend to this one maintains that when a paralyzed man touched the cross of Jesus, the man regained his ability to walk.

Dear Parishioners,

Tomorrow, September 8, is the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the course of the Church’s liturgical year there are only three birthdays that are commemorated – the birthday of the Lord Jesus (December 25), the birthday of John the Baptist (June 24), and the birthday of Mary, the Mother of God (September 8). All other saints are typically commemorated on the day of their death (Dies Natils), which was regarded as their birth into eternal life. But because of the unique and privileged role that Mary, John the Baptist and, most significantly, Christ Jesus were given in salvation history, they are honored on both, their birth into this world as well as their birth into the glory of heaven.