Dear Parishioners,

Monday, November 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints.  On this day we remember all the holy men and women who have gone before us.  We also are reminded that each of us is called to be a saint, to become holy.  People frequently say “I’m no saint” to which I usually reply “I hope you are.”  Ultimately every one of us is a saint with God or apart from God in hell.  Of course when people say they are not saints what they mean is that they are not perfect.  None of the saints was perfect either, all the saints were weak human beings who co-operated with God’s grace to become holy.  May All Saints Day help us to answer our fundamental call to become holy.  In addition to recalling the saints who are already in heaven and that each of us is called to holiness we also are reminded of those saints who are in purgatory.  We especially think about those “poor souls” on November 2.  Because November is a month when we are especially aware of the Faithful Departed there will be in each church of our pastorate a book in which to write the names of the dead.  This has long been a practice in some parishes of our pastorate and this year we will begin doing this in all our parishes.  I invite you to write the names of anyone who has died in these books.  We will pray for these people especially throughout November.  Let me also note that even though All Saints Day is not a Holy Day of Obligation this year because it falls on a Monday there will be, in addition to the regularly scheduled Masses for Monday, a Mass at 12:15PM at Sacred Heart.  This Mass has been added to the schedule to give our school students an opportunity to attend Mass on this important day.  Of course everyone is welcome to participate at this celebration.  Finally, everything we do as Church has as its goal helping people to become holy.  Any program or activity needs to lead to that finish line.  In connection with that I am happy to announce that we have hired a new Director of Evangelization, Bridget Schlebecker.  Her first day in this position will be December 1.  I look forward to working with Bridget as we seek to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ and become more and more His Holy People. 



Fr. Richard Weisenberger