A Faith Community

Second Homily

Dear Parish Family of St. Thomas,

We welcome a new face to our St. Thomas of Villanova Parish Family for today. Father James Presta is helping us at the 9:30 am and 11:15 am Masses. Father Presta was most recently the Rector and President of St. Joseph College Seminary at Loyola University Chicago for the past 14 years. St. Joseph is the College level seminary of the Archdiocese of Chicago which Brad Zamora graduated from in May. I am sure Father Presta has many stories about Brad. Father Presta has been appointed to the faculty of Mundelein Seminary as the Associate Dean of Formation. But before he begins his new role, he gets to take a much-deserved break and will be on sabbatical. We welcome Father Presta to St. Thomas today.


We celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa on Friday, August 26. Her picture hangs on the East wall of our church and our Polish community exhibits a great devotion to her. In honor of Our Lady, our Arch-diocese seeks a collection. So as is our Parish custom, there will be a second collection at today’s Polish Mass for the Catholic League for Religious Assistance to Poland. If you would like to contribute, you will find envelopes at all of the exits. Just return the envelope today or next weekend.


You will read in today’s bulletin an update on our STV50 Anniversary Campaign! We have already received pledges pushing us over the two million dollar mark! Thank you to all of you who have returned your pledge cards and made a commitment to our St. Thomas of Villanova Parish Family, and are living out your stewardship of time, talent and treasure. I want to thank all of you who are making your pledge payments. You can mail in your pledge payment, drop it off at the Parish Office, or simply deposit it in the Sunday collection basket. No matter how you get your pledge payment to us, all we ask is that you make your check payable to St. Thomas of Villanova Church and write "STV50 pledge payment" on the memo line, and utilize your pledge payment envelope. Thank you again for your ever-present generous giving ways.


Effective this upcoming week, there will be only one daily Mass. The Eucharist will continue to be celebrated at 8:00 am Monday through Saturday. All of our school children will be joining us for the 8:00 am Liturgy each Friday during the school year. The 6:30 am Liturgy will be a Communion Service led by either one of our deacons or one of our trained lay leaders or a seminarian. Why not begin your day with prayer – you have two chances – 6:30 am or 8:00 am???


Are you looking for some get away time for yourself? Do you need some time alone? Do you want to spend some time with the Lord? Do you need to retreat? To a spiritual one? Then I hope that you paid attention at to-day’s Liturgy. There was a short presentation about our fabulous program—Christ Renews His Parish — CRHP. It is a spiritually enriching experience and time for you to come to a deeper understanding of your own faith life and a deeper love for the Lord Jesus. Our Women’s CRHP Weekend is in September while the Men must wait til October to experience it. Think about it! Pray about it! Take your faith to the next level!
You will not see my face this weekend – which is why Father Presta is here helping us out. I am gone for the weekend getting some R and R which stands for rest and relief. I am visiting some friends up north and also helping out at their parish as the pastor is by himself and has two parishes. So I am trying to give some relief to one of my brother priests as I do every year.


Your Pastor,



Father Tom Rzepiela

 

Pastor Fr. Tom

 

Make Christ your Friend
in Two Thousand and Ten.