|
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
Return to Top | Return to Home
|
