Dear Parish Family,
November is a month to pray for the dead. Consider lighting a votive candle in church for the deceased, having a Mass celebrated with their intention, visiting a cemetery, and making special intercession for them in your prayers this month.
 
November is also a month to remember our own death. We ask Mother Mary to pray for us now and at the hour of our death with each Hail Mary. The Latin phrase Memento Mori (Remember your death) has been a common greeting among Carthusian monks to remind their brothers to focus on the real meaning, purpose, and direction of their lives towards eternal life with God. I'm not suggesting we start greeting others with this phrase since we don't live in a monastic culture, but I will suggest that Memento Mori can help us in our prayer to turn our attention back to God and reprioritize what we value most in life. 
 
Rather than being a morbid expression, Memento Mori (Remember your death) expresses our participation and communion with Christ's own death. By dying, Christ destroyed death. By rising, He restored us to eternal life.  Sunday Preface III in the Roman Missal relates, "For we know it belongs to Your boundless glory, that you came to the aid of mortal beings with Your divinity and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself, that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our salvation, through Christ our Lord." Reflect on that for a moment. Jesus uses death to destroy death. This is the ultimate counterattack to the enemy who seeks our eternal damnation and destruction. He has no more weapons to use against us when we are safeguarded by Christ's death and resurrection!
 
You may wish to pick up a Funeral Pre-Planning Folder in our gathering space this month. While these are available year-round, November is a fitting month to look at how Christ and His Church invite us to consider our own death and the Funeral Liturgies of the Church which should be part of our arrangements. Having a Funeral Plan in place both helps us know the Church's teaching on funeral arrangements and helps family members entrusted with our funeral arrangements to plan our funerals in keeping with these teachings. All the information you need is included in the folder to plan, and it's never too early or too late to get a plan in place!
 
Please remember to vote this Tuesday. As Bishop Malesic instructed us in his September 27 letter included in our bulletin and available to view on our parish website, "we are morally obligated to participate in political life and to make choices based on a properly formed conscience, voting for the candidates who best support the moral teachings of our Catholic faith." Let the Holy Spirit, whose fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23), guide you in your voting and disposition during this election season. 
 
We will celebrate the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick at all Masses next weekend. Please come or bring your family members and/or friends who need to be anointed. Fr. Fabian and I are honored to celebrate this beautiful Sacrament with and for you. The Sacrament is for those who are experiencing a serious illness, a life-threatening condition or diagnosis, or experiencing the debilitating effects of age. If you or a loved one needs to be anointed but cannot come to Mass next weekend, please call our parish office and Fr. Fabian or I will arrange a visit. 
 
Remember, it's best to bring a priest for anointing sooner rather than later. This allows the person being anointed to have more participation during the anointing, and a chance for family members to arrange to be present during the anointing so the sacrament is a communal experience. Arranging ahead of time also gives more time for the sacramental grace to take effect at the onset of a serious or life-threatening illness.
 
Please see today's bulletin for an invite to a special presentation for the new rectory in the St. Mary Banquet Room on Wednesday, November 13 at 6:30 pm!  You can also RSVP here: https://forms.gle/2hPtfWxczC5oGNKx6
 
I am yours in Christ,
Fr. Scott Goodfellow