Dear Parish Family,

Happy Independence Day! As we celebrate our freedom this weekend, choose to be grateful to God for entrusting you with the responsibility to love sacrificially. Freedom is such a wonderful gift of God. As such, we need to be sure we are using this gift with right reason, in the way God intended. The fullest expression of freedom is choosing the good. This full expression honors and respects all that Christ and His Church teach as good for the human person and for creation. Using our gift of freedom as God intends is sacrificial, meaning that we need to take responsibility for our good and the good of others, putting aside our own selfish worldviews and participating in communion with the whole of creation. Choosing freedom in this way is "catholic" (universal), in that it expands our worldview, faith, and gratitude to God for His gifts because we have chosen to live according to the whole of reality as God has created it.

We also know that it is possible to misuse the gift of freedom by appropriating for ourselves the prerogative to decide what is right and wrong apart from right reason and God's will. This is Original Sin which shrinks our worldview, narrows our faith, and limits our gratitude precisely because it leads us away from communion with God and others. This selfish and non-sacrificial use of freedom makes sense: if I decide what is right and wrong for myself, then very few people, if any, can participate in how I choose to live my life. We see this isolation on clear display in our culture. People living their own truth forms pockets and ideologies that cannot be integrated into an acceptable worldview that can be shared with others. 

We need to be thoroughly "catholic" in our exercise of freedom to achieve the unity that Jesus prays for in His Church, "that all may be one" in a communion of praise and right worship. Some may protest that we cannot expect everyone to think, believe, and act the way we do as Catholic Christians. Fair enough, but not a single person living on earth is exempt from rightly ordering his or her life according to truth. We may debate about the truth and what is good for the human person, but the choice to determine this good for ourselves will logically lead to division and isolation, whereas the choice to live in the truth will lead to communion and love. That's where we stand as a Catholic Church as we continue to proclaim this truth to the world. 

Welcome, Fr. Fabian! We are excited to hear from our new parochial vicar, Fr. Fabian Han, at our Masses this weekend as he introduces himself. We will have a chance to meet and greet him at receptions following all Masses this weekend. Fr. Fabian is a newly ordained priest from the Archdiocese of Daegu, South Korea. He will be ministering at St. Mary's and St. Pat's for the next four years. We are blessed to have him with us!

On Saturday, July 15, we are hosting a Welcome Dinner for new parishioners. We haven't had a dinner for our newcomers since before the pandemic, so I am pleased to share that we have sent invitations to about 200 new families that have joined the parish since March 2020! If you are a new family and have not registered or received an invitation, please stop by our Weekend Office after Mass this weekend, call or stop by our office this week, or scan the QR code in today's bulletin to RSVP. We would love to have you come and meet fellow parishioners, our staff, and various groups and ministries that bring life to our parish! We will continue to have Welcome Dinners semi-annually, so if you cannot come this time, stay tuned for future newcomer events in the future!

Please note that our Fatima Holy Hour has moved to the First Wednesday of the month and starts at 6:00 pm. This will align the Holy Hour with our time of Adoration as a parish. Our next Fatima Holy Hour will be Wednesday July 5 at 6:00 pm. During this parish year of the Eucharistic Revival, I encourage you to spend some time in Eucharistic Adoration before our Lord. He will bless you abundantly with any time you spend with Him!

Please note that the parish office will be closed on Tuesday, July 4 for the holiday.

I am yours in Christ,
Fr. Scott Goodfellow