November’ing is a word that combines the eleventh month of the calendar year and the spiritual exercise of remembering our departed loved ones, and the departed who have been more formally recognized by the Church as saints. Each one of us also has our own saints who have given us example and inspiration, reminding us that we are all called to sainthood by a God who gives us constant opportunities to grow and impact others.
As we are about November’ing we don’t simply recall, we link our spiritual reflection to the place we are all called to—heaven, and the one who calls us—God. I preached about heaven this past weekend as it was an essential point in the Gospel, and I made four points about heaven. I did not list them as I often do on the screens, but many people asked me to recap after Mass. I suggested the following four things based on our church teachings, my beliefs, and quotes this past week by Cubs Manager, Joe Maddon and President of Baseball Operations, Theo Epstein. We must also keep in mind that heaven is a concept that no human wisdom can completely capture. So I believe that along our spiritual journey we…
- Must look for and cherish glimpses of heaven here on earth
- Should help others get to heaven, not only focus on our individual journey there
- Work hard at getting there
- Seek the communion with God that God seeks with us, both here and fully in heaven
You will notice continual references and prayers to our dearly departed throughout this month. Let us continue November’ing.
I also mentioned at Mass two weeks ago that we here at Holy Family are highlighted in a new book titled Great Catholic Parishes by William Simon (Ave Maria Press 2016). Mr. Simon conducted interviews with leaders from parishes across the country and concludes that great Catholic parishes:
- Share leadership
- Foster spiritual maturity and plan for discipleship
- Excel on Sundays (weekends)
- Evangelize in intentional, structured ways
Furthermore, Mr. Simon was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and Holy Family is the first parish he mentions in that interview published on October 20. The article is entitled Waking Up From Spiritual Sleepwalking.
Although this recognition is nice, we are always trying to learn and grow and improve here at Holy Family. We receive feedback all of the time and we solicited your feedback with a pretty extensive survey a year and a half ago, and a smaller one recently with some dedicated parishioners regarding our liturgies. This group was an outgrowth of our Parish Pastoral Council called FIRE. One thing we have learned is that people really appreciate the vibrant and relevant nature of our Masses, and that will never change as long as I am with you. However, based on some feedback, we are going to test some alterations to the 5:00pm Saturday liturgy and we REALLY want your feedback as we test them. Our hope is to create a Catholic Mass experience that is vibrant, relevant and concise.
Please take note of the changes we are making ONLY at the 5:00pm Saturday Mass and give us your feedback for the next six weeks. Most importantly, do these changes help you to pray in a way that connects with your everyday life, inspire you, and do so in a more concise manner?
At this time of year we begin preparing for a new church year. Advent signals the new year and because the church rhythms dictate important things such as themes for the year etc., I have aligned the Parish Pastoral Council terms to the Church year. This change was instituted last year and I again want to thank dedicated Council members who extended their terms from June to November last year.
The Parish Pastoral Council is comprised of fellow parishioners who represent the major ministering communities of Holy Family. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following outgoing members of our Council for their three years of shared wisdom, advice, feedback and input.
Andrew McGovern – Human Concerns
Al Clementi – Pastoral Care and Former Council Chair
Dan Tokarz and Aly Worthem – Teen Reps
We are in need of a recording secretary for Parish Pastoral Council. If you can help, or know someone who can, please contact Paula Nowicki in my office.
I also want to extend a special thanks to Tracey Cantarutti for serving as Council Chair for the past year. Tracey brought strong organization and vision to our efforts. I also welcome and thank our new Council Chair, Jack Shedd. Thanks to all of you who have served on Parish Pastoral Council through the years. Your wisdom is so valuable in the essential endeavor of carrying out our very ambitious mission.