Weekend of January 21 -22, 2023

Dear Friends,

            I wrote to you in my last letter about the problems we have been experiencing with our envelope company, F.J. Remey Co. I have made the decision, after much thoughtful deliberation, to contract with another company for our offertory envelope needs. The new company is Our Sunday Visitor, which is a very reputable Catholic publishing company that has been in business for a long time. I’ve spoken with several pastors who use Our Sunday Visitor for their envelope and mailing needs, and to a person they are very pleased with their service. Tom Sullivan, our business manager, and Annmarie Haag, our parish secretary, have been in frequent communication with them, and they, too, are happy with their cooperation and with their fine customer service. Our envelopes will have a new, fresh look, which I believe you will find very appealing. You should be receiving very soon your February packet of envelopes, and this packet will be coming from Our Sunday Visitor. Thank you, again, for your patience as we continue to deal with this situation.

            This coming Thursday evening our second level PREP students and our Blessed Trinity second graders will be receiving the Sacrament of Penance for the first time. I ask you to please remember our children in prayer this week as they open their hearts to receive God’s mercy and peace in this great sacrament of healing and reconciliation.

Next Sunday, January 29^th, we will be officially beginning Catholic Schools Week 2023, with the 9:15 Mass. This special Mass will be an opportunity for all of us to gather as a parish family to celebrate the great gift of Catholic education, and to thank God for the blessing that Blessed Trinity School continues to be in the life of our parish community. We especially invite our school children and their families to celebrate this special liturgy with us.

Pope Francis has declared today, which is the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, to be the Sunday of the Word of God, in order to promote a closer relationship with Holy Scripture and its dissemination in the world. "A day devoted to the Bible should not be seen as a yearly event but rather a year-long event, for we urgently need to grow in our knowledge and love of the Scriptures and of the risen Lord," the pope wrote in an apostolic letter this past September 30. "For this reason, we need to develop a closer relationship with Sacred Scripture; otherwise, our hearts will remain cold and our eyes shut, struck as we are by so many forms of blindness." The Holy Father continued, "The Bible is not a collection of history books or a chronicle, but is aimed entirely at the integral salvation of the person."

            The Holy Father noted that "The Bible cannot be just the heritage of some, much less a collection of books for the benefit of a privileged few. It belongs above all to those called to hear its message and to recognize themselves in its words [for it] is the book of the Lord's people, who, in listening to it, move from dispersion and division towards unity. The word of God unites believers and makes them one people."
            Let us commit ourselves, as people of faith, to treasure the Sacred Scriptures even more, to make sure we read the Bible every day, and to put into practice what it is we read and learn from the Word of God that is so generously shared with us within it.

            Know that you and those you love are daily remembered in my Mass and my prayers.

                                                                                    Love and prayers,

                                                                                    Father Olivere