WEEKEND OF JUNE 26-27, 2021

Dear Friends,

            You should have received a mailing in your home, containing a cover letter from me and four raffle tickets for a fundraiser we are participating in. I would like to explain this fundraiser.

            We are participating in this fundraiser with several other Catholic parishes and institutions. We are asking for a donation of $25 for each raffle ticket, and are asking you to please consider purchasing the raffle tickets for yourself, or selling them to family members, neighbors, or friends. The purchaser keeps the right half of the ticket. The left half of the ticket, along with the payment, should be placed in the envelope enclosed in the mailing for return. We also ask you to include any unsold tickets in the return envelope. All tickets and money should be returned by August 1.

            The raffle will be drawn on Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 11:00 P.M. and can be viewed live at www.parishraffle.com

            The prizes for the raffle are excellent. They are all American Express gift cards, and there are fifteen prizes in total. The first prize is a $30,000 gift card; the second prize is a $3,000 gift card; the third prize is a $2,000 gift card; and there are twelve $1,000 prizes.

            I am asking every registered family or individual to participate in this important fundraiser. Besides the excellent prizes, the proceeds are of great benefit to our parish. Again, I am respectfully asking everyone to either purchase the tickets that were included
in the mailing or to sell the tickets to someone else. If you didn’t receive the mailing, or would like more tickets to either purchase or sell, there are more tickets available at the rectory.

            Thank you in advance for your goodness, and for your willingness to participate in this important fundraiser in support of our great parish.

            I recently encountered beautiful words by our Holy Father, Pope Francis, regarding the leisure time that summer affords us. He calls summer a “providential moment to enhance our commitment to seek and encounter the Lord. In this period, students are free from scholastic duties and many families are taking their vacation; it’s important that in the time of rest and detachment from daily concerns, they can re-energize the forces of body and spirit, deepening their spiritual path.”

The Holy Father stresses that by allowing ourselves to be transformed by the presence of Christ and his Word, we will become concrete signs of love for our brothers and sisters, especially those who suffer due to loneliness, abandonment, illness, injustice and violence.
Pope Francis closed his address by turning to Mary, who is “always ready to welcome and guard in her heart every word of her Divine Son.” He prayed that Mary would help all to enter into harmony with the Word of God, enabling Christ to be “the light and guide” of our entire lives, and entrusted to her all those on vacation during the summer months: “To her we entrust the vacation of everyone, so that they are serene and profitable,” he said, and offered a special prayer for those who are unable to take vacation due to age, health, work or financial trouble.
He prayed that for these people, summer would “still be a relaxing time, cheered by friends and happy moments.”

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

                                                                                    Love and prayers,
                                                                                    Father Olivere