Congratulations to the parents of Laila Woodards on the baptism of their daughter this weekend. As the Church says, the parents are the "first and best teachers of their children in the ways of faith." May they be the best teachers of faith to Laila.
Parishioners to pray for: Norm, Marie Sidor & Mary Ras (all recently anointed), Loretta, Doris, David, and all those who are ill and in need of God's healing and strength.
Since our regular visiting priest, Fr. Joe Pednikar, is not available during the month of July to help us with our weekend Masses, we have had Fr. Weist and several priests from our neighboring parish, St. Charles, come to help us. We are grateful for their help, especially when Fr. Vesely cannot have Mass because his knees are acting up. Please thank these priests for coming to our aid.
We had some areas of the parking lot repaired and resurfaced this past week. New striping will be done and more handicapped parking spaces added on the rectory side. Much work has been done in the school, especially as we prepare to move tutoring inside the building so that we no longer need the big mobile unit outside. Thanks to our maintenance crew, expanded during the summer months, for all their hard work inside and outside. But they can't make the brown grass green...for that we need prayers...or someone to do a rain dance.
A quick update on my dad. He has had 3 chemo treatments and has 2 left. He has had no adverse reaction (like nausea) and he is 75% in remission so far! We are so grateful to you for your prayers and concern.
More on Mass intentions from last week: when a person requests that a "Mass be offered" for an individual (e.g., for my mom on the anniversary of her death) or for a group of people (e.g., for the Schmitz family), this means that along with all the other people and intentions we remember prayerfully at that Mass, we include the particular intention that has been requested by a member of the faithful. It does NOT mean that because an offering was made or an intention was scheduled for a particular day/time, that this is "my Mass." Mass always belongs to the whole Church, never to an individual. Though it is customary to do so during the petitions, the priest is not obligated to make mention of the person or intention during the Mass itself. Sometimes the person who requested the Mass intention is asked to take up the offertory gifts at that Mass, but this is not really connected with the intention itself so it may be anyone who does this. The Pastor is also obligated to offer one Mass each weekend "Pro Populo" or "for the people of the parish." The third & final part of this explanation of Mass intentions will be in next week's bulletin.