Thank you to Fr. Pio Mandato and the Anniversary Team Members

My Dear Parishioners,

Thank you to Fr. Pio Mandato for offering our 40 Hours devotion. He offered us some truly inspirational insight into Jesus in the Eucharist. Fr. Pio explained how at the heart of any act of authentic love there is presence, sacrifice and communion and how Jesus offers this to us. He gave us some very relatable stories of people and their struggle and need and desire to connect to God. He also shared some very interesting stories of St. Padre Pio and his devotion to this great saint. Thank you also to Fr. Pio for offering us the opportunity to venerate the holy relic, St. Padre Pio’s glove, and teaching us how to pray for healing.

This week we welcome Archbishop Nelson Perez as he celebrates the closing Mass to our yearlong celebration of our 100th Anniversary as a parish. Thank you Archbishop for your leadership, guidance, and honoring us on this solemn occasion. Thank you as well to all the Anniversary team members who helped to organize, develop, set up, and clean up after our various celebrations, events. I want to thank all those who helped with our parish banquet, our parish directory, writing our parish history, compiling the many artifacts and preparing classroom 18 for the display of those artifacts, and all the various ministries who assisted with our liturgical celebrations including our sacristans, servers, altar decorators, lectors, ushers, and our musicians.

This Sunday we celebrate World Mission Sunday. I found the following information on the internet to help us understand more about it.

EVERY  YEAR,  SOMETHING  SPECIALHAPPENS on the next-to-last Sunday of October. WORLD MISSION SUNDAY joins all Catholics of the world into one community of faith. At Mass that Sunday, we recommit ourselves to our common vocation, through Baptism to be missionaries, through prayer, participation in the Eucharist, and by giving generously to the collection for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

In 1926, Pope Piux XI instituted World Mission Sunday for the whole Church with the first worldwide World Mission Sunday collection taking place in October 1927.

Pope Francis’ message for World Mission Sunday this year reflects on the theme: “You shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). He reminds us that the Church is missionary in nature and that we are called at Baptism to share in this mission together. The Holy Father exclaims, “Would that all of us in the Church were what we already are by virtue of baptism: prophets, witnesses, missionaries of the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the ends of the earth!”

On World Mission Sunday, we join our Holy Father in supporting his missions. As we pray and respond here at home, we share in those celebrations taking place in every parish and school throughout the world. Together, through our prayers and financial support, we bring the Lord’s mercy and concrete help to the most vulnerable communities in the Pope’s missions.

In a world where so much divides us, World Mission Sunday rejoices in our unity as missionaries by our Baptism, as it offers each one of us an opportunity to support the life- giving presence of the Church among the poor and marginalized in more than 1,100 mission dioceses.

God Bless you,
Fr. Bordonaro

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