Pastor’s Letter, August 4, 2019

Pastor’s Letter, August 4, 2019

2 Aug 2019 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear friend,

On Tuesday I sent the following paragraph as an email to the parish community.

I am sorry to inform the parish family that I have canceled the St. Philomena Festival scheduled for August 8-10, 2019.  We were blessed to install a new parking lot this summer. At the time, we had concerns about a new parking lot and the weight and stability of tents and rides on the new lot. Over the last week, some summer work was completed in school that involved a dumpster on the parking lot. Even though wood braces were placed under the dumpster and trailer, an impression was left in the new lot from the weight. Fortunately, these are two small spots, but the heavy equipment for the Festival would cause damage all over the parking lot. Our hope and plan is to host the St. Philomena Festival, with the rides, again next year in 2020 after the lot has cooled and settled for a year. I apologize for the inconvenience and the disappointment to the Parish family. The investment in the parking lot is too significant to risk the long-term damage. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns by email at  frdprichardson@stphils.com  or in the parish office. 

This cancellation is obviously a disappointment to the community. I am hopeful that we will have a great festival next year, which will in fact be during the 75^th anniversary of our parish. At the time of the email I didn’t have information about reimbursements for already purchased tickets. Members of the festival committee are reaching out to known ticket purchasers to arrange for refunds. If you purchased any ride tickets or Tiger Tokens you are welcome to contact us in the parish office about refunds. Thank you for your patience with this process.

This week we hear the parable of the rich man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich in what matters to God. This profound parable challenges us to reflect on what we spend our time doing and what matters for our eternal life. Most of us can identify all sorts of things we give time to that bear no eternal significance. No matter what we spend our time doing, it is true that we are storing all sorts of thoughts, memories, and things in our lives. The goal is to keep ourselves focused on those that lead us to a deeper life of virtue and prepare us for the Kingdom. The Lord is always there to help us with this process in prayer.

God bless,

Father David