Pastor’s Letter: July 9, 2023

Pastor’s Letter: July 9, 2023

7 Jul 2023 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear friend,

The Emmaus Days Summer Retreats for the boys are coming soon at Peoria Notre Dame. Emmaus Days Session III is for boys entering their freshman and sophomore years of high school. Emmaus Days Session IV is for boys entering 7^th and 8^th grades. The Diocesan Vocation Office and the Seminarians run the retreats each summer. There is a good mix of prayer, Mass, spiritual talks, moral formation and fun/play time. As a seminarian, I always enjoyed the time with the children. It helped me learn how best to teach and model Christ to others, while also developing an understanding of how to relate to the next generation. Fr. Daniel is willing to help sign up any of our 7^th graders through sophomores to attend the retreat days. If you have a son interested in the retreat days, please contact Fr. Daniel at the office.

This week I have the annual retreat with the Junior Clergy, those priests ordained ten years or less. The retreat will be at the Sacre-Coeur Retreat Center in Henry, IL.  Fr. Daniel and the newly ordained will be joining the Junior Clergy for the first time. The retreat is an opportunity for the priests to socialize, pray and recuperate once a year. I help run a retreat for them each summer and organize some ongoing formation/education for the Junior Clergy in their ten years of priesthood. While I have more of a leadership role with the group, I always find it a restful and spiritually rewarding week. Please say a prayer for the younger priests of our Diocese as they grow in their love for the priesthood and get a time of rest and spiritual renewal.

This past Thursday we celebrated the feast day of Maria Goretti. Maria, at the age of 12, was killed by an 18-year-old neighbor boy. He attacked her and intended to take her innocence. She told him no and that God did not want it. In response, Alessandro stabbed her to death. Prior to her death, Maria forgave Alessandro for his sin. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.  While in prison, Alessandro had a vision of Maria Goretti, as she was offering him flowers of peace and forgiveness. This vision caused a deep conversion in Alessandro. Once he was released from prison, he visited Maria’s mother to beg forgiveness. She granted the forgiveness and invited him to Maria Goretti’s canonization Mass at St. Peter’s in Rome. The presence of her murderer at her own canonization Mass illustrates the power and importance of forgiveness to enter the gift of heaven. We study the lives of the saints because they inspire and call us to live the Christian faith in authenticity. Although Maria was a poor girl, who couldn’t read, she had a deep faith in God and love for her persecutor. As the Patron Saint for teenage girls, we ask Maria’s prayers for the girls of our parish community and ask that God help us learn to forgive others as we seek for forgiveness for our faults and sins. St. Maria Goretti, Pray for Us.

God bless,

Father David