Pastor’s Letter & November 7 Bulletin

Pastor’s Letter & November 7 Bulletin

5 Nov 2021 | Posted by: chadmin

The November 7 bulletin is available online. 

Dear friend,

Monday was the feast of All Saints. We take the time to honor all of the saints because they each represent a different call to the Kingdom. Just like us, each saint had different gifts and talents. Each saint found a different way to serve the Lord. The Church recognizes this uniqueness to each saint as patron saints are named for almost every occupation and situation in life. The reason the Church names different saints patrons is to provide inspiration for the many different walks of life. St. Florian is the patron saint of firefighters. He lived in Rome during the 3^rd century when Christianity was illegal. Florian, as a Roman military officer, refused the emperor’s command to kill Christians. He eventually was drowned after being threatened with fire. As patron of firefighters, his intercession is sought for courage and protection.

Once again this year we offered the saint draw. The baskets at the church doors have individual cutouts of saint names, with a prayer intention and a quote from the saint. There are many different prayer intentions in the basket. You pick a saint and the Saint in heaven picks you. Often time the intention or prayer message we choose is something we’ve already been asking for the Lord’s assistance. The Lord never misses an opportunity to remind us that He already knows what we need before we ask Him.

The celebration of All Souls Day gives us the opportunity to remember and celebrate all of our faithful departed. The month of November is set aside to remember our deceased loved ones and pray for their eternal salvation. This year the Pope has granted a Plenary Indulgence to anyone who prays in a cemetery for the repose of souls. A Plenary Indulgence is the removal of all the temporal punishment due our sin. Essentially it is about removing the purification time in purgatory. To receive a Plenary Indulgence, one has to pray for the intentions of the Pope’s spiritual leadership, pray an Our Father and Creed, receive the Sacraments of Confession and Eucharist and most importantly be detached from a desire to sin. With these conditions being met, anyone who visits a cemetery to pray for the dead, on any day in November, receives the Plenary Indulgence. This is meant to be seen and experienced as a gift for us personally as we receive Communion, confession and time of prayer and of course a gift for any souls in purgatory who the Lord welcomes into the eternal kingdom.

Next Saturday, November 13, 2021, we will have our school auction in the Parish Center banquet room. The in-person tickets are sold out, but you can participate by watching the YouTube livestream of the event at 7pm and bidding on the many items. If you would like to bid on the silent auction items, you can actually signup now at stphils.maxgiving.bid and begin bidding on Sunday, November 7.  We hope to have great participation from the parish community.

God bless,

Father David