“The Missing Piece: What Are You Searching For?”

by Fr. David Halm, C.S.C.  |  02/25/2024  |  Pastor's Letter

Greetings to all and messages of prayer and gratitude from Fr. Tom! He continues to recuperate and is getting stronger each day. Like I mentioned in my email to the parish last week Fr. Tom so wishes he could be with us for the sacred liturgies, devotions, and activities of these first weeks of Lent. However, he is listening to his doctors and us brother-priests in Holy Cross to rest and feel better. We’ll be very ready and excited for his return to SJV but in the meantime he knows we’re all praying for him and love him very much. He asked me to let you all know how grateful he is and that he is praying for all the faithful of the parish.

Tonight, Sunday Feb. 25, at 6:30pm, we begin our Parish Mission, “The Missing Piece: What Are You Searching For?” The Parish Mission Team has been meeting every week with the Missionaries from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, who will lead us over these three nights. They’ve transformed the CSC Gym into an extraordinary space - perfect for the Adoration, Testimony, Music, Worship and Fellowship we will be experiencing. Of course, the most wonderful part of what’s coming is the real encounter each of us will be having - and altogether as a community - with Our Lord Jesus. Spoiler Alert: He is Who we are searching for! As we’ll discover, He has also been searching for us… The only cost to attend is your time - which I recognize is precious. We are busy people and there’s always something that seems to need to be done. Take the risk and come. Make this a priority event and invite someone to join you in coming. I promise you that you’ll be glad you did!

A big thank you to all who have put on the first two Fridays of Stations of the Cross and Fish Fry. We have had great turnouts for these - please keep reading the bulletin for the details on how you can still make them part of Lent. Like everything we do, they are best enjoyed in family (and like Fr. Peyton always said - the family that prays together stays together!) and are open to everyone. Back home in Clyde, Ohio, I know many of the folks who came to our St. Mary’s Parish Fish Fry weren’t Catholic or even Christians and this was the way they got to see our parish and meet our members. Invite your neighbors and friends!

God bless you all. See you at the Mission!

Father David