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August 15, 2021
Patron Saint Feast Day of St. Mary
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This weekend, as we celebrate the great Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, we also celebrate our oldest church building, St. Mary’s. Just like all of the other commemorations of our church buildings, we are celebrating a Saturday evening Mass followed by a small reception.
All of our other six church buildings were built in the late 50s/early 60s. St. Mary’s, however, was constructed in 1925! It is the oldest, and, in many ways, the most magnificent of all of our church buildings. Holy Spirit Parish has 59 parcels of property, 29 buildings, of which seven are church buildings! Since November of 2020, we have buried over 200 people! By this November, it will be over 300 people! In the past 3 years, we have buried approximately 1,000 people! Population, not only of our parish, but of our entire community is
declining, and declining quickly. Our human and material resources are declining. This does not mean that we give up hope or despair. It does mean, however, that we must make difficult decisions and be very wise about the choices we make moving forward. We cannot possibly maintain all of these
properties. We have to decide which properties we wish to keep and which, unfortunately, we have to let go.
St. Mary’s, it seems to me, is clearly one of our assets that we must keep and must invest in because of it’s beauty and its history. Having said this, it also requires a significant investment! Maintaining a beautiful church building such as this, built in 1925, requires constant maintenance and preventative maintenance. As you know, currently the stained-glass windows are being repaired on the west side of the building. We also have constant roof issues, leaks and other masonry and plaster/paint damage that occurs on a regular basis. To ensure passing on this beautiful church to future generations, we have to commit ourselves now to handing on, not only this beautiful church, but, even more so, our beautiful faith to future generations! This requires sacrifice—sacrifice of our time, talent and treasure.
My sincere gratitude to all who understand this reality! All of you have parents, grandparents and great grandparents who financially sacrificed for all of our former parishes and also gave of themselves in volunteer service. We know the church is not the building. The building is only a symbol of the community. It is our shelter in order that we might gather and worship our God. But our worship of the Lord goes far beyond an hour on a Saturday night or Sunday morning. Our worship of God is how we live our lives on a daily basis and how we pass on our faith to future generations.
I am very grateful to everyone who helped commemorate and celebrate the amazing history of St. Vitus School/Holy Spirit Academy last weekend. At different points during it’s 113-year history, people of this region adjusted to the times and did what needed to be done to lead our children and others to Christ. Now is our time. Now it is our responsibility to meet the challenges of today. 2021 is a far different world than 1925 or 1960 or even 1990. We have to meet the challenges of “our day” with the same wisdom, grace and tenacious spirit that former generations have done. We must do this so that we may hand on to future generations, not just memories of the past, but more importantly the internalization of a faith in Christ that will sustain them unto eternal life!
On this Feast of St. Mary, our Blessed Mother and our Queen, let us all
recommit ourselves to what is most important. Our Mission is to:
Know Christ, Love Christ, Serve Christ and Invite others to Christ through Word,
Sacrament and Sacrifice!
God love you,
