Greetings from Fr. Dave

Into November we go! November begins with back-to-back liturgical celebrations of All Saints and All Souls. Our banners are up in the church with names of those whose funerals we had here at Holy Trinity in the last 12 months. Reviewing the names I am always struck with memories of each of them.

Our oldest was 98; our youngest was only 9. About half were “expected” deaths due to either illness or age; the rest were unexpected, tragic, or accidental. I am reminded often as a pastor of how vulnerable we are and how quickly everything can change. May each of us live our lives deliberately and gratefully! And, may the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.


This weekend we wrap up our fall Homily Series, “Why We Should Stay”. We have explored reasons we can be proud to be Catholic. Matthew Kelly in his book Rediscover Catholicism gives additional reasons: The Catholic Church educates more than 2.5 million students every day in its primary and secondary schools, graduating them at a rate of 99% and saving taxpayers over 20 billion dollars a year. There are currently 637 Catholic hospitals in our country, all non-profit, treating 20% of all patients needing hospitalization and taking the lead in providing less-profitable services. Catholic Charities provides food services to 6.5 million people annually and additional services to another 1.5 million people.


So, the good news is, each day the Catholic Church feeds more people, houses more people, educates more people, visits more prisoners, and takes care of more sick people than any other institution on earth. Is there scandal in the church? Misuse of power? Priests and bishops who failed horribly to live their vocation? Yep. And still the Holy Spirit is at work. God bless all of us. We need his blessing big time!