Bulletin column from September 12, 2021

Dear Friends at Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish and Saint Frances Cabrini Parish:
Praised be Jesus Christ! As we move into September at both parishes we find ourselves once again in the full mode of our formation year and also of our customary mission appeals. This is a tremendous blessing for us because these apostolates are so integral to our identity as Catholics: we love to teach and we love to serve.
The vast majority of our intentional formation programs and structures are focused on the youth of our parish communities, beginning at six weeks old and running up through High School. In this part of the world, September brings the return of day school students, of REP and Rooted, and of the sacramental preparation cycle. All of this requires a tremendous amount of time and resources to run, but we know that the benefits from it all are beyond measure.
Where we fall short in the modern era is in our formation to adults, most likely because there is no cultural, institutional equivalent to mass-produced “adult school” that we can mimic in the way that we do to form our kids who must all be “in school.” In earlier generations the culture itself, especially ethnic identities, formed children and adults in the faith. Bishops and pastors formed through sermons and pastoral letters, but that was in an era when people trusted institutions in general and in a culture that gave deference to voices of pastoral authority. Much of that has now changed. The secular culture is in many respects opposed to Christianity. The pastors and staff can make available a wide array of formation opportunities and materials for adults, but adults have freedom to either utilize them or not. All this makes adult formation much less systematized, far more personalized, and much more difficult to pull off.   Nonetheless, it is extremely important, equally if not more important than child formation, and every adult Catholic has to think of themselves always as being “in formation school” regardless of one’s age. This seems an opportune time of the year to remind everyone of this point.
Missionary service is of course also vital to our life as Catholics as these next few weeks will remind us. On September 18th and 19th we will welcome at Cabrini our annual Haiti update and appeal. No one should need any reminding this year of how difficult life is for the people in that country with news stories fresh in our minds of more earthquakes, storms, and political disaster. Our upcoming appeal is yet another opportunity to renew our love and commitment to the people of that nation.    On September 26th we will welcome at Saint Mary’s our annual Honduras update and appeal, which will continue on in different ways throughout the fall as we collect money for school supplies in October and agree to sponsor students as we close out the year. Honduras, too, has been no stranger to hardship as we all know, and our hearts are always with them. What a blessing it is to renew each year our bonds of friendship and support for people who live so far away from us, and who inspire us by their faith, hope, and charity. Both of our parish communities are enriched by these friendships with our sister entities in ways that cannot be measured. For all these reasons and more I know that we will again be generous this year in our assistance to them.