August 24, 2024
This weekend we find ourselves getting together to celebrate another good year together at our parishes with our annual picnic. While we are able to enjoy these beautiful late summer days, it is nice sometimes to take a step back and take a look around us. How good is our God? We see the beauty of the trees, the fields overflowing with the fruit of the earth. We can gaze at the various and vibrant flowers blossoming. We see nature as well, reveling in the goodness of its creator. The deer which just a short time ago were little fawns struggling to walk are now running and leaping about. The small birds which were just multicolored eggs in the not-too-distant past are now fluttering around with their avian counterparts, while learning to sing their songs and praise our God in the simple, beautiful way that God created them to do. We can look at the changes in ourselves and our loved ones over the course of the last year, how we may have more calloused hands, a summer tan or some other testament to where we spent much of our time over the past few months. We see how the young ones have seemed to shoot up as quickly as the corn in the field, the change in the way they talk or think. A lot happens that we miss if we fail to take much of a deeper look at life.
On a parish level we have gotten quite a few projects accomplished over the past year and we have a number more coming up. As I am sure you noticed in the parish financial summary of the last year, we spent quite a bit on our facilities and such, there was so much that had to be done over the past couple of years, so many things that needed to be fixed, replaced or remodeled. Despite how the numbers looked, we are still in an excellent financial situation and in spite of all the projects accomplished, we are still at almost the exact same level in our accounts as we were. Now this can be explained by one simple fact: the generosity and care that you, the parishioners of St. Isidore and Holy Family. The donations and collections were up again this year, and I have to admit that I am continually awed by how much you sacrifice for our Churches, locally and throughout the world. The response you gave to our mission appeal this year was again something that gave testimony to that. For the coming year we have some more big projects to continue, in particular with our sanctuary renovation at St. Isidore, our cemetery project and some more things for Holy Family. I have tried and will continue to try to be a faithful steward of our parish and the fruit of your generosity.
On a personal note, I want to thank you all for your care and concern during the recent health issues I have been experiencing. Your prayers, messages, comments and cards have really been a blessing to me. I am absolutely convinced and the facts speak for themselves, that if so many had not been praying, I would no longer be among the living. You all have my perpetual gratitude for that.
My hope for us is that we continue to grow in our faith. Hopefully we will see the increase of the desire for the sacraments and public prayer in our parishes. Our families and our country need us to be the good, true Catholics we have been called to be and the sacraments and prayer are what make that a possibility.
May God bless and reward each of you, in gratitude,
Fr. Anthony
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