From Father Steven

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

Many of us are familiar with the funeral reading from the book of wisdom “there is a time for everything “. That is very true! We are in a time to PRAY! There are many needs all around us, both personal and worldwide. We all have our personal struggles, which includes members of our families. Our parish also needs many prayers to increase vocations (to the priesthood, consecrated life, holy matrimony), increase of holiness, also to help us persevere through this difficult time of waiting until the Church is ready and going through the changing of priests, to pray for those who grew up coming to our parish, but today are home bound, and those who no longer attend mass. We also need to pray for our school, our teachers and students. Our society also needs lots of prayer as we go through local elections, political turmoil nationwide, change of values and increase of disrespect for one another. Worldwide, many Christians are being persecuted, conflicts and wars that are devastating many nations, and so on. In addition to that, some parishioners have approached me asking to have an all night vigil praying in front of the blessed sacrament. That’s been my personal desire for a long time as well. Well, NOW IS THE TIME!

We have mentioned in some Masses I celebrated this past weekend about having a 24 hour vigil with the blessed sacrament exposed. It will start after the Brazilian Mass on Sunday, November 10th and it will go until 8pm on Monday, November 11th (Veteran’s day). Since it’s a holiday, it will give an opportunity to many people to come over and pray in front of Jesus! We are still planning the final details of this time of adoration, but some details are already narrowed down. On Monday at 12pm we will pray the rosary in all 3 languages. Then at 3pm we will pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy also in the three languages. The vigil will conclude with solemn evening prayer. Some of the details we are still working on is to dedicate different hours to specific intentions (Veterans, vocations, Pro-Life), also we priests would like to provide 24 hours of confessions as well. On a different note, some groups have asked to “sponsor” an hour to pray, such as the charismatics so that some music of worship and praise will be done. If you or a group would like to “sponsor” an hour, please contact Lee Ann who will be coordinating among the groups of the parish.

Please join us at your availability in this critical moment in which we are facing as parishioners, Catholics, citizens, and men and women of good will.

God bless,
Fr. Steven