Dear Parishioners,
As this will be my very last 40 Hours here as your pastor, I ask everyone as a personal favor to try your best to attend all three nights of our services (7p) to show our love and our belief in the Real Presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament. I especially urge you to spend some quality time in private prayer while the Holy Eucharist is in the Monstrance on the Altar during the day (Sun., Mon., Tue.) of this week. It would be nice to have a FULL CHURCH on our closing (May 22) when priests & deacons of the diocese visit. Father Brighenti will be coming from New Jersey on Tuesday evening along with his parochial vicar and seminarian. Priests and seminarians from Mount St. Mary’s will also be there. I hope to back myself next year, albeit as a visitor but no longer as pastor. I am confident the Bishop will send you an excellent (and far better) replacement for me. Nevertheless, I will dearly miss all of you. This has been my only home for half my priesthood.
Forty Hours Devotions began to remind the Faithful that the wheat bread and grape wine used at Mass miraculously change (transubstantiation) into the precious Body & Blood, Soul & Divinity of Christ. We call the consecrated elements the Holy Eucharist or the Blessed Sacrament. The appearances of bread & wine remain but the substances change into the substances of the Body & Blood of our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ. Any Holy Communion left over after Mass is kept in the Tabernacle. We call this the REAL PRESENCE. This is why we kneel and genuflect whenever walking in front of the Tabernacle. This is also why we MUST keep REVERENTIAL SILENCE before and after Mass. In non-Catholic churches, after the service people chat and socialize. In Catholic churches, we are asked to SPEAK SOFTLY (whisper) because Jesus is still present in the Tabernacle. It’s a mystery but one of the core mysteries of our Christian religion.
Dear Parishioners,
The free-will love offering for Father Casey taken on the last night of his parish mission was $500. If anyone would like to make a donation before we send him the gift, please do so before May 21. Father Wade was given nearly $2,000 five years ago when he preached the mission. None of the money goes directly to the priest as they take a vow of poverty. The gift goes to the Fathers of Mercy and helps in education and training of their priests. Other parish missions charge a fee for the preacher to come. There was no cost to our parish for Father Casey. He also celebrated six Masses while he was here.
I want to thank everyone who attended and planned last Sunday’s 30th anniversary party for me. It was very kind of you and I am most grateful. Thank you for the food, gifts and wine 🙂
As was announced last weekend, the Bishop will be appointing a new pastor for Our Lady of Good Counsel and St. Bernadette in the next several weeks. I have been reassigned and will be working full time at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary as Director of Pastoral Formation and as a spiritual director, formation advisor and professor. Please keep me in your prayers as well as the men I will be teaching. We need good, holy and dedicated priests with pastoral hearts and who are loyal to Holy Mother Church.
I do not know the exact day I must leave nor do I know the day your new pastor arrives. Once we know, it will be made public to everyone. I was blessed to be here for sixteen years and consider all of you family. I want to especially thank St. Bernadette’s Social Committee, the Council of Catholic Women (CCW) from both churches, and most of all, our Knights of Columbus, for all their kindness, generosity, prayers & support.
Dear Parishioners,
Bishop Dattilo appointed me your pastor 16 years ago and I was installed on June 16th, 2002. As I celebrate 30 years of priesthood, half of which have been spent here with you. I wish to express my deep love, affection, gratitude and appreciation for all of you. Cardinal Keeler ordained me a priest on May 14, 1988. Fourteen years later, I came here as your pastor.
I want to thank everyone who helped in the preparation and the planning of the reception today for my 30th anniversary. I am a blessed priest and a blessed pastor for being your shepherd in Perry County, which I affectionately call ‘the Upper West Shore.’ Father Casey gave an inspiring and awesome parish mission and we were richly blessed by his wisdom and holiness. Thank you to everyone who attended. He is a very good priest. And I want to thank Fr. Javed Kashif, OFM, Cap., for all his assistance from time to time. He is another excellent priest.
Bishop Gainer is ordaining 6 new priests in June. Pray for them and all the seminarians being ordained this summer across our nation.
Dear Parishioners,
The parish mission to be preached by Father William Casey, CPM (a Father of Mercy), has been moved to this week (April 29 – May 3). Father Bill has been caring for his seriously ill mother for several weeks and due to a mix-up with the person in charge of his scheduling, he was unable to come last week. He is here this weekend and throughout most of this week. Please come to his 7p evening conferences as he is a most dynamic speaker, an inspirational preacher and a very holy priest.
His 7 p.m. talks will be:
- SUNDAY, Apr. 29 @ OLGC (Marysville)
- MONDAY, Apr. 30 @ SB (Duncannon)
- TUESDAY, May 1 @ OLGC (Marysville)
- WEDNESDAY, May 2 @ SB (Duncannon)
- THURSDAY, May 3 @ OLGC (Marysville)
Pope Francis condemned the common habit of chatting with people around you before & after Mass, stressing that this is a time for silent prayer, when we prepare our hearts for an encounter with the Lord. “When we go to Mass, maybe we arrive five minutes before, and we start to chit-chat with those in front of us,” the Pope said. However, “it is not a moment for chit-chat. It is a moment of silence for preparing ourselves for dialogue, a time for the heart to collect itself in order to prepare for the encounter with Jesus,” he said, adding that “silence is so important.” Continuing his new catechesis on the Eucharist, the Pope recalled his message the week prior, that the Mass is not a show, but a place where we encounter the Lord. In this encounter, he said, silence is what “prepares us and accompanies us.”
Dear Parishioners,
Father Bill Casey, CPM, is a Father of Mercy, and will be giving a mission to our parish this week. He is preaching at all the Masses this weekend AND he will be giving talks every evening at 7p. Father has also asked to celebrate daily Mass (Mon-Thr) at 8a.
His 7 p.m. talks will be:
- SUNDAY, Apr. 29 @ OLGC (Marysville)
- MONDAY, Apr. 30 @ SB (Duncannon)
- TUESDAY, May 1 @ OLGC (Marysville)
- WEDNESDAY, May 2 @ SB (Duncannon)
- THURSDAY, May 3 @ OLGC (Marysville)
