From the Pastor’s Desk:

My letter this week is going to be a mix of several different topics. First of all I want to express my sincere gratitude to God for Sr. Elizabeth’s vocation as a professed Sister of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ. On July 1, 1960 she made her first profession, with her final vows taken on July 1 of 1965. Her ministry in the church has been varied; from elementary teacher, parish organist, nurse, vocation director of the Ruma Province. The last 10 years Sr. Elizabeth has served as coordinator of ministry here at St. Agnes Cathedral, Saturday evening organist, along with Catholic Ministry at South Cox Hospital these last four years. We celebrate Sr. Elizabeth’s 60th anniversary. On October 10 at a Mass at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, a young Italian computer whiz kid who died of leukemia at the age of 15 offering his suffering for the pope and the Church was beatified. With the beatification of Carlo Acutis the catholic Church has its first Saint who loved Super Mario and Pokemon, but not as much as he loved the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. At the age of seven, Carlo wrote, “To be always united with Jesus, this is my life program.” Carlo was an ordinary boy, simple, spontaneous, likeable, he loved nature and animals, he played football, he had many friends of his age. Like many young people, he was attracted by modern means of social communication. He was passionate about computer science and, self-taught, he built websites to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values and beauty. One of Carlo’s most significant computer ventures was cataloguing all the Eucharistic miracles of the world. He started the project when he was 11 years old and wrote at the time, “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of Heaven. Love for the Eucharist was the foundation that kept alive his relationship with God. He often said ‘The Eucharist is my highway to heaven.” Carlo died on October 12, 2006. The Church will celebrate his feast day on October 12. In the October 2nd addition of the Mirror, was an article covering Pope Francis’s releasing of his apostolic letter on Sacred Scripture. In his letter, the Holy Father wrote on the history of St. Jerome’s life and his love of the Scriptures. In my homily on September 30th I also spoke to our students of St. Jerome’s great work of translating the Old Testament from Hebrew, into Latin as well as showing his huge commentary on the scriptures. In his letter Pope Francis urged people to read the Bible, the inspired word of God. Just a reminder: I will never email you with a request for gift cards! This is a scam. The thieves that do this are very active this time of year.