This weekend we are celebrating the Ascension of the Lord. In the Acts of the Apostles it is mentioned that Jesus was seen by his disciples for 40 days before ascending into heaven. Many of us are old enough to remember celebrating the Ascension on a Thursday, 40 days after Easter. That is still the practice in some parts of our country. However, most of the US bishops agreed to move the celebration of the Ascension to a Sunday so that we would have bigger crowds of people here to take part in the Mass.
Our parish is still in an excited state over the ordination of our two parish seminarians last weekend. Deacon Sam Martinez will spend the summer at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish and Deacon Noah Isch at St. Vincent in Elkhart. They will both return to Maryland in the fall to begin their last year of seminary formation. Their priesthood ordination is scheduled for June 6, 2026.
As we are thinking of priesthood ordinations, we are also called to pray for the two young men who will be ordained priests in our diocese this week. On Saturday, June 7, Deacon Andy Barnes and Deacon Nick Monnin will be ordained priests at St. Matthew Cathedral. Andy spent the summer of 2022 at St. Charles and was a great presence in our parish. Sadly, that was the infamous Covid summer and many parishioners probably never saw him without a face mask.
Next weekend we will celebrate Pentecost, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. I remind everyone of the annual Pentecost collection for seminary education. The cost of tuition, room and board for our seminarians is very high. This very important collection helps to cover those costs. Along with this collection I would point out also an endowment fund which we are trying to build for this same purpose. The goal of the endowment is to have a large amount invested so that the earnings on that investment can be used year after year for seminary costs. For information about the endowment fund, go to the diocesan website, click on “Support the Diocese”, then “Catholic Community Foundation”, then “St. John Paul II Endowment.”
The Knights of Columbus are hosting another blood drive next Saturday, June 7. Since this is summertime and our school cafeteria isn’t air conditioned, we be using the facilities at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, just south of St. Charles on Reed Road. If you would like to sign up, go to redcross.org. The sponsor code is knights451.
Fr. James will be leaving us on June 17. We will have a reception for him in the Hession Center after the 11:00 Mass on Sunday, June 15. That Sunday is Father’s Day, but a good time to remember that he has been a Father for us for these past 18 years.
