Monday evening, Nov. 10, we will have a presentation on Funeral Planning. Join us in the Hession Center at 7 p.m. Karen Hope and I will be joined by a funeral director from Divine Mercy Funeral Home. We will talk about the theology of Catholic funerals, guidelines on cremations and burials, funeral liturgies at St. Charles, and the many decisions a family faces at the time of a death. It can be a great act of kindness to a family if most of those decisions have been made in advance, reducing the strain on a grieving family. You may want to schedule a meeting sometime with a funeral home or with Karen to make plans now. I have my plans complete and my cemetery plot is ready to go. I don’t plan to use it for another 30 years, but the Lord might have different plans.
The St. Charles priests are covering a lot of out-of-town parishes this week. We are helping with Masses at Churubusco and Ege this weekend and next, with daily Masses at Auburn during the week.
As part of the diocesan Synod, we will have a Parish Consultation at St. Charles on Sunday afternoon, February 22. On that day we will have parishioners seated at tables of eight to give their thoughts on where the Church is excelling and where the Church needs to give more attention. Each table will have a note-taker and a time-keeper. If anyone would like to be a very early volunteer to serve as note-taker or timekeeper, let us know. The diocese is having a training session for those roles by livestream this Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 4 p.m. This training is being offered now because other parishes are doing their consultation events this fall.
Several of us from St. Charles traveled to Kokomo last week as the Bishop of Lafayette accepted the vows of Sister Maria Laetitia, formerly known as Karen Robertson. Karen was a St. Charles parishioner and a widowed grandmother who joined the Poor Clares some years ago. She belonged for many years to the monastery at St. Andrew’s in Fort Wayne. When our local monastery closed, the sisters moved to a monastery in Kokomo. The Poor Clares are cloistered, leaving their monastery only for medical needs. The word Laetitia is Latin for joy. It is a perfect name for Sister, one of the most joyful people I know. We continue to pray for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Many thanks to all of the workers who made our parish Trunk or Treat and our Craft Show a success. There are a lot of committed people putting in long hours to help.
