These unique times require unique and often repetitive messages of parish communication.As I have stated many times before, and please spread the word, our Parish and Academy websites are the best vehicle to not only become updated on parish information but to access all kinds of spiritually enriching resources.
I hope that you know, and please spread the word, that all of our bulletins can be accessed in their entirety via the website. The simplest way to access the website is to Google Holy Family Inverness and the website will pop, or simply type in holyfamilyparish.org
Some recent news and information that you may find helpful includes:
The weekend of September 19 & 20 we will begin to accept 90 reservations for Mass which will allow approximately 190 people to attend. Reservations can be made through the website or simply by calling the main office at 847-359-0042
Fr. Kurt Boras will be moving into our rectory soon. As a reminder, he will be a resident priest with us while his full-time ministerial responsibilities will be with the Archdiocese as one of the Vicar for Priests. Fr. Kurt will be celebrating Mass and other sacraments with us periodically as he takes the next month to move in and then fairly regularly after that.
Fr. John Hoffman will also be celebrating Mass and other sacraments with us periodically. John is
retired after many years of service to several parishes in the Archdiocese, most recently as the Pastor of St. Francis Xavier in LaGrange and the Administrator of Church of the Holy Spirit in Schaumburg,
Please mark Saturday, September 19 from 1-4 pm on your calendar. During that time you will be asked to drive through our parking lot to see some of our staff and to receive a packet of information with suggested activities designed to be shared and to enkindle in us some hope, which I believe we all need these days. You may recall that we had a major spiritual and grace filled two-year all parish pilgrimage planned that was to begin next weekend. That program has been postponed, and until we can offer that we want to engage all of our community in some spiritual activities urging us to have hope. More details will follow, but please mark the date for this “Pilgrim Parade” at Holy Family.
From the proclamation of this week’s Gospel from Matthew, we hear Jesus urging us to forgive from our heart. May I suggest that the heart of the forgiven must be moved more than the heart of the forgiver, but the heart of the forgiver often initiates reconciliation. Profound forgiveness is a matter of heart to heart, sincere, genuine, spiritual reconciling.
Racism Education
In our commitment to address many issues of Racism in our world, we will continue to provide resources for you both here in my article every week and in Sue Geegan’s Human Concerns articles, in addition to those found on our website. Just below our parish statement on the Sin of Racism is a bar marked “Click here to view our Educational Resources.” I’m sure you will find these resources helpful.
One way to begin this information sharing is defining key terms. A second click under the Educational Resources on Definition of Terms will give you the definition of many words related to racism. They include:
Colorism – prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group
Please consider supporting the additional collection this weekend for Catholic Charities that is normally taken up on Mother’s Day. Catholic Charities of Chicago provides 153 programs in 154 locations throughout Cook and Lake counties, serving virtually every neighborhood and parish in Chicagoland, assisting more than a million people providing food, clothing, shelter and counseling bringing hope to the hopeless in the city and suburbs.