From the pastor’s desk—Oct. 3, 2021

Fr. Ray Smith, CMF
Parochial administrator

Dear Sacred Heart Family,

Something very special happened last week at Sacred Heart. If you were with us last Sunday, I am sure you saw the first of our Festival of Nations celebrations. In efforts to keep our community safe, we are spreading out the celebration over 3 Sundays with all the hallmarks of our regular celebration with international foods, music, dances, and vendors and extra space for social distancing. Last week we highlighted the cultures and food of Mexico, El Salvador, Sweden, Peru, and Ecuador. This week we will focus on Spain, Germany, Italy, XXXXXX, China, Mexico, and Egypt (dance).

What continues to make these moments so special is not just the food, music, or dance, but that we come together as one family more aware of our great and beautiful diversity. Our diversity is not just a pretty Hallmark moment, but rather the building blocks for our faith as Catholics. This unity is the fruit of the prayers we make at Mass and the fruit of living in the world what we do at the Table of the Lord.

Our diversity makes present another spiritual gift in our midst, one St Paul spoke about. God has given each of us different gifts. St Paul refers to spiritual gifts of teaching, prophecy, preaching, and serving, but as we have seen, these gifts can also be cooking/baking, dancing, serving, and cleaning. It is my hope that the coming months will give time for more of our parish family to share their dreams and gifts with our community.

One such gift that is starting in our parish is an Outreach committee which has hopes to serve the marginalized in our community from refugees to the hungry and homeless. Another gift will be our parish council that hopes to realize Bishop’s Rice vision for becoming an evangelizing tool in our parish.

Perhaps the greatest gift yet to happen at Sacred Heart is yours. It is my hope that new ideas will be met with an attitude of, How can we make that happen? And although we cannot be all things to all people, I like to think that if the answer to your dreams is not yes, it will at least be not yet rather than a simple no.

For now, let us build on this dream from the Festival of Nations, let us strengthen our common bonds and appreciation for one another, and let us invite others to share in our joy.

All for Jesus with Mary,
Fr. Ray