Dear Parishioners:
What a day last Sunday! Your prayers for good weather worked as our First Annual Parish
Family Picnic saw spectacular weather. We also saw well over 600 people come together to celebrate as a parish family. Father Shemek reports that his 50 pounds of cabbage and kielbasa went very quickly along with his hundreds of Polish Potato Pancakes. We served nearly 900 cups of ice cream too! It truly was a great afternoon of good times, good food and good fun.
Fr. Shemek and his hard working Picnic Committee did a great job getting it all organized and 
provided us with a wonderful parish event. In your name, I offer thanks and gratitude for their tremendous job of organizing this great day in less than a month. Many parishioners asked if we would be doing this again. Yes, it will be an annual event to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy for our entire parish. The OLM Picnic Committee is meeting soon to review this year’s picnic and plan for next years. If you would like to help or take part in the planning of next year’s picnic, please let Father Shemek know.
I invite all our Catholic lawyers in the parish and all those who work in the legal community to come to the Annual Red Mass at the Cathedral on Wednesday night at 5:30pm. Many lawyers and judges will gather to invoke the blessings of the Holy Spirit for the judicial year. This year’s homilist is my good friend from Brooklyn, New York, Monsignor Kieran Harrington. It is a great event and I encourage you to attend especially if you are a lawyer. Also for those parishioners who are physicians and work in the health care field the Annual White Mass is scheduled for Wednesday, October 10th at 7:00PM. I encourage our many OLM doctors and nurses to go to this special event for Catholics who work in the medical world.
It’s hard to believe that October is upon us already and that autumn is here too! It is a month dedicated to devotion to our Blessed Mother Mary and so we will continue the tradition of October Devotions on Monday nights at 7:00PM. Why not skip Wheel of Fortune and join us in praying the Rosary and adoring the Eucharistic Lord? Devotions are a important part of our Catholic tradition and I encourage you to come on Mondays this month. If you wouldn’t do it for the Mother of God, then who would you do it for?
October is also Respect Life Month and so I ask you to pray for an increase of respect for the sanctity of human life and human dignity. There is great need of this in our world where there is too much disrespect for human life and too much violence. Pray for life! I will be away next weekend to perform a wedding in Scranton, Pennsylvania. God Bless. Go Pats!