From the Pastor's Desk (10/12/25)

From the Pastor's Desk

10/12/25

Jesus, Master! Have Pity on Us!
On this Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, both the Old Testament (2 Kings 5:14-17) and the Gospel (Luke 17:11-19) highlight the relationship between God's healing and the depths of its effects on our lives. Naaman - a Gentile and a leper - requests a cure from the Israelite prophet Elisha. In light of his healing, Naaman is moved to offer a gift to Elisha, but Elisha's refusal to accept Naaman's gift causes him to see the God of Israel as the cause of his cure and his gratitude. Not only does Naaman experience a miracle of healing, but he also experiences a conversion. The cleansing of the ten lepers in Luke's Gospel provides an account of a Samaritan leper who, realizing his healing, stops in the middle of his long-awaited journey to the priests, who alone could declare him "healed" and thereby fit to rejoin the community. Instead, the leper turns around, returns to Jesus- the Divine Physician - falls at his feet, and offers him thanks and praise.

Does our own reception of sacramental grace and healing lead us to be more charitable? Does the gift of the Son and the mercy of the Father bring us into deeper reconciliation and communion? Does the restoration we experience in body, mind, and soul lead us to return to God with thanksgiving? The Sacraments are vehicles of God's own life and healing grace. Because grace is a freely given gift, the reception of the sacraments allows us to receive what the Lord is offering us and be driven by the Spirit to imitate God in all things. The healing that God initiates and intends for us is multifaceted. It is most fully realized in our willingness to allow the Spirit to bring about our conversion of heart.When we encounter the healing touch of the Divine Physician, we are forever changed. (Living Liturgy, Liturgical Press, 2024)

Calling Forth Potential Candidates for the Parish Finance Council
Following last week's introduction to Parish Finance Councils in the diocese, I am now moving forward with the invitation to qualified registered parishioners to consider whether or not they possess the gifts for service on the Parish Finance Council. Please see the following page in this bulletin for more detailed information. The deadline to submit your own name or the suggestion of another parishioner's name as a possible candidate for the Parish Finance Council will be October 31, 2025.

Fall Anointing Mass of the Sick
At Mary, Queen of Saints Parish, we will now have an Anointing Mass of the Sick twice per year, one in the Fall and another in the Spring. At this Mass, in the context of the Eucharist, all who are ill physically or spiritually, are invited to attend and receive the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. This Mass will be celebrated on Thursday, October 23, at 6:30 PM, at St. Frances Cabrini Church.

2026 Mass Intention Book to Open
Please know that the 2026 Mass Intention Book will be opening in early November. This year, we will be returning our former practice of in-person opportunities on Saturday, November 1, and Saturday, November 8, in order to obtain and schedule your Mass Intentions for the coming year. Additional details regarding campus locations and times will be coming next week.

Will You Heed the Call to Serve Your Parish? 
At Mary, Queen of Saints Parish, we often celebrate four to five funeral liturgies every week, and we are in great need of Funeral Mass Adult Altar Servers (male and female) to assist us with these liturgies. My goal is to have trained servers at each of our churches in order to serve the funeral liturgies along with our clergy. It is very unfortunate that we do not have adequate Adult Altar Servers for our funeral liturgies, as this is normal practice around the entire diocese. We will provide proper training and ask that you have flexibility with serving in any of our four churches. If you are interested, please contact Judi Dalton in our Parish Office at 742-775-6363, EXT. 101.

Growing as Disciples
Theologian, professor and author Dr. Scott Hahn has written extensively on what it means to be a disciple and how that naturally translates into being an evangelizer. Ponder his words this week as you seek to grow in your role as one of Christ's disciples: "The New Evangelization isn't just about shipping off missionaries to foreign shores or sending out mendicant preachers to proclaim the Gospel to pagans. Rather, the New Evangelization the work of the whole Church - lay, ordained, and consecrated. It's about friends, family and co-workers reaching out to one another and proclaiming the truth of Christ using all available means conversion, personal witness, media and the vast array of intellectual and spiritual riches the Church has built up in her two-thousand year history. It's about simple acts of kindness, simple challenges issued in love, and simple questions asked with sincerity. More fundamentally, the New Evangelization is more for the baptized than he unbaptized. It's for those who've been inadequately catechized but all too adequately secularized, and it's for those who've been deChristianized in the very process of being sacramentalized. And make no mistake, there are more than a few of those Catholics" (Evangelizing Catholics, Scott Hahn, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2014).