This parish amazes me for its generosity. We have had a number of opportunities recently to share with others who are in need, and Saint Rose has responded: the offerings for the Holy Land, for disaster relief, for seminarian education, as well as the food drive are but a few examples of this generosity.

I need to ask for your generosity again, as you are able: this time for the needs of the whole parish. Saint Rose has been able to keep operating without any major cuts throughout the pandemic, even though we have experienced some "dry" times of offertory collections over the summer. Here at the end of the year, you have the opportunity, if God has given you the ability, to put us back on our feet financially as a parish.

I love the holiday of Thanksgiving mainly because I love the act of thanksgiving. Saying thank you is one of the most important things that we can do in all of our close relationships and especially in our relationship with God. Thanksgiving is one of the fundamental and necessary forms of prayer. During the pandemic, I also find thanksgiving to be a way to rise above the grind of Covid anxiety and fatigue.

How does thanksgiving help so much? It is really very simple. To give thanks you have to get out of yourself. Thanks is given to someone else. You have to be thinking of someone else. Getting out of ourselves is the fundamental spiritual struggle. It is what the devil cannot do. He cannot stop thinking about himself. That is hell!

What are these words? They are the names of our new youth groups for young men and women, beginning in sixth grade and continuing through high school. Fraternus means "brotherly", and Fidelis means "faithful." Fraternus encourages the involvement of fathers and other men, just as Fidelis includes mothers and other women in their programs. The idea is that these are young men and women in formation for Christian maturity and virtue. Models of that life are important to those in formation. 

I have had personal experience with these programs in other parishes, and I can personally endorse them as both solidly Catholic and fun. Yes, that is possible! I encourage all families and young people to explore Fraternus and Fidelis. You will not be disappointed.

Pope Francis has extended the plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead for the entire month of November. We will have a parish visit to Evergreen Cemetery on Saturday, November 14 at 1 p.m. to pray for the dead and to bless the graves of any loved ones buried there. We will pray for all the faithful departed wherever they may be resting awaiting the resurrection of the body at the Second Coming of the Lord! Please join us for another spiritual life experience as a parish.

Faithfully,

Fr. Baker

The name of everyone in heaven begins with "S" for saint! That's right, there are nothing but saints in heaven, and you have to be one before you get in! So we had better get to work. Or rather we had better let God work on us because we will never do it on our own. If you die before you are a saint, then that's what purgatory is for, but I would rather go straight to heaven. Wouldn't you?

Even among Catholics, you sometimes run across the sentimental idea that everyone who dies goes straight to heaven. But "going to heaven" is not a trip with a destination. It is a way of being being a saint, that is. You can't fake being a saint! Either you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind or you don't. Our hearts, minds, and souls have to be filled with the love of God that is given to us by the Holy Spirit.