Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

A Blessed Feast of Corpus Christi to you!

Recently I was distributing Holy Communion to the faithful at Mass and someone knelt to receive Our Lord. Since I know this person, this thought flashed through my mind, “what a gift to be able to be on our knees before the love of our lives”. Immediately, that thought was followed by the image of a man on his knees with a ring in his hand before the love of his life!

Everybody knows what that picture means: man, kneeling, ring, woman clasping hands to face in joy! It is unmistakable! If you saw an engagement picture without the knee bent, you might/should look side-eyed to see why not!

If we can get on our knees to profess our undying love and give our lives to the beloved, then why not for Jesus? In Holy Communion, you are saying “yes” to Him who has given His life for you, and giving your life in return back to Him.

I know that most parishes don’t have kneelers available. I can’t change the world. I can’t even guarantee that the next pastor will keep the kneelers for you.

I also am glad that you, the people of St. Mary’s, don’t look sided-eyed at each other to measure who stands and who kneels. In the current discipline of the church, it is an option, one not often supported or encouraged, but an option to kneel nonetheless.

The ONLY measure that matters for each communicant is the measure of your loving response to Jesus. Because we are beings whose nature is to have a body and soul, yes, our postures matter but do not exclusively determine our receptivity.

The communicant who sparked this reflection is a ‘regular’ Catholic, and I have witnessed her devotion grow over the last few years. One of the elements that allowed that to grow, was giving her the option to receive kneeling if she wanted. As pastor, that put a smile in my soul and on my face.

Kneeling before the love of your life? You betcha!

Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar! Blessed be Jesus, the deepest desire of your soul!

pax et bonum,

Father John Mosimann

One more message penned from Ireland. Thanks be to God for the amazing weather. We were blessed with 11 days of sunshine and temperatures from 65 to 72. I don’t think I have been in a spot with more consistently beautiful days. I guess that means this is my one and only trip to Ireland, b/c this is not the usual weather pattern!

And returning to a busy weekend! Holy Cross Academy graduation was Friday night, priest ordinations are Saturday (yes, we will be getting one of the newly ordained), and now this weekend I get to give you an update on the Capital Campaign!

An hour before beginning to type this, I got word that our Capital Campaign hit $5 Million pledged! Wooohhooo!!!! So much good work, and a little more to go to fully fund our identified needs. This is why we need everyone to participate.

Why have we built this campaign on visiting everyone who will let us? Let me share one tidbit from the survey. For folks who have received a visit, their understanding of HCA & St. Mary expansion & finances:
Greatly Improved 63%
Somewhat Improved 24%

Did not change 12%
Somewhat deteriorated <1%
That is a really high success rate and tells me we are on the right track with helping all to make an informed and prayerful decision.

Moving into the summer, we are now going to offer group meetings. Many parishioners expressed a desire to meet with others, and not in a one-on-one setting. So now we are offering these over the summer! We hope that this will allow us to reach each family to prayerfully consider joining our winning effort to “Grow Our Legacy of Faith”!

Yes, I will still be doing a number of individual meetings, because that allows me maximum time for social interaction with those who are willing to mix in a bit of feasting and conversation with the business side of the visit. I have truly treasured the time I have been able to spend with parish families during this campaign.

So that’s the big news! $5M success, and moving to the next phase where we offer group meetings in addition to the individual family visits!

See you back home by the time you are reading this!

pax et bonum,

Father John Mosimann