Pastor’s Corner — September 1st, 2024
Thank you, Deacon Dave Carignan!
Last week I announced that Deacon Dave Carignan, one of our permanent deacons at St Pat’s for years now, will be returning to the Archdiocese of Detroit. He will be speaking at the end of Masses this weekend. This is his last weekend. Deacon Dave has been an incredible gift to us at St Pat’s. Coming to us shortly after our beloved Deacon Dave Lawrence passed away in 2020, Deacon stepped in and made himself at home here at St Pat’s. He led our Marriage and Family ministry where we improved our marriage prep and began to offer other events such as Eight Great Dates and the Annual Marriage Celebration. His homilies were always good and his counsel and wisdom he offered to couples was always helpful. We’re going to miss him being around and we sincerely wish him the best. Please thank him and wish him your best when you see him! Please see page 4 of the bulletin for a note from Deacon Dave to the parish.
Warning about Scammers Trying Impersonate Me
It’s time again to remind everyone about scammers trying to impersonate me or other staff members. Last week multiple school employees got emails pretending to be me. Usually such scammers try to get you into a quick back and forth email conversation by saying something like, “Can you talk?” or “I need a favor from you.” Then they proceed to get you to think I’m asking you to buy gift cards. Umm. I’ve never asked anyone to buy gift cards and don’t plan to.
Three things to remember:
1.) It seems people most at risk of getting an email from a scammer is a staff member or a parishioner who has published their email in the bulletin/website.
2.) Our staff doesn’t ask people to buy gift cards.
3.) If you ever get a suspicious email from me or a staff member, please just check the actual email address to see if it is an official email address (stpatchurch.org or stpatschool.org). If it’s anything other than the one that’s posted in the bulletin it’s a scam.
Parish Raffle Tickets and Save the Date
Like the past several years, our Parish Raffle will be held in conjunction with the St Patrick’s Oktoberfest on Sunday, October 6th (2pm-6pm) at our parish school across town. More on the festival later, but just a note to save the date.
I’m really thankful for the Knights of Columbus and the St. Pat’s School Dad’s Club who team up to host this event, administer the raffle, and run the Oktoberfest accordingly. In the coming week or two you’ll be getting tickets for our annual raffle in the mail to purchase or sell for the raffle. Every dollar (after expenses) we raise in our Parish’s largest fundraiser remains at St. Patrick’s due to the generous contribution of Keehn-Griffin Funeral Homes, who has fully underwritten 100% of our sizeable printing and postage expenses.
This is a significant fundraiser for the parish so thanks for your generosity. Everyone’s contribution is valued no matter how big or small.
Labor Day and the Spirituality of Work
During the Industrial Revolution, Labor Day was established in the United States as a holiday to honor and recognize the work of laborers and their contribution to society. Today many seem to miss, forget, or never have been taught this deeper meaning. Instead, Labor Day is seen as merely a day off for BBQs with friends and family or time away. Of course, this time off from work is great and rightly a time of rest and leisure and reminds us that the worker is more important than the work he does.
As Christians we, in fact, have a strong theological and spiritual understanding of work, as revealed in Scripture and the Tradition of the Church. I believe it’s important that we rediscover this meaning as Christians, especially as we co-labor with the Lord in working in creation. In her article, “The Spirituality of Work: Perspectives from Pope St. John Paul II” Veronica Arntz draws out some of these implications, especially in the profound thought of St. John Paul II, who wrote an entire encyclical on work. (This is one of my favorite encyclicals of his).
Regardless of whether or not you like (or liked) your work, my hope is that after reading the article you will come to a greater appreciation of and gratitude for your own work and the great dignity you have in being created in the image and likeness of God.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias