News - May 2022

We all need time off to recharge and refresh. Enjoy your respite from your usual work and then plan to rejoin our parish community with a new sense of joy and wonder at God’s gifts to us.

It is clear from the accounts in the New Testament that there were certain highpoints that captured the imagination of Jesus’ disciples in a way that they would willingly have stood still, those occasions when they probably asked “Why can’t it always be like this?”

The image below shows how our parish campus looked in 1955, when all our buildings had been erected except for the new church. Doesn’t it look and feel like something very essential in our lives is missing?

On May 13, a hot Friday evening in the middle of spring, over 400 parishioners, friends and visitors gathered at Chateau Ritz to celebrate our community, to have fun and to raise funds that will enable us to continue our mission of strengthening the Church through the ministries of Word, Worship and Service.

Remember how the basilica ceiling looked in 2017? We know that the last few years have been especially trying times for our parish finances from a major capital repair perspective. We were faced with the sudden and unexpected need to replace the basilica ceiling during 2017/2018, and then to make more extensive than expected repairs to the bell tower during 2019/2020.

It’s here - May, the month in which the earth springs into bloom (at least in Chicago) and we start thinking about planting gardens, family picnics and making vacation plans. It’s also the Month of Mary, the Queen of All Saints, the patroness of our parish. Consider providing for the future needs of our parish in your estate planning.

Happy Mother’s Day! Every culture and nation honors mothers in a particular way. It is because we know instinctively the gift of a mother. It is she who carried us in her womb, our first home, before we were offered to our family and to the world.