Pastor’s Corner — August 31st, 2025
Parish Raffle Tickets, Oktoberfest and the “Golden Ticket”
Everyone should have received your Parish Raffle Tickets in the mail. Like previous years, our Parish Raffle is drawn at the end of our St Patrick’s Oktoberfest, on Sunday, October 5th (2pm-6pm) at our parish school across town. I’m really thankful for the Knights of Columbus and the St Pat’s School Dad’s Club who annually team up to administer the raffle and run the Oktoberfest Parish Festival.
This year we have a special “Golden Ticket,” which is a play off the time a couple of years ago I dressed up as Willy Wonka. (Yes that is an actual picture of me on the Golden Ticket). Someone asked me recently that if they won, would they have to cook. No. Whoever wins will be treated to a catered meal with Fr. Joshua and me.
Thank you to everyone who has turned in their tickets already this year. The St Pat’s Raffle is an important parish fundraiser. Remember every dollar (after expenses) we raise in this Raffle comes back to the parish, thanks to the generosity of Keehn-Griffin Funeral Homes, who covers 100% of the printing and postage costs of all of the tickets.
Thanks ahead of time for selling and/or buying and turning in the stubs at the barrels at the Church entrances!
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 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 simply because you were created in the image and likeness of God.
Next Sunday’s Canonizations by Pope Leo XIV
This upcoming Sunday, September 7th Pope Leo XIV will be canonizing his first nine saints. Among them are two of the most popular “Blesseds” for the youth: Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Both of these men died young, age 15 and 24 accordingly. Carlo Acutis will be the first millennial to be canonized. Having died young, both of them are models for the youth of how to pursue holiness in the modern world, loving God and loving their neighbor. For more information on this canonization see this short video (3:23).
What are the Five Steps of Becoming a Canonized Saint?
1. Gathering information: First, the person’s local bishop will examine their life (after their death) by gathering evidence of their faith and any writings they may have written. If the bishop finds them to be worthy of being a saint, he submits the information that he gathered to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
2. Investigation: Second, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints can choose to reject the application or accept it and investigate the person’s life. If the application is accepted, the person may be called Servant of God.
3. The person is declared “Venerable” Third, if the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approves of the candidate, they can choose to declare that the person lived a life of heroic virtue. This isn’t a declaration that the person is in heaven, but that they pursued holiness while on earth. If this is indeed found to be the case, the person may be called Venerable.
4. The person has a miracle attributed to them and is declared a “Blessed” and beatification is granted. Fourth, to be recognized as someone in heaven requires that a miracle has taken place through the holy intercession of that person. The miracle is usually a healing. The healing has to be instantaneous, permanent, and complete while being scientifically unexplainable. A group of independent doctors must first verify miracles as scientifically unexplainable. After that, theologians then approve the person, and the final approval rests with the pope. When these conditions are met, the Church will declare the person a “Blessed.”
5. A second miracle is verified, and the saint is declared a Saint. Fifth, a second official miracle is needed in order to declare someone a saint. The confirmation of a new miracle goes through the same scrutiny as the first.
The five-step process is a general outline for how someone becomes a saint. There are exceptions to this process and specific situations that may change the process as well.” (From FOCUS Website)
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias