August 22 – Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

This weekend is our parish celebration of “Reunite in Christ” welcoming everyone back to Our Lady of Mercy! It has been a long time since we have been able to gather as a parish family. While variants of COVID remain a concern, under Diocesan guidelines, we are fully open, and we fully implement safety procedures outlined by the Diocese.  I hope everyone has taken the opportunity to enjoy some activities of our “block party” celebrating our oneness in Christ.  Thanks to Doug McIlvaine who chaired the “Reunite in Christ” committee, along with the members of the committee; Fr. James, Deacon Tom, Zara Tan, Phil Zwick, Miroslava Manzanares, and Alex Baier for their efforts to celebrate our welcoming back events.

Also, I want to extend a great big thanks to EVERYONE who pulled together in meeting the challenges to put on our in-person Vacation Bible School August 2 – 6.  Thank God too for the stunningly beautiful weather we had that week!  There were 100 campers!  Thanks to the 25 adult volunteers and 45 tween & teen volunteers who worked with the kids in their various stations.  Thanks to Mary Jo, Jean Palasz, and Len Eickhoff for all the advance preparations and legwork. Thanks to Maybird D’Silva for photography.  And a HUGE thanks to our Art & Environment Committee who made all the props and created the jungle/safari/cave environment to enhance our children in discovering that they are treasure – and treasured by God!

Unfortunately, the Mission Appeal scheduled for this weekend has to be re-scheduled.  The new date is the weekend of September 11/12.  I look forward to my friend Ertha’s arrival and sharing with you her ministry of founding an orphanage and school for impoverished children outside of Duchity, Haiti.  Please welcome her and be as generous as your means allow.  Thank you!

Next weekend (except Saturday 4pm Mass), Fr. Steven Borello, our Joliet Diocesan Vocations Director will give the homily at all Sunday Masses on the theme of vocations.  As we welcome Fr. Steven, please be open to his message on how parishes and families can support vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Have a Blessed Week!

Father Don

August 15 – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Bogusz is in the house!  You may remember that two seminarians from our Diocese lived several months at OLM rectory when their seminary school closed down during the COVID outbreak.  Well, one of them is back to live with at the rectory for a year.  Andrew Bogusz graduated from college seminary this past spring.  It is not unusual for some of our seminarians take a pastoral year before they continue with their formal education for the priesthood. Our Vocation Director and Andrew discerned that taking a pastoral year would be a benefit to Andrew.  During this pastoral year, Andrew is to find full-time employment to become more financially independent. Andrew has computer skills and is completing IT certification, so if you know anyone who would be able to provide him with a job for a year, please contact Andrew at: ht3p1g@outlook.com or 630.853.3676. While working fulltime, Andrew will still be involved in a few ministries such as distributing communion or lecturing.  He also plans to be part of our “Consuming Fire” group – our ministry with young adults 18 – 35.  OLM has become Andrew’s home, as his parents and siblings moved to Florida over a year ago.  We welcome Andrew and support him as he continues to prepare to become a priest.

I am away from the parish this week.  Yesterday I was in Nashville, TN to attend the wedding of Deacon Mike & Laurie Plese’s daughter Michelle. She was married at the Cathedral in Nashville, TN.  Then August 16 – 19 I will be attending a priest pre-retirement workshop held at St. Meinrad in southern Indiana.  This workshop is designed to prepare priests for a variety of new realities when they retire.  I will turn 70 in February 2022, and as many of you know, I plan to retire at the end of June 2022.  The workshop ends at noon on the 19^th. I will drive to Indianapolis and stay overnight, allowing me to visit family and friends before returning in time for our OLM Block Party festivities on August 20, 21, & 22.

Speaking of the Block Party, I hope you are able to come to all or some of the festivities and events.  The Diocese of Joliet encouraged all parishes to join the “Reunite in Christ” effort, appoint a task force, and to hold a special event to celebrate the full re-opening of our parishes. I want to thank our task force chaired by Doug McIlvaine and members Fr. James, Deacon Tom Logue, Zara Tan, Phil Zwick, Miroslava Manzanares, and Doug Baier for their brainstorming and coming up with the Block Party idea.  Thanks to all who have worked with the task force to make the upcoming Block Party a reality. I look forward to seeing many of you this coming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!  And remember, our party is open to the entire Aurora community, as well as your neighbors and friends!  Come, reunite in Christ!

Have a Blessed Week!

Father Don

August 8 – Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mission trips for high school teens are offered at many parishes throughout our Diocese as a way for teens to put their faith in action and grow in their relationship with Jesus.  Just this past July, 47 teens and 10 adult chaperones from Our Lady of Mercy went on a Catholic Heart Mission Trip to Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN doing various projects helping the poor.  From what I hear, they had an amazing experience!

I had that same kind of experience in 2014 when I was pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Naperville. Myself and two other adult chaperones accompanied six teens from St. Thomas on a mission trip to Duchity in Haiti. Haiti is an extremely impoverished country, but to see it in person is soul wrenching! St. Thomas the Apostle parish has had a “twinning” relationship for 21 years with the Catholic Church in Duchity staffed by the Holy Cross Fathers.  The parish operates a medical clinic and school.  It was there that I met Ertha Papilion, who founded and operates an orphanage and school several miles from Duchity. When our group visited, the children were so excited and happy to see us.  We toured the orphanage and school and spent hours playing with the children.  The smiles and joy on their faces are etched in my memory.

In today’s bulletin you will see an announcement that Ertha is coming to Our Lady of Mercy to make an appeal for her orphanage and school.  I ask that you be as generous as possible in making a donation to keep her orphanage and school viable.  The article shows a picture of Ertha and me.  Let me share with you an picture of the children at the orphanage along with St. Thomas teens and the adult chaperones.

Have a great week!

Father Don

August 1 – Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I love to eat!  You can tell that by just looking at me!! I’m about 65 pounds heavier than my ideal weight.  You’ve heard the expression some eat to live and others live to eat – I’m the latter. Being almost 70 years old, I am considered a senior citizen.  I’m wishing that the senior citizen appetite would kick in soon and I too would be taking home a box from the restaurant with half of the meal I didn’t eat! But I still hold what my mother taught….no dessert unless you clean your plate!

Longing for food is more than a popular human pastime.  In today’s first reading the whole community of Israel complain to Moses and express their longing for good food.  They have their new freedom, but the menu that goes with it is sparse. The slavery of Egypt is behind them, but they now remember the country of bondage as the place where “we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat to our heart’s desire.” The Israelites are tempted to make a U-turn to Egypt, to follow the compass of their stomachs rather than focus on the way to freedom through the wilderness.  Slavery with good food looks more attractive to them than freedom of a starvation diet.  God hears the complaints and promises that they shall eat meat and have bread to their heart’s content.

In today’s Gospel, another crowd follow the instructions of their stomach and express their longing for food.  This time it is the crowd of Galileans who, on the previous day, ate to their heart’s content when Jesus offered them a meal of barley loaves.  Jesus tells his hungry pursuers that they are only following him because they have enjoyed the food that physical satisfies – they should work he says, for the food that endures to eternal life.  The one work which earns this food is believing in the one God has sent.  They Galileans promptly ask Jesus for a sign to aid their belief in him – a sign like the manna their fathers ate in the desert.  When Jesus points out that is was God, not Moses, who supplied the manna, he compares himself to the God who now gives bread from heaven.  Jesus declares that he himself is the bread of life, the bread came down from heaven.  Whoever believes in him will never be hungry.

The promise that Jesus held out to the Galileans is one that is held out to us today.  It is a promise fulfilled in the Eucharist we now celebrate.  If there is one thing we all share in this assembly, it is the same hunger.  We hunger for a love that does not disappoint; we hunger for a word that does not fade away; we hunger for bread that does not fail to satisfy.  In this Eucharist the love of a tender God is offered to us in word and sacrament.  In coming here we declare that we cannot fall back on our own resources: we need Jesus, the bread of life, to sustain us!

Have a blessed week!

Father Don

July 25 – Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The first Church-wide celebration of a World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly is today.  Established by Pope Francis this past January, the celebration takes place close to the memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne (July 26), the grandparents of Jesus.  The Holy Father said he instituted the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly because “grandparents are often forgotten, and we forget this wealth of preserving roots and passing on what the elderly have received.”  He emphasized the importance of grandparents and grandchildren getting to know one another, because “as the prophet Joel says, grandparents seeing their grandchildren dream,” while “young people, drawing strength from their grandparents, will go forward and prophesy.”

We have started a grandparent ministry at Our Lady of Mercy and have joined the Catholic Grandparents Association.  For further information and to become involved in our grandparent ministry, please contact Deacon Tony Martini and his wife Allyson who initiated this ministry at OLM.  Deacon Tony: tonym@olmercy.com

Anything on your mind about living in Aurora or the Fox Valley?  Any concerns or issues you would like to see addressed?  I have met a couple of times with representatives from the Fox Valley River Initiative.  This is a relatively new organization to the Fox River Valley area, similar to DuPage United that was formed many years ago to address issues in DuPage County.  One of the best known issues that DuPage United addressed was homelessness in DuPage County, making the public and political leaders aware that homelessness did indeed exist in wealthy DuPage County.  As a result, PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) was established.

Fox Valley River Initiative is seeking input from residents of the area about the issues you feel are important and need to be addressed.  If you are interested in speaking by phone with a representative from the organization, please e-mail me, and I will put you in contact with one of the representatives.

Have a Blessed Week

Father Don