Dear St. Raphael Parishioners,

All Saints’ Day (November 1) and All Souls’ Day (November 2) are quickly approaching. All Saints Day is not a day of obligation this year, but since our Mass attendance was good on these important days, we will have 7 PM Mass both evenings.

We are now well into our second year with the general medical dispensation excusing most of us from our Sunday Mass obligation. As the Cardinal reminded us this summer, the Church has not changed any teaching on this obligation. We are always excused from Mass attendance when health makes it difficult or hazardous for us. The nature of the Covid situation has extended these exceptions to a large part of the general population. As much as I would like to see more of our parishioners at Mass, I would not want a Sunday Mass to cause an outbreak of infections. I know people who have decided not to get the vaccine, for various personal reasons. The situation is complicated enough to let people keep deciding for themselves.

I am glad that many St. Raphael parishioners are making use of our online giving options. A reminder that our website can easily take over for your weekly envelope at Mass. This applies to parishioners remaining at home, as well as those who come on weekends but simply find online giving easier: no check to write, no envelope to remember, etc.

Bartimaeus the blind man: During my college years about forty years ago, I first read a meditation on this week’s gospel by Saint Josemaria Escriva. There were some members of Opus Dei among my classmates, who often shared their unique spirituality with the other Catholic students they met. Escriva’s words about Bartimaeus are so good that Magnificat magazine has included some of them for this Sunday’s meditation.

In short, the world around us can be like the crowd around Bartimaeus: telling us to keep quiet about Jesus. We live in a diverse society where people can hold almost any belief they want. Society doesn’t mind us having faith in Jesus Christ, as long as we “politely” keep that faith to ourselves. The crowd tells Bartimaeus to quiet down, stop causing a scene, let people safely watch Jesus from a distance. All of us have grown up in a media-driven culture, where we can passively watch whatever video we want in the privacy of our homes. But Bartimaeus understands something about Jesus better than most of the crowd: he believes that Jesus can change his life for the better! The Gospel makes a clever point that the blind man “sees” Jesus more than anyone else.

God bless you all,
Fr. Matthew