Dear St. Raphael Parishioners,

Angels and Archangels: This past Thursday, we celebrated the Feast of the Archangels; Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Since St. Raphael the Archangel is our patron, the Mass that morning was celebrated as a Solemnity. The Mass for a solemnity has prayers and readings that focus on the specific celebraon that day. Maybe by next year, when the downstairs remodeling is complete, we might be able to have a small get-together after Mass on the 29th. Our church’s cornerstone also has this special date as the church was dedicated on that day in 2010.

I forgot to mention the Feast of Archangels in last week’s column, but there is another reason to discuss angels this week. This Sunday, October 2, is normally the memorial day of Guardian Angels. However, when a Church memorial falls on Sunday, the usual Sunday Mass takes precedence. So on the average, a memorial gets dropped from the liturgical calendar once every seven years. Such is the case this year, but I did not want the week to pass without mentioning the place angels have in Christianity. Some relevant trivia in our parish: the statue of St. Raphael near the northwest corner was converted from a guardian angel statue. This was not hard to do because St. Raphael takes the role of guardian in the book of Tobit, his only mention in scripture. Guardian angels are a belief based on Jesus’ own words, but they don’t have names. While the Church encourages this devotion, it should never be seen as competing with, or separate from, the basic message of the Gospel.

With St. Raphael as our patron, I hope our parish is a place where Catholics understand angels and give them the proper respect. Angels should not be ignored or treated as a superstition. Nor should we let some “new age” spirituality treat them as something they are not. They are servants and messengers of God, perfectly obedient to His holy will.

St. Francis Blessing of Animals: The traditional blessing will be held after the 11:00 Mass this Sunday. Dogs tend to predominate, but through the years I have blessed a variety of other animals. Still no horses or cows yet.

Bible Study: The study guides for 1st Corinthians have come in, and over twenty people have signed up. We will have our first classes either this week or next, depending on how many of you are ready. Please let me know your preference this weekend.

Vacation: I plan to be on vacation next weekend. Our usual visiting priests will be here for Masses. Please make them welcome.

Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers: For the next 3 months, Communion Ministers still need to sign up by logging in or calling Sandy Czerwinski at the office. By January, we should have the software automatically filling the Mass schedules. We would have switched to the auto-schedule by now, except that many Sunday Masses this Fall have already been filled.

God Bless, 

Fr. Matthew Kowalski