Dear Parishioners,

It was a great joy for me to see so many of you fill Lux Hall for our Anniversary Dinner last Sunday! I hope you all enjoyed the meal as much as I did. I am deeply grateful to all those who setup and cleaned up and especially to those who organized the event & served the food. They keep asking me not to mention them by name and I want to respect that but I wish I could acknowledge them publicly for all the time & effort they put into such great events. I know that they have your gratitude as well and trust that the Lord will reward them for their good works. But thanks to all of you for your presence and willingness to join with so many others to thank God for all that has gone before us. I will include some pictures here so that all may see that we had a full house & a great time. Thanks also to John Sabol for his presentation on the history of St. Leo’s. I’ll continue to share more of that with you in next weekend’s bulletin.

I am taking my final vacation time for this year as I typically do before the Advent & Christmas seasons but part of it will be spent working…kind of…this weekend. I am currently away in Orlando, Florida for a Good News Conference on Evangelization. I was drawn to this event mainly because of the speakers: Bishop Robert Barron (a name that I hope is becoming more & more well known as a national & international speaker), Dr. Jordan Peterson, a very popular speaker, author & psychologist who appeals especially to young men in their 20’s & 30’s, and finally Tim Tebow, a devoted Christian and athlete whom I can relate to because of my own athletic skills. I may have exaggerated that last bit just a little, but I do admire his faith and witness. So I hope to bring back with me a bit of wisdom and continued enthusiasm for how we can continue to spread the Gospel in a culture that is so opposed to faith in God.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our Thanksgiving Day Mass at 9am this Thursday and pray that you will join me each weekend in giving thanks to God for all His blessings.