Dear friends,
It is hard to believe that we are well into the month of October already; plans are being made for Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas! November is the month of Remembrance and, in anticipation of All Souls’ Day, All Saints’ Day, and Remembrance Sunday, we want to complete the project we started last year in creating a Book of Remembrance of past parishioners of Saint Thomas Church, and their families and friends. Praying for the dead gives great comfort to those who are bereaved, and once a month (usually on the second Saturday of the month unless displaced by a Feast Day) we have a requiem mass offered for those who died in that month of the year. The Book of Remembrance is important because it means that we can pray for people on their Year’s Mind, and pray for all the names on All Souls’ Day (November 2). We encourage you to send us names of loved ones and former parishioners ideally with the date of their death so that we can enter them into the Book. By the time we reach the Bicentennial, we hope to have a beautiful memorial book created that can be brought to the Altar each Remembrance Sunday. The Book is currently available at the reception desk of the Parish House. Alternatively, you can email us names with dates and we will enter them for you.
As we think about Remembrance, November also sees Veterans Day and Remembrance Day in Europe. It is some time since we updated the list of members of our parish or their families who are in active service as members of the armed forces. If you have a family member who is currently in the armed forces, please let us have their names so that we can regularly pray for them. You can email those names to my assistant, Lizette Hernandez.
Affectionately,
Your Priest and Pastor,
Carl
