Search
From the Pastor's Desk: October 10, 2021
-
This Sunday, October 10th, 2021, the Diocese of St. Augustine will celebrate the incredible event of Canonical Coronation of the image of Our Lady of La Leche. This rare honor – only the fourth in the history of the United States - bestowed by Pope Francis can be given to crown in his name an image of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or St. Joseph. This particular Canonical Coronation will be given to Mary under the title of Our Lady of La Leche (Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Buen Parto).
“It is fitting that this Mother Diocese of Florida will celebrate the crowning of the Mother of our Lord for her accompaniment through the centuries. The first Christians in Florida, including the Timucuans and Apalachees, had such a love for Our Lady that the recently discovered foundation of a chapel built in the early 1600s was dedicated to her,” shared Bishop Felipe Estévez. “The crowning will be the summit of a year and a half journey of personal and communal consecration taking place in the diocese.”
While many people are familiar with a May crowning that takes place annually in parishes and schools, a Canonical Coronation is different in that it only happens once to this specific image of Our Lady of La Leche. “Once the coronation ceremony takes place, no other crowning of this specific image will occur since the pope, as vicar of Christ and successor of St. Peter, has had placed on this image crowns to symbolize the universal and perpetual nature of the graces that flow to the church from Christ through Mary’s intercession under her title as Our Lady of La Leche,” explained Father Willis.
Last weekend was our Stewardship Renewal Weekend and Ministry Fair when we asked each parishioner to get involved in the parish and each family to return a stewardship renewal form. To those of you who responded, thank you! If you weren’t with us last weekend or you haven’t returned your stewardship form for another reason, please do so today by placing it in the offertory or mail it to the parish office. It is important that everyone respond. Additional forms are located in the gathering area and in the pews. God has granted each of us the privilege of being part of a wonderful, caring and vibrant faith community. This privilege implies a responsibility to share our blessings. Please do your part as a good and faithful servant of the Lord. I’m counting on each and every one of you to be part of the stewardship renewal at our St. Luke Parish. We are one body in Christ, with many and varied blessings. Please respond based upon your individual circumstances to further His work as Jesus instructed us. Sharing your time, talent and treasure not only will deepen your relationship with God, but will make an enormous difference in our parish. I need everyone to participate. As it says in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Everyone must give according to what he has inwardly decided; not sadly, not grudgingly, for God loves a cheerful giver.” I want to thank Rian Ross and the members of the Stewardship Committee for organizing and making the weekend such a great success.
Next weekend our community will celebrate the Patronal Feast of our parish – the Feast of St. Luke. Our main celebration will be at the 11:00 am Mass on Sunday. Our parish picnic, as such integral part of the celebration, will be on Saturday, October 9 after the 5:00 pm Mass. Please plan to join us!
As you may already know, due to the previous company’s inability to meet their contractual obligations for the dates in the contract- November 5-7- we moved our festival to the following weekend, November 12-14, 2021. I very much appreciate your understanding and count on your support for another successful and community building event.
Let us pray that we will continue to grow in our generous relationship with the Lord through the intersession of Our Lady of La Leche and do something beautiful for God with our lives. “Life is an adventure. Dare it.” –St. Mother Teresa
Have a blessed week!
Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us!
With prayers, Fr. Andy
