Dear Friends,
Happy Sunday to each of you!
Please be sure to sign up to bring something to the Parish Pot Luck Supper next Saturday evening. This is a great opportunity for us to spend time together as a faith community. Please make every effort you can to attend!
Also, the diocesan Office of Family Life is with us again to facilitate sign ups for our Marriage Enrichment Program. Once again, I ask our married couples to consider signing up for this four-part program that highlights Christian virtues in the marital relationship (please see the full-page ad in this bulletin).
On Friday and Saturday (October 7-8), I’m away from the parish visiting an old college friend and his family in Somerville, New Jersey, and leading a retreat at his parish. While I’m away, Fr. Timothy Gahan is covering Confessions and Masses. Father Gahan is one of our retired diocesan priests. He was a “late vocation,” having served in the US Marines and retiring as a colonel. Father Gahan was a widower when he entered the seminary and is a father and grandfather. I think you all will enjoy meeting him!
Some of you may have heard that I’ve been selected by Governor Nikki Haley to receive the Order of the Palmetto, which is South Carolina’s highest civilian honor. The award is being given in recognition of my previous work in the Vocations Office where I ministered to local communities throughout our state and developed programming to develop virtue and leadership among our young adults. I’m humbled by this honor while also being very grateful that the work of the Catholic Church is being recognized in our state. The private ceremony will be held on October 11 at the Statehouse in Columbia. The parish is hosting a congratulatory reception on Thursday morning (October 13). I hope many of you can come.
Thank you for the work that many of you are doing here at Our Lady of Grace… we are truly building on our past successes and entering a New Beginning together!