8/21/2022

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake,

Many thanks to Jenn Tedora and our other parents who helped carpool our youth group out to Lost Nations. We had a great morning for our hike and Mass down by Sile Doty’s cave. Several of the guys helped pack in the table and Mass kit. (As Fr. Joe would say, carrying what we need to celebrate Mass for a mile is worth a lot of Jesus points!) Exploring the cave afterwards was also really fun. I was particularly impressed that over 20 of the group fit in at one time! I hope to make this an annual event. We will be announcing dates for upcoming youth group events this fall.

We are celebrating back to school this weekend with a blessing for all teachers. We will bless our teachers at the 9:30am Mass at St. Mary on the Lake and at the 11am Mass at Sacred Heart. We have so many parishioners who work at Sacred Heart and many of our surrounding community schools. You are a great blessing; please know of our prayers and gratitude for you! I am looking forward to school starting again - a bunch of happy, hollering kids on the playground is great background noise to have.

One of my favorite stories when I think about the role that a teacher plays in your life came a couple years ago. I happened to meet one of my grade school teachers from my Catholic grade school. It was really good to catch up and hear how she was doing. What stood out to me from that encounter though was the realization that I was now significantly taller than her. Yet in my mind’s eye those roles are reversed and she is the one I am looking up to. Powerful indeed is the role you play!

God Bless,

Fr. Todd