Faithful can subscribe to the notes by contacting the parish office and providing their email address. Thanks for your support of our border town parishes!!!

We need volunteers to help at our Border Town Picnic! If you can help set up, clean up, run games, and join our soccer team to face off against our “evil nemeses,” the soccer team from St. John Paul II Church in Kankakee!!! Please call (815) 472-2864 for more information and to volunteer.

Excerpts from Fr. Pete's Homily This Weekend...



Last week. I had the opportunity to travel to Good Shepherd Manor in Momence, Illinois, to offer a committal service for two gentlemen who had died in 2020 but were not able to be buried until recently because of the COVID lockdown in the country. One name of the gentleman was Steven and the other was named Homer (or Buddy).

At the committal service, I was told a little bit about the history of Good Shepherd Manor. I was told that the facility initially served a different group of young men, specifically those high school students who considered a religious vocation in their lives. I was told that from 1933-1973, the St. Jude Society of the Chicago Police Union supported this campus as St. Jude Seminary for high school boys considering the vocations of the priesthood and religious life. With the financing of the Chicago Police Union, this seminary was established and served the faithful for some forty years. I was told that one of their benefactors at the seminary was the Hollywood actor Danny Thomas (of “Make Room for Daddy” fame), whose devotion to St. Jude extended not just to this seminary but to a hospital that still is functioning in the spirit of St. Jude. Danny Thomas held an attachment to the life of St. Jude's which was present in this part of the world.

As with most high school seminaries (including both Quigley seminaries in Chicago and the high school seminary I attended in Madison, WI), they could not sustain themselves – after the sexual revolution of the 60s and the prohibitive costs involved with Catholic education, the attitudes of our society changed and with that change the desire for priestly vocations began to wane. The same fate resulted in the closure of college seminaries and even Catholic grade schools, which will become even more evident in an abbreviated time, as the Reid organization continues to restructure the staffs, churches and schools throughout this diocese, the same fate that has taken place throughout the country

That all said, what Good Shepherd Manor represents is so important to us. The grotto where we celebrate this weekend’s outdoor Mass (weather permitting) served as a spiritual oasis in the 1920s and is one of the few buildings from the original St. Patrick’s Campus that exists today. Because of the generosity from the family of Steven Loftis, Momence Pallet and a couple of anonymous donors, we have been able to host a picnic to celebrate this holy ground on which we celebrate our community Mass, where hundreds of young boys and girls used to live and study and play and pray!

That all said, if we can do what we can to sustain what we have, we show God and this community how much we care about what has been afforded us and we show God that, on the last day, we honestly can say that we love God and love this community by the way we offer our time, talent and resources to preserve what has been given to us.

Over at St. Anne's this year, their church building marks the 150^th anniversary of being built by those that came before us. Recently, our local Kankakee paper chronicled the rather unique life of former excommunicated pastor Charles Chiniquy, who initially brought the Relic of Saint Anne from Quebec, down to the location that now bears the saint’s name. We learn that after being excommunicated, Chiniquy sued the Catholic Church for possession of his building; it is said that his lawyer was a young upstart named Abraham Lincoln. After Chiniquy prevailed and kept possession of the Church he built, the good Catholic in the area regrouped to establish a church that served as a home for a Novena that just passed its 142^nd year. We are hoping that Bishop Ronald Hicks will conclude this year of celebration with a Mass in honor of the Church on December 4, 2022 at 9:00 a.m.

Over at St. Patrick’s, we just passed the 100^th anniversary of that church building and will approach the 100^th anniversary of the grotto in 2026. As I reflected on the family base of St. Patrick’s, I could not help but reflect how, in the parish’s 1991 Photo Directory that we placed online, the book was thirty-three pages long; in 2016, the book only contained nine pages. The challenge we face in today’s age is to sustain what we have and rebuild our parish family base to show God that we have not lost the faith but wish to reestablish it as a whole.

For this reason, we wish to reestablish a community picnic to remind ourselves that we need to come together as a body of Christ, as a family of faith.. This Catholic Church was never about what God can do for me. In the Catholic faith, Jesus died on the cross, which symbolizes the marriage to his bride, namely to all of us as a united group of believers; this Church is supposed to be about what God can do for all of us together.

The purpose of this weekend’s endeavor specifically was to raise funds and raise awareness that our gymnasium has no bathrooms for our seniors or those with special needs. Every time we have a major function in our gymnasium, groups are forced to rent port a potties so that folks do not have to climb to flights of stairs to use our locker bathrooms. I am told that the building that we have outside of the schools is the largest building on the property that can house seniors and there is no way many of our seniors would be able to climb these stairs.

Conventionally, the creation of first-floor bathrooms would cost us $75,000, according to architect Richard Snyder of the Diocese of Joliet – he was kind enough to create a blueprint of what design he would offer if he were assigned to this project. Rick Preston and the Golf Outing Committee raised $20,000 toward this cause. Our hope this weekend is to raise awareness of our situation so that we can both preserve our gym and help those in our city who would need those bathroom facilities in emergency and social situations.

Regardless, let us remind ourselves of those who sacrificed for this community for the sake of God and this Church. Let us do our part by sustaining the beautiful worship and social spaces those before us sacrificed to give us. Let us do this together by coming together as a body of Christ and doing what is right and good for the sake of the people that we mee. This is our prayer.

Our Mariachi Group

from 11:30 - 1:30 pm!!!

Our Food Vender for the Picnic!!!

ONLINE VIDEOS THIS WEEK

WATCH THE MASS THE 21st SUNDAY

OF ORDINARY TIME ONLINE

RECORDED AT ST. ANNE'S CHURCH, ST. ANNE

At this Mass, Fr. Pete uses a baseball analogy to speak about good work in the Church - less than 20% of those registered at any given parish support their local community and if one out of every four activities turns out successfully, a baseball player would hit .250 and make millions of dollars; a faithful Christian would consider themselves blessed that some of the seeds planted into the ground bear fruit!

To get your Catholic Daily Reflections (based on the scripture readings of the day), CLICK HERE!!!

To view the Readings and Petitions for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (in English & Spanish), CLICK HERE!

The Estate Planning Seminar with Jackie Bruhn will take place as part of the St. Patrick’s CCW Mass and Pot Luck Dinner on Tuesday, September 13, starting with a 5:30 p.m. Mass and the pot luck and talk from Jackie afterwards. All are invited!!! (State Bank will provide the chicken). Jackie will speak on “Three documents which every person should have. Proper ways to give a gift to my church."

At St. Anne Catholic Church: Jackie will speak after the 5:00 pm mass on Wednesday, September 14 in the church on the topic “Three documents which every person should have. Proper ways to give a gift to my church”.

Please disregard all electronic and post card mailings about Estate Planning so that you may come to this event instead.

1973 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1981 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1986 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1993 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2004 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2010 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2016 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1960s St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

1970s St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

1989 St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

1998-2004 St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

For weddings and such, Fr. Pete offers a special blessing on the first Sunday weekend of each month and is willing to purchase an Apostolic Blessing for anyone who asks (and if he can afford it... since he pays out of pocket!!!).

If you are interested in receiving an Apostolic Blessing, you can do so by clicking the link below or by calling the parish offices.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR OWN APOSTOLIC BLESSING!!!

To View St. Patrick's Bulletin for

August 13-14, 2022



CLICK HERE!

To View St. Anne's Bulletin for

August 13-14, 2022

CLICK HERE!

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR SICK: Mary Kay Blankestyn, Elizabeth Rademacher, Ron Gall, Carmen "Butch" Florio, Cynthia Vickery, Joanne McCracken, Karen Hensa, Irene Budz, Robert Marcotte... and all those on our sick list.

At St. Anne's... Eva Bell, Paula Bertrand, Lola Billings, Duane Blanchette, Cheryl Boswell, Patrick Burns, Cindy Capriotti, Jesse & Ashley Childress, Abraham Daily, Tom Dandurand, Aria Dionne, Teresa Dionne, Carol Futcher, Raelynn Garrett, Jack & Lucy Houk, Val Lagacy, Bentley Lottinville and Linda Miramontes.

At St. Patrick's... N. Atkinson, R. Bailey, D. Barth, Beetle Family, D. Brown, B & T Cantwell, M. Cantwell, E. Cirks, M. Clocksin, E. Coffman, S. Conner, M & D Cousin, M. Cruz, A. Delaney, D. Demack, M. Dionne, J. Dobbins, E. Duke, D. Dunlap, G. Field, C. Fritz, R. Gall, J. Gilbert, J. Grill, R. Harper, D & L Haut, Fr. Hessling, J. Hibbs, D. Hiller, R. Ilg, C. Jones, L. Kane, R. Kazee, K. Kelson-Laney, A. Kijewski, L. Lanove, L. Lee, L. Leranth, E. Lopez, B. Love, W. Marten, L. McNulty, L. Mercado, R & V Morse, C. Ortman, C. Palider, C. Piec, C. Provost, R. Rehmer, S. Rehmer, P. Reising, D. Roberts, A. Schaff, D. Schmied, T & J Settles, K. Simpson, B. Siwicki, B. Spagnola, M. Tolbert, M. Tolmer, H. Tousignant, M. Tedford, M. Velazquez, G. & L. Vlach, M. Williams, M. Witherspoon, C. Woosnam, S. Young, A. Zimmerman, M & L Zink and G. Zokal.

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR BELOVED DECEASED: Viola "ViAnn" Rehmer (Funeral on August 25th at St. Patrick's - 11:00 a.m.) & Robert Marcotte (Funeral at St. Patrick's TBD)

Click Here for the Parish

Registration Form in English

Click Here for the Religious Education Registration Forms FOR BOTH PARISHES

Click Here for the Time

& Talent Form in English

Click Here for the Link to All the Parish Forms

Help support our parishes buy purchasing copies of Fr. Pete’s Homiletic Books! You can purchase them at the parishes or online at Amazon.com!

Cycle A Homilies - Cycle B Homilies

Cycle C Homilies