Fr. Todd 8/17/25

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake,

            Fr. David is back now at St. Anthony’s from his military training.  Fr. Paul is now taking off for his annual retreat with many other priests from his order (they are gathering down in Texas).  After that retreat he will be off to India for well-deserved vacation time with his family and community.  He will be back with us the last week of September.  Thank you for your patience as I have been running back and forth between our parishes.  I look forward to having time to actually visit with people after Masses once we get back to the regular schedule in a month.

I am getting excited for the walking pilgrimage next weekend, August 23^rd.  We will leave Sacred Heart at 8am to walk the 11 miles between our parishes.  We will have a parishioner shadowing us along the way with water, Gatorade, and a porta-potty along with providing a ride if needed.  There will be hot dogs at St. Mary’s.  If you plan on attending, please let the parish office know so we have a rough estimate for food.  (If you forget to let them know, just come anyways!  There will be enough food.)

This pilgrimage is an especially great opportunity to pray.  We all have people and situations that can weigh heavily on us.  As we walk and pray, we

are walking with the Lord interceding for those people and situations.  I hope to have one of my sisters with a number of my nieces and nephews campout at the rectory on Friday and then join us for the walk on Saturday.

It is hard to believe we are only a week away from school starting.  We will have our pre-K open house this Wednesday evening and the open house for K-6 on Thursday evening.  I am very much looking forward to having everyone back around.  Please keep our students, teachers, and administrators in your prayers as we enter into the new year.  Every school day begins with morning prayer.  The entire student body fills the upstairs hallway – know they are praying for you and your intentions.  If you have particular intentions, please let the school know and our prayer warriors will go to work for you.  When it comes to the mission of our parish the school is a central part of it – through it our students and families are rooted more and more in the Lord even as they receive a great education.

Speaking of morning prayer – a reminder that Fr. Paul and I pray morning prayer together in the Church at Sacred Heart at 7am on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  You are welcome to join us.  We are praying morning prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours (the prayers every priest and religious promises to pray and are prayed by many lay people as well).  If you download the iBreviary app on your phone you can jump right in with us.  Morning prayer takes roughly 10 minutes.  We have a few high school students who come and then head off to school along with some who join us right before heading to work.  It is a nice way to start the day.

God Bless,

Fr. Todd