SJB's 50th Anniversary

Dear Friends in Christ,

During the past several months our 50th Anniversary Committee has been meeting to plan and execute the events of our parish’s 50th Anniversary. We are a community of faith and so these events are divided into two categories, community-building and spiritual. Of the community building events, we have already had some movie nights and other events are planned for the next several months.

This weekend we are holding one of our spiritual events, the consecration of our parish family to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Let me explain briefly what this means. Mary is the mother of Jesus who is God, the only-begotten Son of the Father. Therefore the One who is son of Mary is also the Son of God because He is one Person. Therefore the Council of Ephesus in 431AD declared Mary to be the Mother of God. With such an exalted position Mary is greatly favored by God. We recall that the angel called her “full of grace”. The intimate relationship Mary has with God makes her especially capable of helping us. Even though she is now in heaven body and soul, she continues to be watchful over the children Jesus entrusted to her as He died on the cross. We can think of the great Marian apparitions over the past centuries, Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima. Mary’s message in these different places is one of maternal care and a call to prayer and penance. She has shown herself a true Mother who looks after her children and leads them directly to her Son.

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest from Poland who died a martyr of charity in the concentration camp of Auschwitz in 1941. St. Maximilian was a true spiritual son of Mary Immaculate and promoted devotion to her through the “Militia Immaculatae” which he founded
in 1917. Through communities called “cities or villages of the Immaculate” he consecrated entire groups of people to Mary as her disciples. The mission of these groups, which exist in all parts of the world, is to assist Mary in spreading the Gospel for the salvation of souls. One of the ways to achieve this is through consecration to Mary. Consecration makes us dedicated disciples of Mary who leads us to Jesus and forms Jesus in us through her powerful intercession. In this way we become apostles sent out to lead more people to Christ and advance the triumph of the Sacred Heart on earth.

May our parish consecration to Mary bear much fruit for the greater glory of God and for our salvation.

Sincerely yours in Christ and His Mother,

Fr. Hildebrand