 Fr.
Tom's Tomes July 6, 2008
Happy Fourth of July to all! This weekend we celebrate the independence of our nation. Our nation celebrates many freedoms we all enjoy. One of the greatest freedoms we have is to gather to worship the way we choose. It is becoming more and more evident many people who are Catholic are not practicing their faith regularly. In our community of Chillicothe and Livingston County we have many who claim they are Catholic but do not attend Church regularly. I would invite all who are active to begin to reach out and invite and encourage all who are Catholic to attend Church regularly. It may be there are reasons why people are not attending Church regularly and it would be important to encourage them to make the necessary efforts to reconcile them to the Church community. There are different paths for people to follow to become reconciled to the faith community and it would be well to encourage them to make the necessary steps to do so. This week Vesta Smith died. She was buried in St. Columban Cemetery. While out at the cemetery I was looking around at the lawn and the neatness of the cemetery. There is still a concern about placing flowers and things in front of the grave monuments. The graves where there were not any obstructions in front of the grave looked so much nicer because those who cut the lawn could mow right to the monument. The graves in which there were things placed in front of the monument looked less neat since the areas was not trimmed as nicely. Last weekend when I was spending some time with my mom we went to the Catholic Cemetery in Loose Creek, Missouri. In that cemetery you could have flowers in permanent vases and flowers to be placed on the top of the monument in some kind of a bouquet. The cemetery then developed an area in which other types of flowers were placed. I am going to present to the cemetery board the possibility of developing an area around the gazebo where all flowers and decorations placed on the grave and not either in the permanent vases, on top of the monument, or on a shepherd’s staff will be placed. The cemetery board has a policy where items are not to be placed on the grave to help with the neatness of cutting the grass. Please help the cemetery out and remove all the things which do not correspond to the policy of the cemetery. It would make a lot of difference in the look of the cemetery if the mowing could be done without all of the obstacles in the way. God bless you and have a good week. |