I’d like to start my words today by wishing a very Happy Veterans Day to all the veterans of our parish. We owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude and appreciate the sacrifices you made for our nation. I assure you of my prayers today and each and every day.

In our troubled world, I find that I appreciate our veterans more and more. Perhaps you do too. My experience with veterans over the years is that they tend to be level headed and ready to help at a moment’s notice. I see this in many of the veterans I know in our own parish. For this also I want to thank these fine men and women.

You may notice our ushers counting the crowds at the Mass this month. The reason is that our bishop asks that each parish conduct such a count at every Sunday (and Saturday evening) Mass during the month of November. The diocese uses this information for a number of reasons, such as deciding how many priests to assign a certain parish. It is also a measure of a parish’s vitality. (P.S. That being the case, this would be a good month to make sure we all get to Mass regularly!)