All parish volunteers need to complete Protecting God’s Children, undergo a background check, and read a few important documents. Please contact Mona O'Bryan at the parish office 815-758-5432 x 102 if you are unsure if you have completed all the requirements or to answer any questions you may have. Thanks for your prompt cooperation with this important US Bishop's initiative.

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“You may recall that the holy prophet Jeremiah was called from a young age and suffered bitterly at the hands of the base. Well do the words of Jesus in the Gospel apply to the life of Jeremiah, who was thrown into a cistern to starve:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”
I don’t know that Jeremiah did a lot of leaping for joy while being persecuted by God’s own people on earth, but we know he leaps now; and no doubt he had his glimpses of God’s glory here on earth as well.
Flowing from his experience in God’s faithful service and inspired by the Holy Spirit, Jeremiah declares: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD…
Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green.”
May the Lord inspire us to trust and always seek Him, undistracted by the machinations of man.

In Christ, son of Mary, 

Fr. Russell