This Sunday, our FORGIVEN series from the online program FORMED will be presented from 9:30 – 10:40 A.M. in the Fellowship Hall. It will focus on understanding the sacrament of reconciliation and its transforming power. The love, mercy and joy of God can be experienced. It is an awesome gift given by God freely and no matter what you have done and how long you been away, God will never turn you down. He will wait for you. That is the kind of God we have – a loving and forgiving God.

This week is intended for the parents preparing their children for first communion but the following three weeks on Sunday, it will be open to all adults and the 7th-12th grade students. I encourage you to attend and am sure you will learn something that you will treasure the rest of your life’s journey.

Next Sunday, October 29th, at 3:00 P.M., we will have a joint prayer service with the Trinity Lutheran Church of Freeport, in our parish, to commemorate the 500th Years Anniversary of the Reformation. The pastor of the Trinity Lutheran Church and I will lead the prayer service.

Last year on October 31st, Pope Francis went to Lund, Sweden to preside the opening joint prayer service by the Lutheran Church and Catholic Church to commemorate the 500th Year Anniversary of the Reformation.

During that prayer service, he gave his reflection that focuses on something that unites rather than divides. He said, “As Catholics and Lutherans, we have undertaken a common journey of reconciliation. Now, in the context of the commemoration of the Reformation of 1517, we have a new opportunity to accept a common path, one that has taken shape over the past fifty years in the ecumenical dialogue between the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church. Nor can we be resigned to the division and distance that our separation has created between us. We have the opportunity to mend a critical moment of our history by moving beyond the controversies and disagreements that have often prevented us from understanding one another.”

Following his example, we as a community of believers, show our oneness not only in observance of the 500th Year of Reformation, but also in the call for unity and communion.