St. Thomas Aquinas Parish

Please join us for Thanksgiving Day Mass at 10am outside at St. Albert the Great.

Dear Parishioners,   In this upcoming Thanksgiving week, I want to send you all a huge Thank You! I probably don’t need to mention that it has been a challenging year for all. It was a great opportunity for me to get to “practice what I preach.” I have shared multiple times in different homilies how important it is to identify positive things even during difficult times. I had the opportunity to do so in a very special way this year. During this year, we stayed together despite the limitation to meet. Many of you reached out offering to help. We were happy to add volunteers in some much needed areas, such as administration, liturgy, bookkeeping, maintenance, property management and faith formation. So many names come to mind that I fear missing any if I try to list them. Many reached out to make sure that I was doing well at a personal level — inviting me for social distance walks, treating the priests with delicious Sundays dinners, and sending cards. We called many parishioners, reaching out to them and making sure they know we care for them. Even during this time of social distancing, I was able to meet new and amazing people. God is good. I am grateful that all continued to support the parish financially. I’m not surprised by your generosity. Many donors even made some larger contributions knowing that the parish needed their support to make it through the year without our regular Sunday collections. There are so many things that I’m grateful for during this challenging year. I want to end this brief thank you note with something that touches my heart every day. Your Faith! Your love for the Eucharist! Since we started the daily Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, I have seen people every single day visiting our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Many expressed their desire to come back to Mass and be able to receive the Eucharist. Many asked to come in and safely receive the Body of Christ. Thank you so much for your faith and love for the Blessed Sacrament. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Happy Thanksgiving. Fr. Stasys, pastor