Fr. Tom’s surgery is rescheduled for Tuesday, April 28, 2020. Hopefully, there will not be another delay.

Please pray for the team of doctors and Fr. Tom for a successful surgery. Continue to pray for Fr. Tom’s quick recovery.

April 21, 2020

Dear Sacred Heart family,

I have been quarantined since December, and it is nice to see I have had such an influence on so many of you that you have joined me in quarantine. LOL. Seriously though, these are certainly unprecedented times and I pray everyone is doing well and getting the support they need! These past several weeks I have had a great deal of time to pray and reflect. There have been challenges – having such a long wait for heart surgery, $10,000 stolen from my bank account that will not be returned, my car stolen and a close friend passed away from Covid-19. Despite all of that I am filled with great Joy and complete Trust in our loving God. I strongly pray for those who stole from me and others like them. It deeply saddens me that they would Jeopardize their souls for so little. I long for them to know our immensely merciful and loving God and be the beautiful gift each of us our created to be for this world. May they know they are beautiful, and they matter!

I am also so keenly aware that so many have far more difficult trials and crosses than I. I am so Blessed. Perhaps it is the grace of the Easter season and the fathomless gift of Divine Mercy, whose feast we celebrated this last Sunday. We are Blessed, all of us! I hope this quarantine has not gone by as an opportunity to just exercise more binge watch movies and TV. I hope it has not been lost on immersion in technology. What a wonderful time to be with family and friends, even thru technology, and share laughter, love, hugs (virtual) and tears. What an opportunity to read, reflect and pray. To be silent and still with our God. Each of us can make the world more beautiful right now simply by smiling. I pray we all emerge from this difficult time free of the virus known as selfish indifference. May there be an emergence of caring, compassion and love. May so many feeling the sting of hopelessness be addressed by our equal eruption of hope. May our selfless love and charity be immeasurably more contagious than any pandemic. We need to avoid the fears that blind us to the needs of others who share our same needs! Let us prevent the anxiety from extinguishing genuine concern for neighbors. We should wash our hands but not in the way Pontius Pilate did with Jesus, exclaiming, ” I am innocent of the blood of this just man. The responsibility is yours!” As we emerge from this pandemic, unlike Pilate, let us not wash our hands of the responsibility towards the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, the refugees, the health providers and first responders; Indeed all people and our God created world around us.

In such times the true heart and character of a person emerges! We must realize that there is not a light at the end of the tunnel but that we are the light! As venerable Carlo Acutis expressed, “Our goal must be the infinite and not the finite. The Infinity is our homeland. We are always expected in Heaven!”

I humbly ask for your continued prayers as I now proceed with surgery on April 28th placing myself in the trusting arms of Our Heavenly Mother, St. Joseph and His Divine Mercy. Please pray also for the surgeon and his team as well as the nurses caring for so many. I continue to pray for all of you especially with the Rosary and the Holy Mass. God Bless and belated Happy Easter!