It was pointed out to me that the month of August has many saints’ feast days that are the patrons of our parishes in the S7 Family of Parishes. I checked for myself and was surprised to see that 5 of our 6 parishes could claim a saint’s day during the month of August!
We begin with August 11, the feast of St. Clare. Next, we have August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (falling on Monday, so not a Holyday of Obligation this year). Next we have the feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux on August 20. On August 22, we have the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary (between the Assumption and this feast of the Queenship, I definitely think we have Mother of Christ covered!). Finally, as if there were not enough of our saints’ feasts already, we celebrate the feast of St. Bartholomew on August 24.
An idea for people who might want to grow in appreciation of the patron saints/feasts of the parishes of our family: look up and read a little paragraph or two about each of them. It is not too soon for us to think about ourselves as one big family.
-Fr. Umberg
