9/20/24 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: 2024 OLP Fall Fest!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

At the Our Lady of Peace Fall Fest last weekend my sister shared a memory of her late husband, Rich from many years ago. They had just moved to Clintonville. They lived within walking distance of Immaculate Conception and found themselves at IC’s summer festival. Rich, who had been raised as a Methodist, saw people drinking and gambling and dancing and just having a good old time. He looked around at all the merriment in the church parking lot and remarked, “This is a great religion!” 



There is, of course, much more to being a Catholic than partying in our respective church parking lots, but it certainly is a perk of being a member. In a society that devalues the sense of neighborhood and community, festivals are a way to bring people together and encourage people to spend their entertainment dollars for a very good cause. Festival funds help pay to enhance the place where we come together to celebrate Jesus Christ. The festival is a celebration then, that enhances the real celebration of God! 

The Our Lady of Peace Fall Fest was a wonderful event. Moving our parish festival to this time of year is brilliant. Although the weather was hot when the sun was up, as the night progressed it was like hanging out on a California evening of a perfect 72 degrees. 

What struck me this past weekend was how everyone from the Festival Committee that has worked for hundreds of hours in preparation and execution of the event to those who put in a two-hour shift, did so with joy. Smiles were the order of the day. Parents of our students and PSR program, parishioners old and new, faculty and staff of the school and parish, students, from our 8th graders making popcorn and shaking lemonade like master bartenders to kindergarten students actually running the kid games, Father Tennant, sitting in our Human slot machine booth, twirling his arms and holding up a piece of fruit; these are the fond memories of the Fall Fest. Building His Kingdom takes on many forms and duties. On September 13 & 14 it included calling bingo and serving soda and taking out the trash and counting money and setting up and tearing down. 

We call Our Lady of Peace Parish and School Our Life-Giving Parish. First and foremost, we are here to know about our God, to worship Him, and to celebrate liturgy and sacraments with each other. But we also need to sustain each other in our journey through life. Working together at an event such as our parish festival helps us to get to know one another and to feel connected, to bind our single-family community into a larger community of people who are there for us no matter what is going on. When we see each other in church or in the car line or at the grocery store we have shared experiences watching our children interact at the duck pond or supervising the silent auction or carting a heavy wagon full of spirits around our parking lot or giving out tickets or wristbands. An added bonus is that once you have worked together in a booth on an asphalt parking lot, it might make it easier to pray together 

I pray for those who don’t have the opportunity to be in such a life-giving community as Our Lady of Peace. I pray for us who share that sense of community and who know that we” consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Hebrews 10 24-25). 

Just remember the pizza sale is coming up! Guido needs a lot of help for that one as well! 

Jim Silcott