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Welcome to the Church of Saint Mary We are a Catholic Church located in Lake Forest, Illinois. We seek to be people empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring the Father's transforming hope and love to all those we touch so that His Kingdom may be realized.

A Note from our Pastor

Peru

Since returning from Peru on July 13, many folks have asked me about the parish mission trip. Our group of 15 people had a very full week in Piura including: constructing eleven simple houses for the poor families; distributing food to the needy, serving a special luncheon for the elderly, and helping with a bible school for children. One parishioner who is a medical doctor very generously treated the sick, some of whom waited patiently for hours to be able to see a physician.

The parish we stayed in, Santisimo Sacramento (Blessed Sacrament) has one priest and 35,000 parishioners. Every evening our group participated in the 7:00pm Eucharist at the parish. The pastor, Fr. Joe Uhen, was an excellent homilist and very kindly spoke in English as well as Spanish for our benefit. Fr. Joe put me to good use during the day. I celebrated the mass in Spanish many times in neighborhoods; brought Holy Communion to 80 people who were elderly and homebound, anointed the sick, visited a hospice and blessed numerous homes.

I was also glad that Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi, who has been a friend to St. Mary's parish for fifteen years, very generously joined our group for a number of activities. He invited us to morning mass at his chapel, gave us a tour of the cathedral, and ate lunch together with us at Madre del Redentor, a house for girls that is doing marvelous work for young women in Piura. The archbishop is grateful to St. Mary's for strengthening our relationship with him and the Church in Piura through this visit. I look forward to welcoming Archbishop Jose Antonio to St. Mary's when he visits us in October.

In 1986 when then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger visited Peru, he celebrated mass at the shrine of St. Rose of Lima. In his homily Cardinal Ratzinger described the Church in Peru as being similar to St. Rose herself: "poor in resources but rich in fervor." I discovered the truth of that statement during our parish mission trip. Peru is a place with extreme poverty and the Church has very limited resources, but faith and devotion of the Catholic people was overwhelming. During the coming weeks I hope to continue to share with you some of what happened in Peru in my homilies, the bulletin and here on the web site. For now, I am grateful to God for the graces of this holy time.

In our Lord,

Father Mike McGovern

Today is .