Dear Parishioners,
At our parish’s First Communion last month, I pulled out during the homily some of my favorite gift cards–Lou Malnati’s, White Castle, Portillo’s, Dairy Queen. However, the best “gift card,” I told the children, and the one that never runs out, is their First Communion banner. If we receive the Eucharist every Sunday, our souls will be made stronger and stronger, and our bodies too will be healthy. We can’t say the same about regular partakings of Dairy Queen or Malnati’s. Also, our taste in the Eucharist never changes. Or, if it changes, it’s only for the better. When I was in 2nd grade I liked chicken McNuggets. Now, I don’t really care for them. My taste has matured (arguable, I know). But with the Eucharist, as I’ve grown older, my “taste” or appreciation for communion has only grown.
Dear Parishioners,
A parishioner recently gave me the 2023 book, The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man by David Von Drehle (thank you, Jane). The author tells the life story of Charlie White, a doctor from Kansas City who died at the age of 109 in 2014. Charlie lived through the century that experienced the greatest amount of change in human history, everything from the airplane to penicillin to the computer.
Dear Parishioners,
I jotted down these words from our patron, St. Paul of the Cross, when I read them in his Pentecost letter dated May 22, 1730:
“Then rejoice, and let us be inflamed the whole day with love and become all aflame. May the flames penetrate the marrow of our bones! O dear flames, O sweet fire, Oh! when shall we be so afire that we inflame one another!”
Father James Wallace grew up in Winnetka, Illinois and attended Sts. Faith Hope and Charity grammar school, New Trier High School, and then The George Washington University in Washington DC, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science in 2007. He attended seminary at The Pontifical North American College in Rome and was ordained a priest in 2012 for the Archdiocese of Chicago. In addition to being the pastor of Saint Paul of the Cross Parish, he serves as a canon lawyer for the Archdiocese, a dean in Vicariate II, and a professor of canon law and spiritual director at Mundelein Seminary. He is also one of the featured Mercy Home Sunday Mass celebrants, airing Sundays at 9:30am on WGN.
Phone: (847) 825-7605
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