St. Gertrude Catholic Parish

I want to tell you how these last weeks have been for me. My heart, which now has four stents in the surrounding arteries, was doing back flips and hummingbird imitations during the great party/Taste of Gertrude/talent show/dance on June 3. Huge portions of love, talent, food, emotion, and elegance provided me with a big [...]

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So the days dwindle down to a precious few ¦ Joe Swearingen goes off to God. The summer solstice comes as Joe goes. The longest day. Our longing (what a strange word for such a plangent feeling) for summer and what it brings. All of this is the background white noise for our entrance [...]

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¢ We never heard anything about your father. Early on (age 5) you were sent to a convent/orphanage and you never wrote about your parents. So Happy Corpus Christi. I know you loved the Eucharist. ¢ Fr. Dominic Grassi visited on Monday. He had a chance to talk to the staff during the week. He [...]

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I can’t tell you how exciting it was for me this past weekend. It was Pentecost of course, but the parish used the time as a farewell saga which went on and on, full of great talent, deep sentiment, and a lovely kiss-and-hug. My pulse rate went ballistic and my tear ducts went into overtime. [...]

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Pentecost reminds me of all the Spirit Award recipients around here. We have about 150 people over the years who have received the revered award. They have lifted our hearts and raised our spirits. Their example showed us what church is all about. They ran blood drives, coached teams, organized some social action, did the [...]

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Did the folks up there change dates to celebrate the Ascension on Sunday? Some of the dioceses here did, including us. Others said if Jesus did it on a Thursday we are going to stick to Thursday. You never know.So I saw the DaVinci Code - along with a lot of other people. It is [...]

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What we should have with a gospel like the one we read today is a chance for everyone to put in their two cents about what love is and how they see love changing their life. Most of the time people talk about love in very general terms and since it is such an individual [...]

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I was going to tell you about the great generosity of so many donors who made the Northside Catholic Academy fundraiser two weeks ago so successful. I started to write a list of the donors but it was so large it would not fit into this note. Hence the insert. What a display of support! [...]

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Did we have a fund-raiser for Northside Catholic Academy! and! You wouldn’t believe what a fun time and perfectly planned event we experienced last Saturday at the Simpson Building of Loyola University, corner of Sheridan and Winthrop. So first of all let me tell you who coordinated this Taste of NCA: Elizabeth Boccio-Hunt, Rose Cancilla, [...]

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On the window sill of my bedroom, two mourning doves (also called turtle doves) have built their nest and furnished it with one egg. For the past six days (I’m writing this on Sunday last) they have taken turns sitting quite contentedly , waiting for the crack. It has been such an honor to have [...]

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