October 11, 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters, It’s hard to tell sometimes based on the temperature, but I’d say that fall is officially here! Between seeing the leaves falling and the seasonal decorations, we’ve arrived to a new time of year. And with the season of the harvest, there’s a lot to celebrate at St. Thomas! The main thing I would like to highlight is that this weekend is our annual Stewardship Sunday. We are blessed to be able to celebrate a wonderful tradition of good stewardship at this parish—I’m always struck by how it’s literally part of our mission statement: sharing “our time, talent, and treasure.” For everyone who is so committed to being a good steward, thank you for all you do, and I pray that your generosity brings you as much joy as it brings to the rest of our community. This weekend’s Gospel gives a good image of how generosity works. God is generous to us, and he invites us to join him in that same largeness of spirit. And the positive cycle of open-heartedness, when everyone shares what they have, brings us to an experience of celebration—the “royal wedding feast” of today’s Gospel. I think there’s an important reason for why Scripture gives us this image: joy always wants to be shared. Just think about a time when something good happened in your life that filled you with happiness. I bet that for most of us, our first reaction was to tell a friend, maybe by picking up our phone and giving them a call, or even unexpectedly showing up on their doorstep! Joy has a way of overflowing out of us, and happiness shared is happiness doubled. So to our whole parish family, thank you for your generosity, in so many ways. Let’s resolve to experience God’s joy as a community, as we share what we have and participate in the life the Lord gives us together. As we celebrate together this Sunday as a parish family, please know of my prayers that God will fill all of us with joy, this season and always. Through the intercession of Our Lady of Joyful Hope and our patron St. Thomas, we rejoice in God’s goodness. God bless,

Father Jantz