Milagros Ramos

This year's summer mission will take place July 8, 9 and 10, with the theme, "Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive."

The theme was chosen by the Pontifical Council for the Family for the World meeting that will take place in Philadelphia next year, Sept. 22-27. The mission will begin on Tuesday, July 8 at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, 328 Washington St., Dunkirk, and continue in Buffalo on Wednesday and Thursday at Holy Cross Church, 345 Seventh St., beginning each night at 6 p.m. and ending at 9 p.m.

The preachers for the mission include Father Alejandro Roque, OMI, who has recently moved to our diocese from Texas as the director of the pre-novitiate for the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and resides at Holy Angels Parish in Buffalo. He has been a pastor at various parishes in Florida and Texas for over 20 years. Father David Muñoz, OMI, the parochial vicar for Holy Cross, Holy Angels and Our Lady of Hope, will also be preaching during the mission.

We have the Sierra family from Holy Cross Parish who will be giving a witness on "From the Dinner Table to the Table of the Lord." Deacon Alejandro Manunta from Holy Angels Parish, the Office of Cultural Diversity and director for the radio program "Bajo el Manto de María" that airs every Sunday on Catholic radio station 101.7 at 4 p.m., will preach on "The Mission of Family in Evangelization."

The mission is an opportunity to come with your family and neighbors to join with other families in the diocese to encounter faith-filled experiences shared by God, Our Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit through God's instruments of preachers, witnesses, liturgy, devotions, sharing, music and food. For those families who already are close to the Lord it is an opportunity to share Him in community. For others, it is an opportunity to meet the Lord, personally. The mission will end on Thursday night with Eucharistic Adoration.

The mission is an invitation to help families grow more spiritually. We were all given as families to be a community that can help change this world into becoming a better world. If the families are better equipped with love, and share the love of Christ with others in our society, we can become a family fully alive and help other families do the same.

Bring your lawn chairs. Come as early as 5:30 p.m., and we will provide hotdogs for the families. There will also be clown ministry and face painting for the children.