Your response last week to our request for prayers for young Lila Giroux was wonderful. Lila, who has a menacing brain tumor as I announced, is the 15-month old daughter of Mike and Nicole Giroux and little sister of three-year-old Braden. Many of you came out for our vigil Sunday evening, and many others have given her your time and prayer.
As of Wednesday, when I write this, Lila had full open-brain surgery on Monday morning on order to perform a biopsy. The surgery and medications were hard on her, but she is recovering well from that. The full result of the biopsy will not be known until the weekend, though the surgeon was guardedly optimistic. Since the growth is not removable by surgery, the best case would be for it to be treatable with chemotherapy alone, rather than radiation. Questions remain, but we are hopeful.
Mike and Nichole were at the hospital rather than the vigil, but were grateful to hear of the love and support that came from you. They count on that support and prayer, as they wait to find out what Lila’s prognosis really is, and continue down that long and challenging road. Grandmas have appeared and food supply has commenced, and if you want you can offer to help with necessary logistical support. For the moment, though, the pressing need is for ongoing, large-caliber prayer support.
Many of you have sought follow-up information, and are continuing to follow up with persistent prayer. What I will do in order to make the basic news available to you is to post any significant news on our parish web site. The site is still quite new, and many of you do not even know of it, but this is as good a time to test it as any. You will find us at www.silverspringcatholic.com, and I will post any messages at the blog marked: Pastor’s Corner. Why they put me in a corner, I’ll never know, but it’s cozy.
The new website is the work of parishioner Kathreja Mills, and makes our ‘web-presence” much more representative of our community and faith. You will find much useful information there, not least of which will be Holy Day Mass times. It’s not absolutely complete yet, but neither am I, so why wait for that? Head on over and have a look around.
Speaking of heading over, make sure you do precisely that today for our Fall Festival, Sunday from one to five. The range of activities is expanded this year, and even though I write on Wednesday, I have complete confidence that the weather will be perfect. As usual, I charge you with the daunting task of introducing yourself to someone you haven’t met before, maybe even more than one. Find out about the terrific people who make up our parish community, and welcome our many guests as well. We can’t in good conscience keep all this goodness to ourselves!
God bless you all for your prayer and concern, and may He help us all to grow into the family of faith that He calls us to be
Monsignor Smith
