The parish is the place where Jesus touches our lives through the sacraments, especially through the Eucharist which we receive weekly, while some receive daily. Jesus is the center of our life and in the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation we meet the loving and forgiving God. 

As you will see, our parish is involved with the activities of many people and we try to share the responsibility of stewardship by committing our time, talents and treasure.  Please consider one or two areas of service in which you will be able to serve.  In this way, you will be serving the Church and making this parish your own.  Remember the familiar saying, "Many hands make light work."

Thank you for visiting our parish and I hope you have many years as a member of our special community.

Sincerely in Christ,

The parish community of St. Matthew

Our Mission

St. Matthew Mission Statement:    
We, the members of the St. Matthew Parish community being many parts but one sacramental body, are sent by the love of God to make Christ present in the world. 

Declaración de la Misión de la Parroquia San Mateo:  
 Nosotros, los miembros de la comunidad parroquial de San Mateo, siendo muchas partes, pero un solo cuerpo sacramental, somos enviados por el amor de Dios para hacer presente a Cristo en el mundo.




From Our Pastor:


Tomorrow, July 21, I head for New York to attend an annual workshop with some of my brother priests.  They are from all over the United States, and sometimes come from other countries.  We are all members of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.  Our time together is meant to help us live our vocation as priests in the middle of the world, right in the dioceses where our Lord has put us.  This is a little different from the Carmelite priests who served our parish so generously in the past.  They were members of a religious order, living the Carmelite spirituality.  In one sense, a person with a religious vocation hears God call them from their family into a new religious family. I grew up in the Joliet diocese and it seemed that God wanted me to serve him right here.  Bishop Imesch was kind enough to receive that call and ordained me to serve in our diocese, my home diocese.  Diocesan priests try to follow Jesus in their priestly work and in many ways are just like you because we serve in the middle of the world.  This annual workshop is an opportunity for me to gather together specifically with other priests who are trying to do the same.  We are trying to let God make us into the saints he wants us to be.
 
So we center our day around the Mass, much as I did before I was ordained.  We set aside some time to talk heart-to-heart with Christ; I used to do this on the Metra when I attended UIC.  We study some of the ‘professional’ side of our priesthood; I used to study engineering.  We share our meals together with some conversation afterwards, very much like my family growing up.  These all might seem like simple and ordinary things to do, but as I learned from reading St. Josemaría Escrivá, ordinary things are extremely important to God.  Listen to how he describes it:
 
God is calling you to serve him in and from the ordinary, secular and civil activities of human life.  He waits for us every day, in the laboratory, in the operating theatre, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home and in all the immense panorama of work. Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it.
 
So the idea is not just to live this way for the time of the workshop, but instead to pick up good habits of staying close to our Lord every day.  Also, the idea is not just to live this way with a group of priests, but to live this way every day as pastor of our parish and with my brother priests in the diocese.  This is crucial; in my opinion, the painful wounds of clergy abuse were due to isolation from brother priests and from the most important brother, Jesus.  The evil one isolates us; Jesus unites in a loving joyful, communion.  So please pray for your priests and please pray especially for your pastor while I am away.  You will not be so far from me, since I will remember you during my daily Mass.  I entrust the parish to Fr. Rogelio’s hands during my absence, and we are blessed to have Fr. Richard to help, also.  I look forward to seeing you when I return on August 1.
 
With my prayers,
 
Fr. Jerome