CATECHETICAL SUNDAY
“This is my body given for you,” we hear Jesus tell his apostles at the Last Supper; we hear similar words every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. As we celebrate Catechetical Sunday this weekend, with its theme this year of “This is my body given for you,” we recall our Lord giving himself to us for our spiritual nourishment. It is also the only worthy gift we can offer to our heavenly Father in thanksgiving for all that he has given us. What a precious gift we have [...]
INTRODUCING OUR NEW PASTORAL PLAN
After more than four years of preparation, I am excited to introduce our new Pastoral Plan for our parish! Working closely with our Parish Pastoral Council for several years and especially its envisioning team last year, we are now ready to present it to everyone in the parish as we invite you to embrace our three priorities: transformative liturgies, parishioner engagement and faith sharing. We all know that the primary purpose of our parish – like every parish in the world – is to draw everyone closer to God through [...]
CATHOLIC CHARITIES APPEAL UPDATE Every year, you are invited and encouraged to join with all of the parishes throughout our archdiocese in participating in the annual Catholic Charities Appeal and every year you respond with great generosity! Although there are 60 parishes in the archdiocese with more parishioners than we have, only one or two parishes contribute more than we do to this very important appeal which provides a variety of services to people throughout our archdiocese. To date, your contributions to CCA total $107,932, 71% of our $152,390 goal [...]
CONGREGATION OF ROGATIONISTS ANNUAL MISSIONARY COOPERATIVE
"Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!’” (Lk 12:49) we hear our Lord teach us in today’s gospel. As Jesus was sent by his heavenly Father to “set the earth on fire” so he has sent all of us followers to share his saving mission with the whole world. We recognize our missionary mandate – to make disciples of all nations – to be our primary task; every other work we do flows from it. [...]
CHRISTMAS IN JULY – A LITTLE LATE
Due to its ongoing success here, the Bethlehem Carving Group will be returning, once again, to give us a taste of Christmas next weekend. It was originally planned for the end of July but scheduling conflicts led to its postponement to next week! Those of you who have visited our parish center when they have been here in the past know that the Bethlehem Carving Group offers a wide variety of beautiful olive wood carvings and other products for sale. I have invited the Bethlehem Carving Group to set up [...]
PAPAL CONSISTORY
In just a few weeks, Pope Francis is scheduled to preside over a consistory for the creation of 21 new cardinals. This was announced in May and was a great surprise to most familiar with the operation of the Vatican. After all, the Vatican offices are practically closed down in August for the annual Ferragosto, the vacation time taken by many Romans during this, the hottest month of the year. The last time a cardinal was made in August was in 1807 when Pope Pius VII created Francesco Guidobono Cavalchini [...]