Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Priesthood Sunday Next Week
Next weekend we will give thanks to God for establishing the holy priesthood for the upbuilding of the Church.  Our Diocese is blessed that we have a diocesan seminary where men are trained as priests within their home diocese.  Our bishop is showing continued faith in our seminary as he is investing further resources in it to provide holy priests for the future.  It is for the renovation of the seminary building that the Heart of Shepherd Campaign is underway (more on that in the coming weeks on how we can participate). We are also blessed that a seminarian will be with us that weekend to speak at the Masses.  He will be available after the Masses as well to answer questions and receive your expressions of appreciation. 
St Mary Seminary website - https://www.stmarysem.edu
Borromeo Seminary website - http://www.borromeoseminary.org

On that note, if there are any young men who are interested in learning more about the seminary, vocations, and how God is calling you please call me this week.  We can set up an informal meeting with our guest seminarian to answer questions.
Check out this website for more - https://clepriesthood.org

Also, we have parishioners including myself who are Serra club members.  The Serra Club is named after St. Junipero Serra, a missionary priest to the western coast of our country.  They aim to help people grow in holiness by fostering priestly and religious vocations through prayer and support. Check out this website and consider becoming a member - https://serraus.org

Parish Council
This weekend our parish council members will be available after Masses.  They will be in the narthex with name tags. Feel free to get to know them and share your thoughts on how our parish can grow in fulfilling its mission. Also don’t forget we have the suggestion boxes for you to drop a note, but please include your name and number! We aim to follow up with people’s suggestions.  Anonymous suggestions cannot help us.

Synod on Synodality
The Holy Father has called for an extensive period of focusing on “synodality” within the Church. There is a diocesan phase or listening and participation which will prepare bishops for a synod in Rome next year.  Check out this website for more info.  There will be updates from our bishop as well moving forward.
https://www.synod.va/en.html

“By walking together, and together reflecting on the journey made, the Church will be able to learn from what it will experience which processes can help it to live communion, to achieve participation, to open itself to mission.” - Pope Francis


We Got a Couple but Need Some More
Since I have included the request for volunteers the past couple weeks, we have had a couple responses, which is great!  But we could use a few more - Don’t be afraid! Each of us has gifts that God can use for the upbuilding of the church.  Perhaps He is calling you to be an usher or lector at Mass.  Maybe you would like to join our wonderful sacristans that help prepare the vessels for Mass and clean up afterwards.  Perhaps you are partial to laundry?  Volunteers are needed to help launder the altar linens.  For younger folks, serving at the altar is a possibility.  We are in need of money counters to track the collections (the commitment for this would not be every week, but monthly) that come in from our generous parishioners.  Keep praying on it and call the rectory for more details. 

Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Pfr