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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Happy Labor Day Weekend! I hope that you’re getting out
there at some point this weekend and enjoying our last long weekend of the
summer of 2009. Have one more slice of watermelon, drink one more glass of
lemonade, and go for one more walk with the sun shining on your face. Summer is
too quickly coming to an end. Let us enjoy what’s left of it!
As you heard last weekend at all our Masses, and saw on the
posters that up are up on pretty much every door in the complex, we are now
ready to shoot our fourth Parish Pictorial Directory. We have tried to do this
every three years since becoming and independent parish in 2000. And it’s that
time once again. I am asking every family, every household, and every
individual to make a commitment to having their picture taken for the Pictorial
Directory. We need EVERYBODY! Our Pictorial Directory is of greater value with
each and every picture that we add to it. Yes, I know it means a special trip
here to the Parish. Yes, I know that it is going to take an hour out of your
already busy schedule, by the time you get here, get signed-in, get your picture
taken, review which picture you want put into the book, and get back out of
here. And yes, I know, that if some of you are like me, you may not like to get
your picture taken, but this is to help all of us to get to know you. It’s one
thing to see your name and address in a book. It is a whole lot better thing to
be able to see your picture WITH your name and your address, and be able to get
to know one another better. These Pictorial Directories are such a big help to
building community and getting to know one another. You should see the one that
I use every day! And I’ve been to enough of your homes and seen some of your
past pictorial directories, to know that you use yours as much as I use mine!
PLEASE go on-line today and sign up for your appointment to have your picture
taken this fall! St. Maria Goretti has always had an amazing rate of
participation in the shooting of our Pictorial Directories. While other
parishes can only seem to get 25 to 30% participation, this effort has always
been important enough to us to get 60 to 70 % participation! Wouldn’t it be
great that this time we got even high participation?!? We need everybody! This
weekend and next weekend, we are going to offer sign-ups for photo appointments
after all Masses in the church narthex. These sign-ups are specifically for
those who don’t have a computer, or can’t go on-line, or who need assistance
with things electronic. The on-line sign-up is temporarily suspended this
weekend and next weekend, to accommodate the sign-ups after Masses. The on-line
sign-up will re-open on both Mondays. This is to make sure that we don’t have
people signing up for the same time slots here at church and at home on their
computers. If you have questions about this massive effort, you can contact the
amazing Marilyn and Joe Corbett or the awesome Helen Brown, who are heading up
this effort this time around. There contact information is listed inside this
bulletin. Please help us to make our Parish Pictorial Directory as complete as
possible, and sign-up today to have your picture taken with your family. We
would love to have our college students also included. There are dates to
coincide with fall breaks and even Thanksgiving break. We would like to have
all the pictures taken for the directory by Dec. 1st,
with delivery of the books in February or March of 2010. Family portraits
ordered for Christmas cards and/or Christmas gifts, will be delivered in time
for Christmas. Every family who participates will receive a free Parish
Pictorial Directory AND a free 8 X 10 copy of their family photo. Please, help
us out.
Next weekend, the St. Maria Goretti Parish Council is
once again sponsoring our annual Ministry Fair after all Masses in the church
narthex. All ministry heads should have been contacted and are asked to have
representatives at their spots, after all four Masses. We are hoping that
everyone will spend some time after Mass next weekend discerning what ministries
that they would like to be involved in this year. I remind you that St. Maria
Goretti Parish is NOT one of those parishes that you can just show up
once-a-week, but we want EVERYBODY involved and active in some ministry. This
is the spiritual home for all of us. Like any family, we all need to have our
jobs to do and our role to play. We need you! Come join us at the Ministry
Fair ’09 next weekend!
Next Sunday, the Sunday evening 5:00 PM Mass does move
to it’s new time at 5:30 PM. Please remember this change. If not, you can join
us for the Rosary before Mass starts.
Have a great holiday weekend and a super week!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Never confuse a “single” defeat with a “final” defeat. |
