|
 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
On
behalf of our Parish Council, I’d like to welcome you this year’s Ministry Fair
after all our Masses this weekend! This event was started several years ago as
a call-out to the entire Parish family to get folks involved and to find out
what ministry they might best serve in for the coming year. For several years
the Ministry Fair was held on Pentecost Sunday in May or June. While Pentecost
was/is most appropriate for calling the community to action in the Holy Spirit,
the timing of doing it in the late spring was not very useful for Parish
programs and ministries, many of which are finishing up at that same time. In
many cases, individuals would sign up for a new ministry that wouldn’t start
meeting again until the fall. Last year, the Parish Council moved the Ministry
Fair to the fall. If you remember, it was Nov. 1st
& 2nd
last year, because the Parish Council made the decision to move the Ministry
Fair at one of their early fall meetings. The goal then and now, was to get the
Ministry Fair to its new, permanent home on our Parish Calendar, on the weekend
after Labor Day. Tah-Dahhhh! We’re here! We invite all parishioners to stop
by the tables in the church narthex after Masses today, and prayerfully consider
how you might be able to serve God and our Parish by getting involved. We need
everyone to be involved! There’s something for every one to do! I make my plea
especially to our new families from this summer. St. Maria Goretti was blessed
with dozens of new families in the last few months. We are so glad that you are
here and are excited about the gifts, talents, ideas, and help that you bring to
our community. We need all of our new families to find their place in all
that’s going on. The Ministry Fair seeks to help all of us to find “our”
place. Please stop by after Mass today. Some are called to teach P.R.E. Some
are called to be Ministers of Welcome, or Lectors, or to sing with one of our
music groups. Still others are called to work in the Shepherd’s Gate Food
Pantry or HELP Committee, or to take an hour of Adoration in the Blessed
Sacrament Chapel. The possibilities are endless! Find your place today! Or
maybe you’ve been here for awhile now, and it is time to change to a new
ministry. The Ministry Fair can help you out with that also! Stop by! Find
your “place”. We need YOU!
Both
the Holy Name Society, the Men’s Club of our Parish family, which kicks-off
tonight at 7:00 PM, and the Altar Rosary Society, the Women’s Club of our Parish
family, which is having their kick-off on Sept. 22nd
with their immensely successful Souper Supper event, are calling all of the
adult men and women of the Parish to get involved in both organizations. The
goals for both the Holy Name Society and the Altar Rosary Society are the same:
1.) to keep growing spiritually; 2.) to serve our community and help make us a
better Parish all the time; and 3.) to build a stronger community by forging
friendships and bonds based in our Faith. Both organizations count as their
membership, every adult member of this Parish family, based on gender. So for
example, every adult male, over the age of 18, is considered an automatic member
of the Holy Name Society. And conversely, every adult female, over the age of
18, is automatically a member of the Altar Rosary Society. These aren’t your
parents, or more likely, your grandparent’s versions of either the Holy Name
Society or the Altar Rosary Society. These are vibrant, active, and
enthusiastic groups that have made a profound difference in this relatively new
Parish community. It is my hope that all of us, both adult men and women, would
take an active role in both of these powerful organizations. I think that
you’ll be glad that you did!
We
are still scheduling dates for photography for our new Parish Pictorial
Directory. Please, Please, Please!!! Help us out by getting your appointment
today!!! Our Directory will not be complete without you in it! We are striving
towards 100% participation. New dates are being added all the time to
accommodate all of us. Please make a commitment to taking care of this, for the
good of our community. We are getting bigger all the time and that means that
we’ve got to work harder and smarter all the time to get to know each other.
The Directory will make a big difference!
We
congratulate and pray for our new candidates for the Sacrament of Confirmation,
who held their kick-off Day of Recollection yesterday. We’re proud of you guys
and look forward to seeing all of the good that the Holy Spirit is going to do
in each of you, in the coming months!
Have
a great week! Let us keep one another in prayer these days!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Responsibility is the price of freedom. |
