Off to School: On October 26 & 27 I attended a ‘new pastor’ conference at the St. Francis Retreat Center in DeWitt. It was very informative. There were only three ‘new pastors’ there. We had meetings on legal issues, lay ministry, personnel, facilities, deacons, evangelization and the business side of running a parish. Usually when a new pastor takes over […]
When the Saints come Marching in: One of my favorite feast days is All Saints, which we have the opportunity to celebrate this weekend since November 1 falls on a Sunday this year. Who is your favorite saint and why? St. Theresa of Lisieux, St. John Vianney, St. Maria Goretti and St. Maximilian Kolbe are […]
A Big Thank You!: It was a joy and blessing to be with you for the installation Mass and the reception last weekend. I can’t express my gratitude enough to all those who helped and served in a special way. And the background music at the reception provided by Paul & Beverly Dunlap was a […]
This weekend (October 24 & 25th, 2015) we implemented the changes to how we prepare the Altar at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Many of our servers attended one of the training sessions, but we have many that did not and will need some training. The changes will be very easy to […]
Msgr. Jerry and I want to introduce some new procedures to improve how we, at the weekend Masses, bring the Eucharist to the Homebound and to care facilities. These changes have been in the works for over a year and will help us serve our sick and needy with greater reverence and care. I do […]
CRHP: Last weekend 21 women from our parish attend the Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) retreat in our St. Joseph Center. It was a wonderful weekend. One comment from a participant was, “I have never felt so loved before.” Another participant said that she was talking to a friend about the weekend and the friend […]
Rome: My trip to Rome was short but very memorable—despite some rainy weather. The highlight of the trip was the diaconate ordination of Brian Lenz at St. Peter’s Basilica. Brian, along with 38 other seminarians from the United States (and one from Australia), was ordained deacons by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Perhaps you […]
Special Prayers: Next weekend is the Women’s Christ Renews His Parish retreat. About twenty of our parishioners will be on retreat on our parish grounds. We are hoping to have another men’s CRHP weekend in the spring. So many people who have gone through CRHP have talked about how much it changed their life for […]
Our Holy Father: It’s been a joy to see the excitement around Pope Francis’ visit. We rang the bells at 4 p.m. last Tuesday to announce his arrival on U.S. territory. This past Wednesday morning I was on Channel 25 with our own Joel Feick on the early morning show discussing our Holy Father’s visit. […]
Lots of fun!: We had a nice turnout, great food and a beautiful day at our parish picnic/back@school bash last Sunday. Special thanks to Rob and Jill Andreski and the countless volunteers who graciously gave of their time and talent to help out! Pope Francis: When our Holy Father visits Congress, our parish will host […]