I hope many of you had a chance to be anointed last weekend and to view the Lego Church in the lobby of Resurrection of the Lord Church in Standish. It was a busy weekend, especially after the Funeral Mass for Carrie Stodolak and the Memorial Service for Nicholas Kaplenski. We also had three parish meetings, one for the leaders working on the Parish Priorities, the annual Corporation Meeting, and the joint meeting of the Pastoral and Finance Councils. All three meetings reported on the great progress the parish is making by responsible stewardship of the gifts God has blessed us with. By the time you see this, work will have begun on the kitchen update in the Social Hall in Standish. We have received generous support of this project. Did you also notice the re-striping of the parking lot in Standish?
As I made a progress report on the Parish Priorities, I came up with a list of 20 projects that have happened the last couple years. In regard to Faith Formation, we refurbished the Faith Formation building, increased the number of students from 37 to 57, we have Children’s Liturgy of the Word regularly, we have students sing and playing instruments at mass and putting on a Christmas Play, creating a Garden from the proceeds of a spaghetti dinner, we brought three youth into the faith at Easter, baptized 5 babies recently, we’re doing a series on the mass before mass at both churches, we had a Eucharistic Procession, and we added access to a free online Catholic material through formed.org, The new T.V. in the Lobby in Standish, shows the events coming up and events held, shows the shrines and helps me present baptism classes. In regards to Involvement, we’ve added new Eucharistic Ministers and Lectors, we’re planning to do a Church Directory next May, we conducted two surveys to not only update our data base, but to find the interests and skills of parishioners, and we had a very successful outdoor mass and picnic. We also hosted a Eucharistic Miracles Exhibit. In regards to Parish Leadership, we have written up the qualities and skills needed for the 6 commissions and councils planned for the parish. We will invite people to step forward for a one year commitment to these groups in the coming months. We are also looking at ways of inviting people back to the parish and inviting new people to join our parish. We’ve done a lot on top of the base already there. This is a Good News Parish that God is pouring his blessings upon and that you can be proud of.
Peace,
Fr. Ron
187 people received the Anointing of the Sick sacrament this past weekend. May they be strengthened, physically, emotionally and spiritually.