Dear Parishioners,

Next year is the 60th anniversary of the parish. I think that’s a grand and wonderful accomplishment and it should be celebrated with the best of our ability. I was brainstorming with our Pastoral Council and we came up with a few ideas I would like to share with you:

• We want to put together a digital photo album covering our parish history over the last 60 years. So, if you have any old photos of life in our parish, we would love to include them. More information on this to come.
• We want to have special blessings for the youth, married couples, and children baptized during the year at certain masses.
• We will have a parish mission in June, during the week of Pentecost. I have already contacted Bill Wegner from Good News International Ministries. He is a lay evangelist and very gifted speaker.
• We will have a special Mass for our actual anniversary date in August. Either following the Mass or before the Mass, we will also have an anniversary dinner in a hall.
• We want to have a talk dedicated to vocations as experienced by Young Adults. I want to bring together a young priest, a single lay person and married couple and have them speak about their experiences with the faith and what inspires them to their chosen vocation.
• We want to bring back International Night in October. I don’t have much experience with this event. But, I’m told it was a really popular event that fell out of practice in recent years. So, we are going to revive it. It’s essentially a potluck to sample different ethnic/regional foods after a Mass including intercessions in various languages.

However, we cannot do any of this without the help of parishioners. So, if any of you feel inspired to be involved in any of these events, please contact me at toddcarterpriest@gmail.com. we have a long and proud history here and it should be celebrated.

God bless,

Father Carter

P.S. Fr. Leon is still sick in the hospital and may be gone for an extended period of time. Also, sadly, Deacon Jim passed away this past Friday. So, please keep both in your prayers. Passing of Deacon Jim