From Fr. David’s Desk
Dear Friends in Christ,
In case you haven’t noticed, there is a lot going on here as of late! Whoever said this was a boring place?!
Thank you to all who had your pictures taken this week for our upcoming anniversary directory. I hope you will all be happy with your beautiful mug shots! Remember again this is not just for you as individuals and families, but also for your larger parish family. Sometimes we don’t know who’s who among us at church, so this directory will help us to know each other better. It will also be a cherished memoir picture book for our continuing story. Not to mention it’s simply an excellent opportunity to get an updated family photo, which is often difficult to arrange in our hectic lives. Thanks again for your participation.
Thank you to all who have been responding with the parish surveys. Remember to complete Part II and bring that back to church in the next week or so! You will be able to deposit them in a bin marked “Surveys” in one of the entrances of the church. As you can see, some of the questions asked for very brief responses, whereas others, especially in Part II, needed more in depth reflection. I hope you have been giving some good prayerful thought to those questions and have been honest in your responses, always keeping in mind our Parish Mission Statement and the universal mission of Christ’s Church. We all have preferences about various things, but with our preferences we should not lose sight of the big picture of being a united Catholic people who are called, chosen, redeemed, anointed, gifted, and commissioned as the Body of Christ in the world. Thank you again for your participation in this project.
We congratulate our Montini 8th Grade and Marian High School graduates this week!! It is remarkable to witness the growth and development of our children to young women and men of noteworthy virtue and character! These young people inspire tremendous hope for the present and the future of our Church!
Lastly, we are getting ready for our tuck pointing and roof repair project, so I am forewarning you that this week some scaffolding will be going up outside of church. The scaffolding may disturb our traffic flow a little bit, though it shouldn’t do so to a significant degree. In any case, I appreciate in advance your patience and flexibility as we work through this most necessary repair project. Thank you!
Happy Memorial Day! God Bless all of our service women and men, living and deceased!
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. David
P.S. Please remember that next SUNDAY in the Diocese of Rockford is the celebration of the Ascension of the Lord, NOT this Thursday!
Coming to St. Mary’s! Life Touch Picture Directory photo sessions. We need YOU to make our directory complete! To celebrate our church family and strengthen the bond within our comgregation, we welcome you to be a part of our upcoming new directory.Every family photographed receives a complimentary directory and an 8×10 portrait. You can sign up for photography online by clicking on this website:
Lifetouch signup
You will also have opportunities to sign up after weekend Masses.
P.S. Your photography session will take about an hour, during which time you will check-in be photographed and view your portaits.
Take time today to download and fill out Part 1 & 2 of the St. Mary Parish Survey. Your opinion is important and matters to us. Once completed, you can return via the collection basket, in the mail or by dropping at the Parish Office during office hours:
8am-4pm – Mon.-Thurs. and 8am-Noon on Fri.
Here’s something to SMILE about! 🙂
St. Mary’s Church is now connected with AMAZON.SMILE! What is Amazon.Smile? Amazon is dedicated to giving back to charitable organizations like our parish. When you buy online at Amazon, you have the opportunity to have .05% of your purchases donated to St. Mary’s by Amazon. When you sign up for AmazonSmile, you’ll be asked to select from over a million of charities to support. But you can skip this step and click on our unique link. Then you’ll be taken to smile.amazon.com and then automatically asked if you want to support St Mary Church.
Our unique charity link: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/36-2182123
Don’t forget to sign up for St. Mary’s MyParish App today!
Just text App to phone number 88202 or visit myparishapp.com to download. St. Mary’s will not automatically beone of your choices because we are a national parish which means we have no boundaries. Just type in St. Mary 1407 and the site will be available for you to click on and join. Keep yourself up to date on parish events, daily readings, messages, Pope Francis messages, and programs to enhance your faith journey.
