 Fr.
Tom's Tomes June 11, 2006
Last Sunday, we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Pentecost is the day we remember that the Holy Spirit came upon the apostle’s to give them spiritual courage to go forth to preach about Jesus to all people. The apostles went forth from the room they were in to preach to all who would listen in Jerusalem. From there they went forth to many parts of the world to bring the message of Jesus Christ to others. Pentecost is a day to remember our gift of the Holy Spirit we received when we were Confirmed. Through Confirmation the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts to be used to build the Body of Christ here on earth. It is the Sacrament where we are sent forth like the apostles to bring the message of Jesus Christ to others. As members of St. Columban’s Catholic Church we are called by God to bring God’s message to others. In preparing for my first anniversary here at St. Columban’s I would like to outline where I believe we as a parish need to move towards implementing and accomplishing the following goals: 1. Continue to strengthen the sacramental life of the parish 2. Develop, organize and train a Parish Pastoral Planning Council 3. Initiate and maintain an annual parish pledge drive 4. Strengthen participation of and in the Early Learning Center, Bishop Hogan Memorial School and St. Columban CCD programs 5. Develop our youth ministry program for junior high, senior high, college and post college youth of St. Columban 6. Increase the number of parish volunteers in all ministries of the parish 7. Reach out to inactive members of the Catholic faith. These are ambitious goals for the parish for the next year to three years. I will not be able to accomplish these goals by myself. It will take the effort of all of us to accomplish these goals. They are able to be accomplished if we choose to work together as a parish community. God has blessed our parish with many people so that the gifts and talents of each person can be used to the best of their ability. As needs of the parish arise I will begin to put them in the bulletin and ask if you think you would be able to help us out to please call the parish office at 646-0190 and let us know you would like to help us out. This week there are two things which we need volunteers for at this time. With the death of Jeanette Gier, the parish is in need of someone to straighten out the books in the pews of the church after the 8:00 am and 10:00 am Masses on Sunday. You would just walk through the benches and put the music books and other books neatly in the book holders and pick up any trash people would leave behind. Jeanette would do this every Sunday and it is a very important ministry to keep our church clean and neat. I think nobody wants to do this forever so I thought if you would like to volunteer for a year this would be a great help to the church community. The second project I need someone or group to do is to organize and arrange pictures which are in the attic from the old St. Joseph’s Academy. At this time they are just in a pile in the attic and I would like for them to be organized maybe according to year and neatly put together so that we can keep them for historical reasons. Right now the pictures are not in a safe or organized way and I am afraid they could get damaged. This could be done here at the parish or you may take them home to organize them. If you would be interested in any of these possibilities please call the parish office and leave a message. Thank you for your help. God Bless you and have a good week. |