 Fr.
Tom's Tomes September 24, 2006
Thanks to all who helped with our Fall Festival. The day started rainy and remained overcast but the spirit of those who came was great. Many, many parishioners helped with this event and I believe it was a great time. I want to thank in a special way the planning committee. Those who were on the planning committee worked hard to introduce the dinner and dance the evening before which was a great success. The committee also tried to involve new people into different areas of the Fall Festival. If you were not contacted it could have been because the committee may not have been able to get hold of you. I know during several of the meetings the planning group attempted many times to call individuals and their telephone lines were busy. Don’t worry your name is being remembered for next year’s Fall Festival. I also want to let the parishioners know the Parish Council met on Monday, September 18, 2006. The Parish Council is once again meeting. The first thing the parish council is going to discuss and reflect upon is the idea of stewardship. Stewardship involves our way of responding to God’s love in our lives. This is a way of responding to God’s love and living it out in all aspects of our lives. A good conversation developed from where we are today and where the parish has been to where we would like to go. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the members of the parish council and it is our hope to continue to look at ways to deepen our faith, live it in our daily lives and share it with others. Those present for the meeting on Monday were Bev Thompson, Mary Triplett, Joe Timmons, Toby Minnis, and John Taylor. Some who are on the parish council were not able to make it to the meeting. As this council continues to meet we will be placing more information in the bulletin for our parishioners to read, ponder and reflect upon. St. Columban’s is also in need of more Eucharistic Ministers. I have contacted the Chancery Office and we are planning on having a training day for new and already commissioned Eucharistic Ministers at St. Columban’s on a Saturday during February. Eucharistic Ministers assist in distributing communion at Mass as well as taking communion to the sick and home bound. This is a very important ministry of the parish. If you would be interested in becoming an Eucharistic Minister please contact Fr. Tom. If you would like to take communion to the sick and prefer not to give out communion at Mass this too can be arranged. I would like to ask all current Eucharistic Ministers to plan on attending this training day. It will be a good day to take time out of your schedule to reflect upon the importance of the ministry you share in. This day will be of benefit to you and to the people of our parish. There was a meeting on Thursday evening, September 14, 2006 about people from our parish who might be interested in continuing to learn more about the Catholic Faith. The meeting talked about the Bishop Helmsing Institute for the Diocese. We are going to take the opportunity to gather together to learn more about the Catholic Faith by participating in the classes offered by the Bishop Helmsing Institute. The classes will be taped and then presented here. There will be a person from the Institute online to help answer the questions of the group. If you are interested in finding out more information about this offering please call John Taylor at 646-6465 or Rick O’Halloran at 646-1067. Updating knowledge about our faith is important. I want to let parishioners know I will be on vacation from October 5, 2006 through October 18, 2006. This is the first time since I have been ordained I have been gone on vacation for two weekends. The reason my vacation falls such is so that I will only miss one class for my master’s degree. Since this degree is important for the accreditation of the school I feel it is necessary to adjust my vacation time. There will be two different priests here for those weekends and more information will be included about them in the upcoming bulletins. God bless you and have a good week. |