Hello Everyone

We welcome Father Jayanna Kanna to our parishes.  This weekend Father Kanna is the main celebrant for our Masses.  Father Kanna arrived in the US on April 5^th.   However he has been in the US before.   He served a parish in Florida from 2003 – 2008.  We are excited to have Father Kanna here with us to celebrate the sacraments with us while Father Maria is in India.  Once Father Maria returns from India, the Bishop will assign Father Kanna to a parish in the Diocese of Superior.

Attached is a letter from Bishop Powers regarding the overturning of Governor Evers’ mask mandate.   I encourage you to please read this letter.  We continue to highly encourage mask wearing at St Francis Xavier and St John the Baptist and to continue to maintain social distancing.  I have also been notified of instances where people who are attending Mass are taking down the ribbons blocking off the pews.  I would ask that you please do not do this without consulting me first.  While there may be some instances where we have to open up some of the blocked off pews, I would like to be the one to make that decision.  The Bishop continues to ask us to keep every other pew blocked off but also recognizes that sometimes in order to accommodate everyone...opening up some of these pews may be necessary.  However, we still must maintain social distancing in the pews.   Thank you for your support and help in keeping everyone safe.

A few parishioners have asked about donating their stimulus checks to the church for something the church needs.  We have a major project coming up that is pending the Bishop’s approval.  A parishioner has generously donated enough money for us to specifically redo the roads in the St. Francis cemetery.   Through this donation we have enough funds to cover that project.  

However, I am also working on the possibility of also redoing the parking lot and sidewalks at St Francis Xavier as well.   This will require us to raise a hefty amount of money to fully fund the redoing of the parking lot and sidewalks.  If you would like to donate to this project please contact me, Kris Leggett, or Linda Rautiola in the parish office.  The more money we have backing this project the more likely the Bishop will approve it.  Finance Council approved this project on Tuesday provided we have the funding to cover it.  I will be meeting with Parish Council this Tuesday to seek their approval for this project.  If Parish Council approves this project, I will need to meet with the Bishop to seek his approval.  The more money we have raised going into this meeting with the Bishop…the more likely he will approve of it.  Finances are still very tight at St Francis, so he will likely require us to fundraise the cost of this entire project.  I will have more details about this project in the coming weeks.  But for now…if you are looking to donate to something the church really needs…the parking lot and sidewalk project would be a great project to donate towards.  

The St Francis Cemetery is looking to hire a part time (24 hours per week) seasonal (would end when school starts) employee.  The work is outdoors and involves grass cutting and maintaining the cemetery grounds.   If you know of a high school student who is looking for work this summer…this would be a great job for that person.   Stop in the parish office to pick up an application.

We are looking at redoing the base of the St Francis statue in the front of the church.  The cost of this project is roughly between $300 - $500.  If this is something you would like to donate towards please see me or Kris in the office.

The Knights of Columbus will be hosting a takeout lunch at St John the Baptist on April 25^th after the 11am Mass.  The lunch will include a hot sandwich, chips and a pickle.  Free will donation will be appreciated.

Just a reminder that you can make donations and weekly contributions via credit card through the St Francis Xavier website.  Our new online giving service is as easy as 1, 2, 3.  Forget your checkbook or offertory envelope today?  Don’t worry. Just visit  https://www.stfrancismerrill.org/online-giving on any device and follow these easy steps:

1. Choose a One-time or Recurring donation
 2. Select a preferred method of payment (electronic check or debit/credit)
 3. Enter your information and submit!

Your gift will immediately process, and you’ll receive an email confirmation receipt.

Select recurring gift option? Great! Follow the instructions in your confirmation email to easily set up your own online donor account and determine the frequency and amount that you’d like to automatically give. And then stop having to remember those weekly envelopes!

Catholics at the Capitol – April 21, 2021

On April 21, virtually join Catholics from across the state to learn how Catholic

teaching enhances public policy discussions. This free day-long event of prayer

and advocacy includes an opportunity to visit with policymakers and staff at the

State Capitol. Registration is now underway for Catholics at the Capitol 2021! For

information, go to https://www.wisconsincatholic.org/catholics-at-the-capitol/.

The resurrection of Jesus was the day the re-creation, transformation, and healing of the universe began. Our mission is to be active agents continuing this work of re-creation. God desires to use us, broken, weak, and sinful as we are, to continue the mission of Jesus.   All of these things the Lord desires to do in and through us.  C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, wrote, “The story of Christianity is the story of the rightful King landing, landing in disguise you might say, and calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” We could say, then, that our mission is to be leaders of the work of sabotage. 

Our weapons in this “campaign of sabotage” are love, truth, goodness, beauty, justice, integrity, mercy, forgiveness, repentance, and more. In the climate we live in right now, to be clear, the enemy in this campaign of sabotage is not some political party, or another race, or the rich, or poor, or another gender. The enemy is the devil whose desire is to divide, degrade, and enslave this race that God created out of love and destined to share in His own life for all eternity.

A judge once said, “So, in my role, I am often faced with people who have done terrible things and I have to sentence them to long imprisonments. And, I know as an authority figure I can shape for good or bad a person’s image of God. What if I were to say to the person that the choices they’ve made have consequences and because of those they’re going to prison. However, I could add something like, ‘But it’s important for you to know that those choices don’t define you. They’re not who you are. You can become a great man.’”  That is acting as an agent of transformation or re-creation.

Whether we are a judge, a football coach, a governor, a physician, a teacher, a pastor, even a President…no matter what we do or who we are…our mission is to use our natural and supernatural gifts so as to try to transform and re-create everything we can. So that it is brought a little bit more into conformity with how God the Father intends it to be.

Jesus came in order to rescue us. And now He sends us in order to continue that mission. That’s the mission.