Hello Everyone,

Today we celebrate the 26^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  We also celebrate Priesthood Sunday.

Today we kick off our 2021-2022 Catholic Services Appeal (CSA) campaign.  If you missed the Diocesan CSA video you can watch here.  The CSA serves over 30 ministries in the Diocese of Superior and is vital to the support of our parish.  We are particularly dependent upon the CSA to help support our international priests, like Fr. Maria, as well as numerous youth programs including Extreme Faith Camp.   Our assessment this year is $53,346 for St Francis and $7,651 for St John the Baptist.  We still currently owe $6,400 on last year’s CSA for St Francis and $967 for St John the Baptist.  Just a reminder that if we don’t get last year’s CSA paid off, we have to pay it out of our operating budget, which is something we would really like to avoid having to do.  So any support you can give to last year's CSA in addition to this year's CSA would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you for your support of the CSA.

Tomorrow (Monday September 27) is a special day for Father Maria…it is his Birthday.  So we wish Father Maria a Blessed birthday tomorrow.

The St Francis Fall Festival is scheduled for Saturday October 16th.  The Knights of Columbus will be grilling up their famous chicken.   Tickets for the chicken dinner are available after Mass and in the parish office.  Tickets are $8 for individuals or $15 per family.  We ask that you please purchase tickets in advance so we know how much chicken to order.  If you can help us out at the festival there is a sign up board in the back of church.  We are looking for donations of salad, dessert, or your time helping out.   Please join is for a fun day and a delicious meal!

The youth are providing us with cinnamon rolls after the Masses today.  A free will donation is all they are asking for.  The youth are raising funds for the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC), March for Life and Extreme Faith Camp.  We currently have 11 youth and chaperones going to Indianapolis for NCYC this coming November.  Cinnamon Rolls will be available in the courtyard after the 7:30am and 9am Masses.  They will also have coffee available as well.   As always your support is greatly appreciated.

St John the Baptist will have their Christmas Bazaar on Sunday November 28 after the 11am Mass.  We are still looking for donations and volunteers.   More details will be provided as we get closer to the event.

Father Maria is looking to resume visiting parishioners in their homes.  Please contact Kris in the office to arrange a time for Father Maria to visit.  This isn’t just for dinner…he also doesn’t mind going for walks, praying the Rosary, or just hanging out and getting to know you and your families.  

St John the Baptist is also looking for a couple more money counters, readers and ushers.  If this is something you would be interesting in doing, please contact Kris in the office.  We would like to also resume having servers at Mass.  If you are interested in serving Mass at St John the Baptist or St Francis Xavier please contact Kris in the office.  We will provide training for those interested.

October is the month of the Rosary.  We are going to have a traveling statue of Mary for the month of October.  You can sign up in the parish office to have Mary in your house for a few days.  We ask you to pray the Rosary each day you have the statue in your home.  Father Maria would also like to join your family in praying the Rosary each day.  This is a great way to begin to pray the Rosary daily and also the added bonus of having Father Maria stop over for a visit.

For the month of October, we would like to pray the Rosary before the 7:30am Mass.  The Knights of Columbus are looking for any volunteers who would be willing to lead the Rosary on Sunday mornings.  The Rosary would begin at 7am.  Please contact Grand Knight Clyde Nelson or Kris Leggett in the office if you would be willing to lead the rosary at least one Sunday in the month of October.

If you know of anyone who is interested in becoming Catholic or if you would just like to learn more about the faith, please join us for RCIA after the 9am Mass on Sundays.  RCIA has already started but you can still join us.   Russ Creel is leading the RCIA program and would love to have you come join.

We celebrated 2 baptism this weekend.  Please welcome Berklee James Brunett and Alexander Jerome Johnson to the family of God.   Please keep Berklee and Alexander and their parents Breigha and Brandon Brunett and Dustin and Rebekah Johnson in your prayers.

Parish wish list.  Emergency need!!! We recently ran into a situation where we had to purchase new laptop computers for the technology lab at St Francis in order to provide the required MAP testing for our students.  Our computers were no longer compatible with the new MAP testing program.  So we ordered 15 laptop computers for the technology lab and we would also like to upgrade our teaching staff computers as well.  I am unsure of the cost at this time, but…if you wish to donate towards the laptop computers any support would be greatly appreciated.   We did apply for a couple of grants to pay for the laptops but have not heard whether we received the grants or not.

That is all for now…blessings on your week!