Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Yesterday begins the season of Advent. We celebrated the First Sunday of Advent at our Masses yesterday!
St John the Baptist will be hosting their Christmas Bazaar with a soup and chili lunch, bake sale, basket raffles, and cash raffle after the 11am Mass Sunday December 4.
The Knights of Columbus will be hosting breakfast with St Nick after the 7:30am and 9am Masses at St Francis Xavier and will feature pancakes, sausage, eggs, and a visit from St Nick!
The Feast of St. Francis Xavier will be celebrated with a special Mass Saturday, December 3 at 10:00AM. The practice of adopting patron saints dates back to the building of the first public churches in the Roman Empire, most of which were built over the graves of martyrs. The churches were then given the name of the martyr, and the martyr was expected to act as an intercessor for the Christians who worshiped there. And while St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Merrill is not built over his grave, we do invoke the patron saint of our church to act as a protector and intercessor for us. Please join us in celebrating our patron saint.
There are 6 tags left on the Giving Tree. If you are interested in helping out a family in need, please stop in and grab a tag off of the Giving Tree. The Giving Tree is located in the back of church near the restrooms. Just a reminder that all gifts need to be returned by this Sunday, December 4.
Tuesday November 29 we will have an Evening of Mercy at St Francis Xavier Church. We will begin with Mass at 5pm followed by Adoration and Confession. If you have not gone to confession in a long time or are worried about how to go to confession, we will have volunteers available to help you through the process. This is a great opportunity for you to get back in the habit of regular confession. We will have 4 priests available to hear confessions. This Evening of Mercy replaces our normal Advent Penance Service.
Our next Bingo night is this Thursday December 1st. The doors open at 5:30pm and the games start at 6:30pm. A minimum of $550 in cash prizes will be given away. Depending on attendance, we could give away as much as $1000. The Progressive Bingo Jackpot will be approximately $700 and you can win that for as little as $3. This is a great fundraiser for our school, and we hope to see you there.
Prices:
3 face cards $5.00
6 face cards $10.00
9 face cards $15.00
Extra cards for “special games” $1.00,
Progressive cards 3 face cards/ $3.00
Refreshments will be served. Please enter at Door # 7 (School entrance). We estimate the progressive jackpot to be at $700.00, so you won’t want to miss the excitement! If you’ve never played this type of BINGO before, we have volunteers on hand to show you how! See you December 1st!
We have become aware of a need for snow pants for kids in our community. In particular there are numerous kids at Kate Goodrich and Washington Elementary that are in need. Please look in your closets, local thrift shops, and donate any gently used or new snow pants. Sizes needed are 4T – 16. There is a bin in the back of church to drop off your donated snow pants. Thank you for your generosity!!!
The Knights of Columbus Council 1133 will be selling raffle calendars in the church vestibule of St. Francis Xavier and St. John the Baptist until Jan. 1 or until they are all sold. The Knights will draw winning numbers on the first Sunday of each month after the 7:30 am Mass. A $25.00 prize will be awarded on the first four Sundays of each month. A $100 prize will be awarded on the fifth Sunday of a month and $250 will be awarded on Easter Sunday, the feast of St. John the Baptist, the feast of St. Francis Xavier and on Christmas Day. At $20.00 each, they make great Christmas gifts. Calendar holders can win more than once. Calendars are also available at the parish office. Thank you for your support!
We were saddened to hear of the passing of Faye Semling last Tuesday. Her funeral will be Tuesday November 29 at 11am at St Francis Xavier Church. Visitation will be on Monday (tonight) from 4pm to 7pm with a wake service to follow at 7pm at Taylor-Stine Funeral home. Please keep Faye and her family in your prayers.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, A Holy Day of Obligation, is December 8. Here is the Mass schedule:
Wednesday, December 7th 6:00 PM SFX
Thursday, December 8th 9:00 AM SFX
Thursday, December 8th 6:00 PM SJB
That is all for this week!!!
Dcn Jim
