Dear Parish Family,
Well, we survived the visit of Jonas and I would like to thank our tremendous staff who saw that things were cleaned up in such a timely manner. Getting hit, and trying to clear, over two feet of snow is no small task as I am sure you are very aware.
Last weekend we were able to offer three weekend masses with about 240 people who were able to dig themselves out and come together to pray. As Providence would have it, this weekend our second collection is for SNOW REMOVAL, and know that we incurred some substantial expenses with this storm. I ask that you help us to meet the demands of our budget, as well as this extraordinary expense, by making up for last week's missed offertory and being generous to the second collection.
This weekend our hope is that you are able to make it to Mass and I wanted to bring to your attention a few things happening this weekend:
- 9:00 AM Mass - Fr. James Nirappel is celebrating a Farewell Mass of Thanksgiving as he concludes his service at St. John's. His bishop has reassigned him to a Syro-Malabar Rite parish in Santa Ana, California. I'm sure he'll find the weather much more pleasant! We will miss him. He has served well, particularly through his ministry at the hospital. If you wish to contribute to his farewell burse, you may place your envelope and/or card in the collection or the basket at the reception in the Gathering Space after Mass.
- Catholic Schools Week begins - Students from St. John the Evangelist School will be speaking at the announcement time at all Masses and will be serving as greeters throughout the weekend. I encourage you to take them up on their offer to attend the Open House this week and check out our wonderful parish school.
I'll also put in a plug for the (delayed) launching of FOLLOWING CHRIST, which will now start this Monday evening at 7 PM in the Gathering Space Meeting Room. It is open to everyone, even if you didn't participate in Discovering Christ in the fall. You can register through the parish webpage or give a call to the Faith Formation Office, or just show up - but it makes things easier if we know how many folks to expect.
God's blessings to you. See you in church!
Fr. Jim Proffitt