Check out this week's bulletin: http://fataonline.com/bulletin/bulletin-821471439439.pdf

Dear Friends,

As we prepare to go "back to school," here are a few things to be aware of:

• Families new to our parish school will be attending the 9 AM Mass on Sunday. Please welcome them! Afterwards, they will attend a welcome brunch and be introduced to many aspects of our parish and school community.
• Our teachers return on Monday, and will begin their week before school opens with faculty meetings, professional development, and classroom preparation. They will attend the 8:30 AM Mass on Monday! Let's pray for everyone starting an academic year: students, teachers, and families!
• This is Deacon Kevin Ewing's last weekend at St. John's. He is packing up and preparing to return to Rome to continue his seminary formation. He anticipates to be ordained a priest in June. Also, parishioner Nicholas Wentworth is preparing to move into St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, to begin major seminary. Let's keep these two men, and all our seminarians in our prayers!

We are adopting a theme for the year for our entire St. John's community: “Precious in God’s eyes and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). We anticipate a great deal of building to be going on this year:

• The most obvious, but not most important, is the anticipate groundbreaking for the construction of our new Parish Activity Center that will be suitable for athletics, large group social functions, and spiritual activities. We are in the permitting process with the county and anticipate construction to begin some time this school year.
• We are focusing on building our relationship with Jesus Christ, with an emphasis on growing disciples of Jesus who may an impact on the world. We will be introducing a parish renewal process rooted in the principles contained in the book Divine Renovation by Fr. James Mallon.
• We are focusing on building friendships in our community. Did you know there are folks who attend Mass regularly, yet don't have anyone from our parish whom they would identify as a friend? Let's work on that one!
• We are building leaders! Baptism calls us to lives of intentional discipleship, and we are calling all the baptized to step up and grow in relationship with Jesus as well as with his Body on earth, the Church!

You'll be hearing more in the coming weeks and months. Please keep our community in your prayers and when you see new faces in church, give them a smile and a word of welcome!

Your brother in the Lord,

Fr. Jim Proffitt