Fr. Rob is away this week on a well deserved rest, so we have guest columnists!
A Note From Karen Luke and Anne Gallagher
As we head into our second year of working together to provide life-long faith formation for both our parishes, we want to take a moment to express our gratitude to all of you! It has been such a blessing to get to know so many new people and to fall in love with a new community. Thank you to all of you who reached out to welcome and support us as we brought our programs together. We feel truly blessed to be ministering in this faith family!
Looking back at the last year, there have been many highlights to celebrate. We’ve welcomed almost 25 new families into our parishes who have come to us through our sacramental prep and youth formation programs. We’ve had the joy of preparing for and celebrating sacraments together, watching our young people grow in faith. We’ve hosted opportunities to come together in fellowship with joint social events. We danced and sang and prayed with thousands of Catholic teens at the National Catholic Youth Conference. We reflected on our Sunday Scriptures together through our seasonal podcasts and days of retreat. This summer we had so much fun at first combined Vacation Bible School, and we piloted the Alpha film series with a small group of our young adults. It has been a busy year and a great year!
And we are just getting started! If you haven’t yet, please register for our family faith formation, youth ministry, and sacramental preparation programs today, as our first meetings are just around the corner. This fall holds plenty of opportunities for adults to grow in faith as well, including our JustFaith Course on "Migration: Faith and Immigration Justice" and our Women's Bible Study on “2 Timothy-Passionate Discipleship.” Mark your calendars now for a special social event on All Saints Day, Friday Nov. 1, “Let’s Taco ‘Bout the Saints” a dinner for parishioners of all ages, followed by Mass. And we just might have a new fall podcast series up our sleeve, so stay tuned! Looking ahead to spring, we will be launching Alpha for adults of all ages. Alpha is an amazing opportunity to ask life’s big questions together, forming community and growing in faith. It’s going to be another great year!
But we can’t do all this alone! It definitely takes a village to make all these offerings happen for our faith family. We are looking for volunteers to work with our kids in religious ed classes and our teens in youth ministry. As we build Alpha, we will need small group discussion leaders and a hospitality/kitchen team. And of course, we both always need your prayers! We’d love to add you to our team. God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called! How might God be calling you to go deeper as we begin this new year of faith formation?