State of the Parish

On Saturday October 28th after the 4:00 PM Mass and again on

Sunday, October 29th after the 5:00 PM Mass

we will host our “State of the Parish Address.”

During this year’s stewardship campaign we tried to make everyone aware of 3 important numbers that reflect our financial realities at St. Francis:

$3.3 Milllion – which is our annual budget at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi

$25.00 – which is the per person per week cost it takes to run our church and

2.5% which is the percent of our income that we are asking people to commit to the Church of St. Francis of Assisi to be faithful members of the Church.

At the State of the Parish you will have an opportunity to receive a more detailed presentation of our budget:  what makes up the $3.3 million dollar annual expenditure, how we are doing in raising that money and what we accomplish as a community with it.

This is part of our attempt at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi to practice good stewardship back to the community by providing as much financial transparency as we can.  Please join us for this presentation and help us continue to make St. Francis of Assisi a place where the Gospel resounds in our city.

LGBT Ministry’s Coffee and Cocktails has been canceled

The LGBT Ministry’s Coffee and Cocktails scheduled for this Sunday has been canceled.

To get updates on the LGBT Ministry’s other upcoming events, please sign up for the ministry’s emails HERE (please select LGBT Ministry), and/or LIKE the ministry’s FaceBook page HERE.

 

The Pastor’s Corner

In today’s Gospel, a scholar of the law tested Jesus by asking: “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” The answer is very familiar to us. The way we ful ll this is not always easy and yet we know that this is what we must work at doing our best to ful ll. Our attentiveness to God can get lost in our day to day activity and list of obligations that we have. Loving our neighbor can be extremely challenging, but we don’t have to have the same “love” for each person. Some people are easy to love and are an important part of our lives. Other people expand our ability to “love” and will never have the same place in our lives as others do. They require more understanding and tolerance than others, but we can’t just “write them off” even if we would like to. They will never make of list of “friends” and they don’t have to. This remains a challenging question for us.

It is with sincere gratitude that I thank you for your generous response to the recent hurricane appeals. The first response was $8,000 for Catholic Relief Services and the second was $22,000 for Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez, O.F.M. in Puerto Rico. I have also heard of people o ering to take in children from Puerto Rico so that they won’t miss school for the remainder of the year. We will be sponsoring more projects.

This week we begin the month of November with the Solemnity of All Saints, and throughout the month we remember our deceased sisters and brothers. There are envelopes in church where their names may be listed for remembrance.

-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M.

Stewardship: Caring for God’s Creation – Gaudium Evangelii: Chapter 3, The Proclamation of the Gospel

Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are ‘disciples’ and ‘missionaries’, but rather that we are always ‘missionary disciples.’

If we are not convinced, let us look at those first disciples, who immediately after encountering the gaze of Jesus, went forth to proclaim him joyfully: “we have found the Messiah!”

The Samaritan woman became a missionary immediately after speaking with Jesus and many Samaritans came to believe in him ”because of the woman’s testimony.” So too, Saint Paul after his encounter with Jesus Christ, “immediately proclaimed Jesus.”

So, what are we waiting for?

All Souls Day and Thanksgiving Cards

Thursday, November 2, is All Souls Day. If you would like to remember a deceased friend or loved one on All Souls Day, we a have special card available at the reception desk for an offering of $5.00 each or can be ordered ONLINE HERE.

The cover of the card features a photo of the Angel of Redemption from the Sorrowful Mother Shrine.

The inside message reads:

A Spiritual Gift in Loving Memory of

_________________________

will share in a special remembrance in the prayers and Masses
celebrated by the Franciscan Friars at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi on All Souls Day.

Blessings at Thanksgiving is a special card to help support the Franciscan Friars at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi. You can give a gift in honor of a friend or loved one and have them remembered at Mass on Thanksgiving Day. This card is available at the reception desk in the lobby of St. Francis House for a offering of $5.00 each or ONLINE HERE.



 

Week of Prayer to St. Jude

We invite to take part in a Week of Prayer in honor of St. Jude from

Monday, October 23, through Friday, October 27,
at the 11:30 and 4:30 weekday Masses

Envelopes are available at the entrances of the church for your intentions.

 

The Pastor’s Corner

“…Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God,” says Jesus in today’s gospel from Matthew. The Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus, which they tried to do many times. Jesus asks for a coin with Caesar’s image and inscription, and gives the response quoted above. The Pharisees should have known better; we are created in God’s image and likeness. We belong to God, not to Caesar, but in order to survive in the culture of that time, payment to Caesar was a necessity whether they liked it or not. There were so many times that Jesus uses these moments to teach his values and his truth. This is a good reminder to all of us that first and foremost, we belong to God and that following Jesus, we believe in his values and his way of life.

A special thank you to all who have gone online for their weekly offering to St. Francis and to those who have been giving online for many years. Thank you also to those who increased their Offertory donation. Many parishioners have commented that they didn’t know that we have to raise such an amount of money yearly. We understand if you have a limited income, but the days of giving $1 in the collection are over for most people. We appreciate your cooperation and generosity.

Don’t forget that the State of the Parish will be held after the 4:00 PM Mass on Saturday, October 28, and after the 5:00 PM Mass on Sunday, October 29. The presentation is about 45 minutes.

-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M.

 

© St. Francis of Assisi 2018. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Settings
We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy
Youtube
Consent to display content from - Youtube
Vimeo
Consent to display content from - Vimeo
Google Maps
Consent to display content from - Google
Save