The traditional “Thirteen Tuesdays” before the Feast of St. Anthony begin on Tuesday, March 17.
Devotions to St. Anthony are prayed after every Mass starting at 7:45 AM.
Please join us!
The Feast of St. Anthony will be celebrated on Saturday, June 13.
The simple answer is that online giving is the best way to give to the church. That is because it fits with how we pay for things today. We use our credit card to pay for purchases online. We pay for our metrocard with a credit card. Many of us use our credit card for our gym membership, or if we support the museum, or public radio, or whatever we pay for daily and monthly. It’s how we live today.
But we also have found that people who use the online giving tool are generally the most serious about their financial support of St. Francis. Our average donation online is $25.00 per week, whereas our average in pew weekly donation is only $4.00.
This is because people who give online take their support of the church seriously. They think about what they can afford to give, and they commit to it. This is what we all need to do as members of the church.
SIGN UP TODAY:
You can sign up for online giving and create a recurring weekly or monthly donation. You can sign up right now by clicking HERE.
Click HERE for some FAQ’s about the Church’s finances that you might find helpful.
If you have any questions about our online giving tool, or about our stewardship campaign in general please email Joseph Nuzzi at j[email protected]
JESUS DID NOT CALL CONSUMERS… HE CALLED MISSIONARIES.
As followers of Jesus we are called to continue his Mission. This means living the Gospel and bringing God’s love to our families, among our friends, and in our places of work. But it also means making sure that our community is able to be fed by the Word of God and the Eucharist, and to make sure that the Gospel is preached in word and action in our local church. When we financially support the church, we are not simply paying bills, we are also fulfilling the demands placed upon us as disciples of Jesus Christ.
MEMBERSHIP IN THE CHURCH HAS ITS PRIVILEGES AND IT COMES WITH RESPONSIBILITY
We are all called to be good stewards of the material blessings we receive from God through our hard work, talents and abilities.
Part of that stewardship, since biblical times, has been understood to include using a portion of our income to support our religious institutions and some to help the poor and disadvantaged. In the Bible, we are asked to contribute 10% of our income as our tithe. Today at St. Francis we ask our members and guests to contribute ONE HOUR of our work week to support the church. This comes to a tithe of 2.5%. This is the sacrificial giving we ask our people to commit to.
Many people do not understand how the finances of Church work. Here are some FAQ’s of questions we commonly hear at St. Francis that might help clarify some questions.
But the bottom line is this: each parish community in the US must raise the funds it needs to pay its bills from the people who attend the church. That means here at St. Francis it is our responsibility to contribute to the budget to keep our parish church running.
Unfortunately today, many people who attend Mass regularly simply never think about their financial responsibility to the church. We see often at Mass people who search in their pockets or purses for whatever they can find during the collection. This should not be.
Each of us, as a full fledge member of the Church, should know and commit to what we can afford do give to support the Church. And that support should be a sacrificial offering. It should not be an afterthought.
If you simply cannot effort to give 2.5% then look at your budget, and decide what you can give, and commit to it. That is what we are all called to do. But without each of us doing our part, our church cannot survive.
Below is a table comparing February 2019 collections to our current February 2020 collections.
Our collections are up from last year, which is great, but as you can we are still not making our budget.
We need everyone to do their part to keep St. Francis on firm financial ground. The best way to use this is to make your offering using our online giving system. We want to thank everyone who supports the Church of St. Francis throughout the year. Our income comes only from our members and visitors who financially support our community. Click here to read some FAQ’s about our finances.
We ask all of our members and visitors to offer the equivalent of ONE HOUR of their weekly salary per week to support the mission of the church. This comes to a tithe of 2.5%
The flowers and plants that will decorate our church at Easter are a sign of our joy in the Resurrection of Christ and our hope in the resurrection of those who have gone before us.
We invite you to remember deceased members of your family and friends with a donation for our Easter decorations.
Please fill out this form and return it with your offering to the reception desk.
The names of those received by Friday, April 3 will be included in the Easter bulletin of April 12.
You can also offer an Easter Flower Memorial donations online HERE.
Please print clearly.
In Memory of: _______________________________________
From: _______________________________________
Address: _______________________________________
_______________________________________
Email (phone no. if no email) _______________________________________
Donation: ___$20 ___$50 ___$100. Other:_______
The following is from the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis following the recent synod on the Amazon. These are the Holy Father’s Four Dreams for the Amazon region.
• I dream of an Amazon region that fights for the rights of the poor, the original peoples and the least of our brothers and sisters, where their voices can be heard and their dignity advanced.
• I dream of an Amazon region that can preserve its distinctive cultural riches, where the beauty of our humanity shines forth in so many varied ways.
• I dream of an Amazon region that can jealously preserve its overwhelming natural beauty and the superabundant life teeming in its rivers and forests.
• I dream of Christian communities capable of generous commitment, incarnate in the Amazon region, and giving the church new faces with Amazonian features.
On this Third Sunday of Lent we hear about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan. It is odd that he would meet this woman at the well at noon because the typical time to draw water was in the morning. Jesus acts in his usual manner by engaging the woman in conversation. She is shocked that he is talking to her– a woman, a Samaritan, and in public. Jesus discovers much about her and her broken life. The conversation seems to heal her and she ends up going back to town telling the people that she may have found “the Christ.” Jesus certainly shows us the way to deal with others – non-judgmental and accepting.
We have begun certain measures to protect ourselves from the spread of the coronavirus. While they may disturb our usual pattern of life in church, they are necessary. There is no holy water in the fonts. No handshake at the sign of peace. The Precious Blood is not given. Some are disturbed by taking Communion in the hand. This was the way that Christians received Communion for centuries. When Communion is given on the tongue, frequently it is difficult to put the Host on a person’s tongue and the minister ends up with saliva on the fingers which then is given to the next person when they receive Communion. We are called to protect ourselves and others. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.
-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M.
Join us each Sunday in Lent as we take a deeper look at the Sunday gospels.
3:30pm in the Clare Room followed by 5pm mass.
Almost 30 years ago, John Paul II reminded us just what is at stake. Each person “is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God. The loftiness of this supernatural vocation reveals the greatness and the inestimable value of human life.”
We are all called to that great life, to the communion of heaven where “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people and tongue [stand] before the throne and before the Lamb.” That Lamb, showed us that the very life of God is love, and love requires something of each of us. We pray that the reader will join us in striving for the end of racism in all its forms, that we may walk together humbly with God and with all of our brothers and sisters in a renewed unity.
For there is no place for racism in the hearts of any person; it is the perversion of the Lord’s will for men and women, all of whom were made in God’s image and likeness.
(to be continued)
The scene described in today’s Gospel is amazing. Not only is Jesus transfigured before Peter, James and John, but Moses and Elijah appear alongside Jesus. It is no wonder that they want to stay on the mountain. Ordinary, daily life is not that captivating, but sometimes you need moments such as these to carry you through days that might be challenging. The problem is that we don’t have that mountain and will probably never have an experience such as the one described; however, when we slow down and when we focus on God’s presence in our world, we may have something similar. Meditation and contemplation are two ways that any Christian can have a deeper experience of God. This may not be easy, but Lent presents the opportunity for us to be “transfigured.”
In response to the Coronavirus, please see the advice posted online and in the bulletin for steps we are taking at St. Francis of Assisi to help prevent the spread of this virus. We are concerned by what we hear and read, so we need to take some steps locally. We will try these practices for the time being and then evaluate the need to continue them. We ask for your cooperation in observing them. If you are sick, stay home – it is not a sin. Coming to Mass and spreading your illness is a sin. We don’t know what is going to happen here in the United States, but we must be cautious.
-Fr. Andrew Reitz, O.F.M.
