This week we celebrated the founding of the country. In my seventh year here, I have come to appreciate the fanfare and the events that the city uses to celebrate the courage of the founders and the first citizens. In some ways, they deserved the description of “radical people”. Their ideas were about freedom and the desire to rule themselves using a democratic process of governance by qualified elected people. The final lines of the Declaration of Independence come to my mind when I think of what the founders were hoping for and prepared to do for one another. It reads, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
It is official! Ten Commandments and Beatitudes Tablets are getting a NEW STANDING STRUCTURE! The “tablets” were picked up today and will be stored at “J.R.Welding & Fabrication” while a new steel stand is being fabricated to hold them. The goal is to get it completed, returned, and erected in its new location (between the large pine and fence along the sidewalk) by the 2nd-3rd week in July. They plan on starting on our project today! We are so excited to see the end result.
This week’s second collection Promoting the Gospel supports Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) and the Catholic Communication Campaign (CCC).
Thank you for your continued support with our 2024 Catholic Appeal Campaign. I wanted to give you a 2 minute update on results as of this Wednesday, which are very impressive. In just three months our campaign is at 80% of it’s goal with $40,217 raised.
I am writing this email between the Easter Masses and I do not know what makes this year different but I am really feeling the Holy Spirit this Easter! (but it could be the lack of sleep lol) Over this Holy Week, I witnessed Kim, Rowan Chelsea, Tammie, Adie & Thatcher welcome the Holy Spirit into their lives and come into full communion with the Church.
This day we celebrate the heart of the truth of our faith. The truth is that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ and that changes everything in our lives and of those who believe in Jesus. The agony in the Garden and the final days of deceit, lies, treachery, and murderous violence have been transformed into the joy of the resurrection and the message of God’s peace, a peace that cannot be taken from us, is now given as an act of love and forgiveness for all creation.
Next week, at all our Easter Masses, our only collection will be to support the retirement, medical and financial needs of priests in good standing throughout the Archdiocese of Boston.
This week we launch the Catholic Appeal. It is our annual archdiocese-wide appeal to help the local church support the work of the wider archdiocesan church of which we are a part. Today, we hear from the cardinal and then a parishioner, Deb Adair, who will be making an appeal to all of us parishioners. We have two numbers each year that we are given by the appeal managers. The first number is the assessment number of $25,082.
Next weekend, the 2024 Catholic Appeal will officially launch here in our parish and across the Archdiocese. One of the most meaningful ways that we witness the presence of Christ and deepen the impact of our Church’s ministries is by supporting the Catholic Appeal.