Sunday April 22, 2018
Dear Parishioners,
We had a blessed Third Weekend of the Easter Season and we had a prayerful day of reflection with the Confirmation Candidates for their retreat (they will go through their discernment to make their own decision to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation after their retreat). We thank the core team for their time in preparing them. Our regional parishes offer special programs to cater for the pastoral needs of our parishioners (i.e. a special program at Sacred Hearts Church for our Spanish Speaking parishioners). We have more than one hundred candidates in our programs that will be confirmed. It will be a great joy for our regional parishes to celebrate this event on May 9th at St. Anns Church. We thank the candidates who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation last Saturday at Sacred Hearts Church. We had many different ministries and groups who spent time to meet for organizing their service and engage in the parish life. It is a joy for our regional parishes with different ministries that we have and it is a joyful moment when you hear their report at the leadership teams meeting on what they have done.
We thank the coordinators of each ministry for submitting their report to the parish leadership team. We learned so much from their report and we thank them for taking time to inform us, so we can support and pray for them and their ministry. We are very happy to learn from the Eucharistic Youth Group at St. Anns Church on what they will do throughout the year with our parishs activities. We had a wonderful meeting with parents of children who are in this group with the youth leadership team. I read over their report at their meeting with the parents, and I am very grateful to their parents for supporting this ministry and for giving good insights to improve the program to assist their children.
We are very happy with the group of volunteers who assisted us with the Called to Serve as Christ Campaign and they attended the training session with other leadership teams from the deanery and the Archdiocese to support this campaign. There is information about this in our regional parishes bulletin, website and is also posted at the back of the Church. There are many questions and answers about this campaign and you can hear them from the chairperson or can find them in our parishes bulletin, website and poster. We thank the volunteers and the parish staff that assists us with this campaign by posting the information, so others can know more about it and they can support it.
We thank the Adult Faith Formation Class at St. Anns Church on Wednesday and Thursday nights for both English and Vietnamese languages. Many parents take their children to the CCD classes and they attend this adult class by Monty on Wednesday, which is a wonderful class for the year to have together with CCD program. We have Scripture Classes at St. John of the Woods Church, Sacred Hearts Church and St. Anns Church this year. Many of you do not know about these classes that you are cordially invited to join us. We thank the parish staff that attended the staff meeting last week. I had a chance to thank them on your behalf for what they are serving us. It was a good meeting and I was able to hear their true report. I thank the staff for their service within our regional parishes. We had a wonderful breakfast this month both at St. John of the Woods Church and St. Ann Church. We thank the core team who organized these events for us to enjoy the food that we had.
We thank you for taking time to come to the Church to pray for Father Michael Wagner, who is the Priests Administrator of Holy Rosary Church and Visitation Church. We thank you for coming to the Vigil Service each night at both of these parishes to pray for him and his family. We also pray for those who are sick within our regional parishes that need healing. We thank the Outreach Ministry within our regional parishes for reaching out to touch those who are mourning within our parishes. We thank you for taking time to attend the funeral masses to pray for those who are resting in the peace of our Lord! We thank the Lazarus Ministry for assisting these families in their time of loss. We thank you for taking a step out of your comfort zone to assist others in time of need.
We have many different activities during the Easter Season with the youth group. We welcome you to our Children and Youth Mass this Sunday at St. Anns Church. We thank the core team who spent time with different youth group coordinators to plan this celebration. I am very proud of them for coming together to celebrate Mass and they pray for each other and support their activities. They participate in different parts of the liturgy to share their responsibility and respond to the need to be united with each other to build the parish life. I would like to see this celebration often within our parish worship. We thank you for your support and we thank the leadership of the youth group within our parishes for this event.
We congratulated those babies and their parents who joined us to celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism last weekend. It is a joyful moment to witness those parents taking time to prepare themselves and their babies to celebrate this sacrament. We truly experience the joy of Christ through this sacrament and new life is present within our Faith Community.
Many people joined us for the parish breakfast once a month at St. John of the Woods Church and we thank the team who cooked food for us there. We deeply appreciate those volunteers that give their time to serve and help the parish office when needed. We have many different areas of the parish ministry and we need you, if you are able to assist us.
I thank you for your continue support of our parish ministry. We need more volunteers in different areas such as the facility maintenance, outreach ministry, youth leadership, cleaning the Church, and taking care of the grass and flowers around the Church.
We thank the leadership teams for organizing many different events. There is one thing that we need to be proud of and that is we have more young families and young people come to the Church.
May the Lord continue to bless upon you!
Sincerely, Yours in Christ,
Fr. Tuan Nguyen, D. Min.,
Regional Pastor