Sunday June 24th 2018
Dear Parishioners,
We had a blessed week with other Priests, Bishops and the Archbishop for prayers. We gathered to learn from each other about our parish ministry and the life of the parish. We also learned from key speakers on how to restore the relationship with God and help others to develop and nurture their relationship with God through the sacraments that we celebrate in the Faith Community. We had a good time together to strengthen our fraternity and the theme for this year was Restoring Relationships and we had wonderful speakers, who assisted us with different presentations throughout the week to focus on different areas that we may need to be aware of it, to assist parishioners and ourselves to be closer to the Lord.
We congratulated those couples that made their marriage vows to each other (to be there for each other in good and bad times, to be faithful to each other and to procreate and to raise their children with love and in our Faith). It is a big commitment that they made with each other in the presence of their families, relatives and friends. We are very happy for these couples and we promised them to keep them in our daily prayers.
We thank the leadership team from each parish for attending the meeting for the month of June, so we can finalize the budget for the coming year. We thank the leadership team at Sacred Heart Parish for coming to the transition meeting with the Archdiocese as they prepare to work together with the parish of St. Leo for the next two years. We are replacing and upgrading the lights at the facility of St. Ann Parish for all the buildings and facilities during this summer. As you can see, it is brighter with the new lights that have already been installed. Summer projects are very important for our parishes to catch up with what we were not able to do throughout the year. We are able to do them now, because we have some dedicated volunteers who are able to give us their time and talents to assist us. We thank them for sharing with us their time from their vacation or time off from work. We also are working on some other projects at St. John of the Woods Church, such as the security camera installation, maintaining the ground and many other things, which our volunteers are assisting us with. We spent some time to prepare our summer events such as the parish picnic, tea party and other celebration for our parishes annual events. We are having a meeting with the core team on the pastoral planning for the future of our parishes. We also spend time to work on the Annual Catholic Appeal and the Called to Serve as Christs Champaign which is challenging for the team members and it is hard on them. We have many different meetings to find a way to support these campaigns, as we are the pilot wave, which means we are the first group to commence and there are many challenges associated with them. We have faith in you for your participation by completing a commitment form and returning it to us or to the parish office.
I spent time to meet with the Confirmation core team in planning for the coming year. I am very happy to have the core teams commitment, as they will take on the preparation for the coming year. We have the core team for Confirmation (English) Class next year and they will post the information on the website, so you can register for next years program. We thank you for always supporting our volunteers for their time and talent in assisting the parishs ministry.
Summer gives us time to be with family for various celebrations, such as weddings, anniversaries, and family vacation. For our parishes, summer is a time for us to organize and to prepare and plan for the coming year. We ask you to remember our Sisters for their time away for their summer retreat and some will be visiting their family. We thank our Sisters of the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Go-Vap for their ministry among us. They bring the true presence of Christ among us and with us. We are very blessed to have them serve in our parishes. The Sisters have the summer school at St. Anns Church and it is a good summer program as it teaches students to pray, to play and to study according to their age level. We thank them for having this summer program to assist students, who are not away for this summer.
We welcome Father Bao Anh, who is with us for his Thanksgiving Mass on Sunday. He was Ordained a few weeks ago. We pray for the choir members of Saint Theresa of Calcutta for their weekend camp, which is a camp to strengthen their bond and build their relationship with each other. I have the opportunity to be with them to thank them for their ministry to serve our parish in the liturgy and worship. We welcome Father Andrew from Mt. Angel Abbey, who is with us on Sunday for the Samoas Mass at St. John of the Woods Church. We also thank Father Justin for helping during the weekend. We are very blessed to welcome all different Priests and Sisters (from different religious community orders such as the Jesuits Order, Divine Words Order, the Order of St. Benedict, the Order of Dominican, the Order of Saint Francis, the Sisters of Providence, and the Parish Priest), who are visiting our parishes.
I thank the homebound ministers, who bring communion to the surround nursing homes and foster homes. I had the opportunity to visit our homebound parishioners and I was able to celebrate the Sacrament of Confession and Anointing, and am able to pray with them at their own home or in their own residents. I enjoy knowing them by visiting them. Please keep our homebound ministry and our parishioners who are homebound in your prayers. Our homebound parishioners were once very active in the parish and due to their health they are not able to be with us and are missing us. May God continue to bless upon them and we thank our homebound ministers who reach out to them!
Sincerely, Yours in Christ,
Fr. Tuan Nguyen, D. Min
Regional Pastor