Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Folks,

Here we go!!!!!! Parish Life Weekend!!! Last weekend we celebrated our thank you Mass and dinner with the 2024 Volunteers of the Year award winners! The honorees were included in last week’s bulletin too! We tried a new way of rolling out our THANK YOU and acknowledgement of service with the announcement of honorees being made at the parish leadership dinner, and then this past weekend, thanking at Holy Mass and dinner! I was happy with how it worked this year, as it was nice to be able to personally spend a little more time with each award winner!

This weekend we are hosting Parish Life Weekend! And in the light of the opportunity to sign up for parish ministries, I would want to share one of my reflections that blossomed from the leadership dinner, discussing the theme “Built of Living Stones.”

In the fuller verse, St. Peter writes, “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5, NAB).

Remember that Peter’s name = Rock = Petros. Here is the Rock writing about being living stones, and in this verse he uses another word in Greek: Lithoi. The distinction is that Petra is a large rock, where Lithoi are smaller stones, which have been formed and shaped. They have been either shaped by stone mason, or wind, or water. In this context, Peter’s exhortation makes sense, “let yourselves be built!!” Our being built requires our saying ‘yes’ to the Lord forming, and shaping us into His body!

Every time you say ‘yes’ to serving the Lord in one of the 108 ministries in this parish, you are letting yourself be built into the spiritual house of the Lord. This is why sharing your talents is not a suggestion or an option. It is at the very heart of being a disciple of the Lord and required for all who love Him.

pax,

Father John Mosimann

Due to parking concerns, we are changing the bus pickup for the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Holy Cross Academy.  Pickup will still be at 7:30am, but at Holy Cross and not the parish.

There is a special collection the weekend of October 12-13 to assist with humanitarian relief efforts due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene across the southeastern part of the United States.  All checks should be made payable to the parish with “Hurricane Helene Relief” in the memo line.  You may drop off your donation to the parish office during the week, or you can also make a donation to the relief effort at www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.

Due to parking concerns, we are changing the bus pickup for the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Holy Cross Academy.  Pickup will still be at 7:30am, but at Holy Cross and not the parish.