Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Let me applaud some victories here!

At the beginning of Catholic Schools Week, we announced that we had just hit the ‘Halfway There’ mark of our Capital Campaign. That was six weeks ago. This week we hit 4.2 million pledged. Yep, do the math, that is $700k over the last six weeks! I am so glad that so many families are getting on board and truly giving sacrificially!

We also announced an art contest for our parish school, Holy Cross Academy, and this week we were so proud to be able to announce the winners! The theme was designing our dream school chapel or an element for the chapel.

We had more than a hundred submissions which made selecting winners very difficult, but we found inspiration in every submission! We were so inspired that we decided to name more winners and hand out more prizes!! The first place winners are here in the bulletin this week. A joyful thanks to all of the students who shared their artistic and design talent with us!

And Stars! Stars Everywhere! So many of the submissions for the dream chapel had stars on the wall, or ceiling, or in stained glass, or hanging from the rafters! I told the children this week that because of their inspiration, I will instruct the architects to incorporate stars into the chapel design and decoration! That way they will know that they have helped to shape how their chapel will lift their minds and hearts to the Lord!

Victories all around: fundraising success, art contests, and chapel inspirations! Our Lady of Victories, pray for us!

pax,

Father John Mosimann

St. Patrick’s Family Dinner

Saturday, March 18 | 5:30-8pm | PLC

The Knights of Columbus will be hosting an amazing family dinner in celebration of St. Patrick. All proceeds will be used to upgrade the Parish Life Center kitchen equipment.

In Irish tradition, being cooked and served on-site will be Irish soda bread, corned beef, Brussel sprouts, red potatoes, and dessert.

Price: Adults/Teens – $15, Seniors (60+) – $12, Children (7-12) – $10. The maximum cost per family – $40.

In addition to a wonderful menu, there will be a beer/wine cash bar. Must be 21 years of age or older to purchase or consume alcohol. All alcohol must be consumed on premises.

Sad News, Great news, Older News, and Thankful News!

Sad News: by the time you read this Fr. Sina will be in the Dominican Republic for a month at the diocesan mission parish! The bishop has been looking for a volunteer for several months now, so when Fr. Sina said he was interested in going eventually, things moved quickly. How quickly? Seven days from my receiving a phone call to his leaving! He will return to St. Mary’s for Holy Week, and after he returns we will find out if he will be transferred there!

Great News: this week we received approval from the bishop to move forward with development, design, and Stafford County building and zoning approval for the expansion of Holy Cross Academy! This means that the amazing success of our Capital Campaign has demonstrated that we are serious about this expansion, and we can spend the significant dollars to design, and begin permitting work with civil officials.

The bishop wrote, “I have reviewed your presentation and received the recommendation from the Building Commission for you to proceed to the next step, Financed-to-Scope. Congratulations on the progress you have made on your fundraising.”

For this reason, I continue to exhort you to allow a priest or volunteer to sit down with you and explain the scope, reasoning, history, and commitments that are making this all possible. The generosity of the pledging families has made this forward momentum possible, and we need all families to help bring this to completion. Yes, I am asking ALL families to make a prayerfully sacrificial decision, and the conversations are essential so that the visits be truly informed.

Older News: this week’s bulletin includes last year’s financial numbers. I spoke to this information last fall when I updated you at all of the Masses, so there is not new info included, it just has to be printed in the bulletin each year. Sorry, that it is later than normal.

Thankful News: two amazing retreats happened here within the last eight days. Thanks to Fr. Jack Riley who packed the church for three nights and heard many, many hours of confessions! Keep him in your prayers. Also, thanks to the Unbound Ministry Team who led a “Liberado” retreat in Spanish last Saturday/Sunday! The PLC was full all weekend, and the team led parishioners in prayer, reflection and on how to be free from binding and opressing tactics of the evil one.

Great things happening at St. Mary’s!

pax et bonum,

Father John Mosimann