Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

* Commitment Sunday is today. Remember to offer your commitment card at Masses this weekend. If you forgot, please mail it in or bring it to the office. Thanks. We ask everyone in the parish to make a positive commitment to living faith in love.

* More adult formation classes are starting this week. Please look in the bulletin for information – one Bible Study begins on Wednesday and two more begin on Thursday.

* Both Fr. Mealey’s presentation on Marriage and the Annulment Process (Thursday evening, Oct. 2) and our Seminar on Life Decisions (Saturday, Oct. 4) will be held depending upon response. At the time of this printing, we have not had any registrations. If you wish to attend, please call the office and leave your contact
information so we may notify you if the meetings are to be held at a later date.

* Don’t forget the Saint Francis Feast Day Animal Blessing next Saturday, October 4, in the parking lot on the office side in front of the church by the statue of Saint Francis.

* SCRIP is on sale this weekend in the Parish Life Center after all Masses except Saturday 7pm and Sunday 2pm. Please use SCRIP and help our school.

His Beatitude Louis Rafael Sako, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Iraq, has asked the world to pray with him for Christians and religious minorities who face unspeakable suffering in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and other countries:

Lord,
The plight of our country is deep and the suffering of Christians is severe and frightening. Therefore, we ask you Lord to spare our lives, and grant us patience and courage, to continue our witness of Christian values with trust and hope. Lord, peace is the foundation of life; Grant us the peace and stability that will enable us to live with each other without fear and anxiety, and with dignity and joy. Glory be to you forever.

* Parish Life Weekend is this weekend. Take advantage of our time to visit with ministry leaders and representatives outside under the tents about various ministries — and choose one for your commitment this year. Remember to bring your commitment card to Masses next weekend, December 27-28 for Commitment Sunday. This is the time of year when we make an account of our activity and make resolutions of prayer, service and support of our parish mission.

* Adult formation classes start in earnest this week and next. Please look in the bulletin for information – most require registration in advance! One Bible Study begins this Thursday, and next week one on Wednesday and two more on Thursday begin.

* Fr. Mealey’s presentation on Marriage and the Annulment Process will be held Thursday evening, Oct. 2. Please, if you or someone you know needs to come back to the
sacraments, plan to attend. Also, Our presentation on Life Decisions is coming again on Saturday, Oct. 4. Please see p. 8 for details.

* Don’t forget the Saint Francis Feast Day Animal Blessing on Saturday, October 4 in the parking lot in front of the church.

* SCRIP is on sale this weekend in the Parish Life Center after all Masses except Saturday 7pm and Sunday 2pm. Please use SCRIP and help our school.

His Beatitude Louis Rafael Sako, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Iraq, has asked the world to pray with him for Christians and religious minorities who face unspeakable suffering in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and other countries:

Lord,
The plight of our country is deep and the suffering of Christians is severe and frightening. Therefore, we ask you Lord to spare our lives, and grant us patience and courage, to continue our witness of Christian values with trust and hope. Lord, peace is the foundation of life; Grant us the peace and stability that will enable us to live with each other without fear and anxiety, and with dignity and joy. Glory be to you forever.

* TODAY, Sunday 4-7pm:
Our Parish Ice Cream Social, Cakewalk and Dance. 4pm doors open, ice cream, live music
begins. 4:30pm judging for cakes contest, cakewalk begins. Enter the contest for best decorated cakes: most unique, most delicious looking, best “family project” cake, and prettiest cake. Cakes must arrive for judging by 4:30pm. Dance to live music and chill.

* Our Manna Food Project is also this weekend. Please bring nonperishable food donations to the van outside church all weekend for the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank.

* Parish Life Weekend is next weekend, September 20-21. Watch your mail for our Parish Renewal Handbook with ministry catalog and prayerfully consider which ministry might be perfectly suited for you this year. Everyone, please get involved!

* SCRIP is on sale this weekend in the Parish Life Center after all Masses except Saturday 7pm and Sunday 2pm. Please use SCRIP and help our school.

His Beatitude Louis Rafael Sako, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Iraq, has asked the world to pray with him for Christians and religious minorities who face unspeakable suffering in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and other countries:

Lord,
The plight of our country is deep and the suffering of Christians is severe and frightening. Therefore, we ask you Lord to spare our lives, and grant us patience and courage, to continue our witness of Christian values with trust and hope. Lord, peace is the foundation of life; Grant us the peace and stability that will enable us to live with each other without fear and anxiety,and with dignity and joy. Glory be to you forever.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Watch for it… watch for it…
It’s that time of year again when you will be receiving our new Parish Renewal Handbook and Annual Report in the mail. The packet will arrive in a large envelope, including the catalog, a cover letter from me, a commitment card, a reply envelope for the commitment card,and a prayer card.

Our goal this year is to learn what holiness means, and to be holy. What does “holy”
mean to you? For many, unfortunately, it is the characature of the one who walks around
with his eyes gazing upward, who disdains the world and avoids anything that they feel is unworthy of them.

Well, that is not what I’m talking about. And that isn’t Jesus. God put us here on this earth to change it, and it won’t change if we aren’t involved. His call requires us be involved intimately, to enter into suffering and pain—not so that we can change it (we can’t), but so that he can transform it from within—through us.

A healthier definition of holiness, I believe, is to be exactly the person who God made you to be, to discover what he has given you so that you can fulfill a particular task in his Kingdom that only you can accomplish with your mixture of gifts and talents. It requires a radical openness to God, and to other people, too. Especially the people who might not agree or follow the same values and faith that we have. If we hold others at arms length, then how is the embrace of Christ through us going to break down the alienation of distance and hatred?

You see, God has a plan. It’s been from the beginning and always, and it unfolds over time in places and generations without exception. It is activated through the gifts that he has placed in all his people, without exception, because that is what he makes. People with gifts. At the right moment, when the need arises, these gifts make themselves available and effective to serve him and his people through us. Mary’s gift of openness to God’s will unlocked the mystery of the Incarnation for generations of people who had waited for the Messiah. Peter’s embedded gift of evangelism (clarity) was activated in that moment when, in his encounter with Jesus, he was asked, “Who do you say that I am?” And on that rock Jesus built his Church. Look to the great figures of saints anywhere in the great tradition of the history of salvation—even to those who are living today—and you will find people everywhere who are responding with open hearts, simply responding to this encounter with God, letting those gifts go to work. Holy people (saints) aren’t people who accomplished great things: holy people (saints) are the ones who allowed God to accomplish great things through them, just by becoming who God called them to be from the foundation of the world.

So, if the gifts are seeds in us that are already planted by God then all we need is good soil to grow in. Let Saint Mary be your garden, your vineyard. We are in the world in order to transform the world and cannot shy away from the ministry. So, please, get involved and become fully who you are called to be.

God bless you.