Let's Change 1,500 Lives

 We have purchase 1,500 copies of Matthew

 Kelly's book Rediscovering Catholism.

 They are at all the exits.

 Fr Damian says, "On your way out of church pick up a copy. Think and pray about the people in your life and decide who most needs to find a better relationship with God. Then write them a note, put it in the book, wrap it, and give it to them as a Christmas gift. Re-gifting is a wonderful thing. Share Jesus this Christmas."

Our House

The parish has purchased the yellow house at 204 East 6th street in Papillion. It is directly east of the church.

It also has a big back yard.

The parish was approached before the house was put onto the market. The Pastoral Council and the Finance Council both approved the purchase, although a decision has not been made yet on what to do with it. Ideas floated have included:

• Tear down the house and make it into a parking lot;
• Remodel and expand the house to become a new Parish Office, then tear down the existing parish office to give 40 new parking spaces near the church;
• Rent it out for now, knowing we have it for a future use.

Obviously the city would have to approve anything other than simply renting it out. The Pastoral and Finance Council will be looking at options, so if you have any ideas, be sure and ask one of them.

Sacred Blood Test

Just looking at someone, they can appear very healthy. But from time to time a doctor may do a blood test. From just a little bit of blood things can be determined like cholesterol levels (LDL & HDL) glucose levels, calcium,  triglycerides, sodium, potassium,... This way things can sometimes be found that could never be found in an office visit.

From a general look at St. Columbkille Parish, we appear very healthy. Our Source & Summit Campaign has been successful, Masses are full, and we have been a hotbed of activity. But it's time for the parish to have a Sacred Blood Test of sorts and look a little closer. The last time we did one of these was in 2010 and this will give us a chance to see how we've changed in three years.

With the help of Gallup, next weekend we will take a 25 question survey at the start of Mass. It will take about 7 minutes and we ask that everyone 18 and over fill one out. For example, if your family has a husband, wife and 19 year old son, all three of you should take it.

Fr. Damian and the Pastoral Council will get the results and then they will be shared with everyone in the parish. This will give us a better sense of how we are doing in our parish mission to "Go and Make Disciples."

Modeling the Chapel

The photo above is from an April, 1982 Papillion Times story on our church which was about to be dedicated. The model was created by our architect to help visualize the new church.

It turns out the architect still has the model, and he modified it so we could get a better understanding of his proposal for a new chapel. (Although he did not provide model people that could be situated within.)

His proposal is that the "alcove" to the north of the altar area be enclosed with a wall of etched glass and a tabernacle in the center. This would be so prominent that there would not be a need offset the Ascending Christ image above the choir area.

The back wall of the alcove would be removed and the area would expanded. 15 to 20 people would be able to pray in the chapel together. But it would be primarily used for Eucharistic Adoration. A new tabernacle would be installed where those in the chapel could view the host inside the tabernacle through bulletproof glass. There are similar tabernacles in parishes like St. Robert's and Holy Cross. The back wall would be even with the wall of the current back sacristy. There would also be stained glass windows installed.

So be certain to let Fr. Damian and/or members of the pastoral council what you think!

Thank, but no thanks

Google recently contacted us. Due to the amount of traffic to our sites, they wanted to pay us to put their ads on our site. Since we would have no control over what would be advertised, we said no very quickly. But it was nice to be noticed.

It was the Pastoral Council's idea to have a blog. Many of us have been pleasantly surprised by how many people look at it and how they really are from al over the world. We're still learning, but it's been a very good experience.

We've been on Facebook for awhile but we changed the focus a few years ago from just youth towards the whole parish.(http://facebook.com/columbkille)

For years the Pastoral Council has been suggesting that we get involved with Twitter as well. While we've been reluctant, never say never.

Worship Expectations

Last weekend Fr. Damian and Fr. Steve spoke about the expectations in evangelization. This weekend the deacons spoke about the expectations for Worship. Each week reminders, like the one above are available -- Collect all four!

Expectations

As Fr. Damian pointed out in this weekend's bulletin, people seem to need to know the basics of what is expected of them. With that in mind, the Pastoral Council helped craft expectations in the four areas of our parish: Worship, Evangelization, Formation and Charity/Justice. This is the first of four weekends where some of those expectations will be raised.

Survey Results

In the July 18th bulletin, Fr. Damian invited anyone who wanted

to hear the results of the Gallup poll to attend a gathering Saturday.

Those attending were a mixture of Pastoral Council

 members, parish staff and other parishioners.

After hearing about the philosophy of the survey and getting the results,

those present discussed ways they can use that information to improve.

While the full results are being prepared for the parish,

the results are positive, show good improvements and,

as Fr. Damian has said, are well worth celebrating.