Preschool Begins

Monday night the families gathered to hear about Sacred Heart Preschool and what their children would be doing in classes.

Wednesday was a chance for students

 to visit their new school and explore.

 

 

 

Yesterday was the first day for students attending Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today is the first day for those attending on Monday-Wednesday-Friday.

 We got right to work in class..

... and made new friends.

It looks like Preschool will be fun!

Scouts & Wildlife

Tuesday night part of the initial Cub Scout meeting

 was a chance to see some wildlife up close.

 

 

 He doesn't seem as excited by this guest...

 ... at least not as much as she is.

 There was also a visit from a cat ...

... who can jump.

Tuesday night the Wildlife Encounter was just one of the fun things that happened as the Cub Scouts gathered to begin a new, exciting year.

Happy 135th Birthday St. Columbkille Parish

It was on August 22, 1877 that St. Columbkille Parish was established. The thirteen Papillion, Catholic families built the church and rectory as shown above. Today you can see that the former rectory is still there and a brick house stands where the wood frame church once sat.

As those 13 families were simply delighted to have a church and borrowed $650 at 10% interest for the $1500 construction cost, they may never have imagined the parish today at over 2900 families.

The second church was built in 1923 and could seat 250 people. The first event in the "new" church was the Christmas Cantata" performed by the students of Sacred Heart Academy on Friday, December 21. The first Masses were said on Sunday, December 23rd.

The third (and current) church was dedicated in 1982. It was designed so as not to disturb the big beautiful tree in front of it. Unfortunately that tree died a few years later.

Since then a bell tower and courtyard have been built in front.

But besides the physical changes, the parish continues to grow and thrive in our mission to "go and Make Disciples."

For more on the parish history, click here.

Swimming Pool Construction

"Fr. Damian, why's there that big hole behind the church?"

"We're building a swimming pool," he sometimes joked.

Of course it's actualy the foundation for the new

chapel. And the work is coming along well.

 

 

There's progress every day.

Sorry About That

We ran into a few technical difficulties with some automatic posts. But we should be back up and going shortly. Most of the posts that should have come up the last few days will post sometime in the future.

The First Day of School

Students seemed anxious for St. Columbkille

 Catholic School to open this morning.

 

 Fr Vogel was greeting students outside ...

 ... while Dr. Blue was welcoming them inside.

Students got all their stuff in place...

 

... so school was ready to begin.

Mary's Assumption

Today the strongest evidence for Mary's Assumption is, ironically, the complete lack of evidence.

No city ever claimed to have Mary's remains and no early Christian ever claimed to have a bodily relic of Mary. This is unlike the early veneration of the tombs of the Apostles and the other saints. Everyone knew that Peter and Paul's graves were in Rome, John and Timothy's graves were at Ephesus, Luke's grave Luke was in Greece, and Mark's grave was in Alexandria, Egypt and later moved to Venice. Furthermore, James' grave was in Jerusalem and Mary Magdalene's was in Marseille. The graves of the Old Testament saints were similarly venerated: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at Hebron; Rachel at Bethlehem (Matt 2:18), and in Jerusalem (Acts 2:29). The most logical reason to explain why NO early Christian ever spoke about a grave of the Virgin Mary was because there wasn't one.

It's also important to note that while Jesus ascended (it was His action) into heaven, Mary was assumed (God's action) into heaven.

Masses for this Holy Day of Obligation are:

Tuesday

5:30 p.m.

Wednesday

6:20, 8:15 a.m., 12:10, 5:30 and 7:00 p.m.

3 on 3 Soccer

Saturday was a beautiful day to be outdoors and the 3 on 3 soccer tournament gave the perfect excuse to be outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 In each of the divisions there were trophies for

 each team member in the Championship games.

It was a fun day!

This door is closed

We won't be able to use the Northeast

 door of the church for awhile.

 For the next few weeks it may be

 wise to avoid the east parking lot.

Can you hear me now?

All the audio compnents were installed

 yesterday and adjusted on computers.

David Batter walked around the

 sanctuary as the sound was tested.

We're anxious to hear what you think?