Raffle Winners

At 6:00 p.m. we drew the winners for our parish raffle.

While you don't have to be present to win, our grand prize winner (Todd Madden) was presnt at the drawing. Congratulations to him and all of our winners! They will be listed in this week's bulletin.

Outdoor Education

Yesterday the Sixth Grade classes from St. Columbkille

 Catholic School had their education outdoors.

They were divided into groups for adventures.

There were obstacles to overcome.

 

 

 

 There was canoeing.

There was archery.

There was the zip line ...

... which was even fun backwards.

Filling the hole

 

With the concrete walls poured, the workers

 began insulating and waterproofing it.

Then they began adding dirt.

 The picture above shows two things which followed.

They brought in this remote control unit to pack the ground. Whenever this was running you could feel it in the church or the parish office.

Then this little unit tests the ground. It checks the moisture, soil density and soil type. We were unable to use some of the soil we had on hand because the moisture was a little too high.

If you're thinking of Christmas gifts,

Fr. Damian says he'd like one of these.

With the rain last night, we know it's waterproof.

Fr Garry celebrates Mass with us

 You may remember Fr. Garry from

 when he was an associate in our parish.

 He's filling in for Masses yesterday, today and

 tomorrow morning while Fr. Damian

 and Fr. Vogel are in classes.

 You may not recognize him as he is 120 pound lighter.

 He's looking for helpers to prank Fr. Damian.

Fr. Garry, thanks for being with us this week!

Reflections from 9/11

An Instrument of Peace at Ground Zero"I did not see the devil's face at Ground Zero. I saw the face of God in the people working, caring, sweating, crying, rescuing, recovering and being very spiritual in their very humanness."
-Franciscan Father Joseph Bayne, chief chaplain of New York's Erie County Emergency Services

The Parable of Ground Zero
"I thought 'what is God like? God is like the firefighter who rushes into a burning building to save someone. That's how much God loves us."
-Jesuit Father James Martin, culture editor of America magazine

One Firefighter Spared Twice That Day"I still try to figure out what God was thinking and why I deserved to be spared twice that day."
-Kenneth Zaveckas, New York City firefighter

We Stood Together on September 11
"People came together in unity that day. We can all remember where we were on 9/11 because we were all together."
-Paulist Father Paul Wierichs, a former chaplain to the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Choosing Action in the Face of Evil
"Tom was a hero on Flight 93. He and his fellow passengers were drafted unknowingly as the first citizen-soldiers in the war on terrorism."
-Beverly and Thomas Burnett, Sr., parents of Tom Burnett

 These are just some of the stories at the US Bishop's Site

Annual Report for 2011-2012

Our Fiscal year goes from July 1st to June 30th. The Annual Report for our last fiscal year is complete and you can see it here. While it includes the financial statements, it takes a look at how our parish has changed in the last year, most notably with the change in the words during Mass and the construction that is still taking place. It truly is A Year of Change.

Happy Birthday Mary

The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was celebrated at least by the sixth century, when St. Romanos the Melodist composed a hymn for the feast. The feast spread to Rome in the seventh century, but it was centuries before it was celebrated throughout the West.

The source for the story of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal gospel written about A.D. 150. From it, we learn the names of Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, as well as the tradition that the couple was childless until an angel appeared to Anna and told her that she would conceive. (Many of the same details appear also in the later apocryphal Gospel of the Nativity of Mary.)

The traditional date of the feast, September 8, falls exactly nine months after the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. It is an important feast, because it prepares the way for the birth of Christ.

Happy Birthday Mary!

 

The above information was taken from about.com

Raffle Tickets

It's just six days until our parish Festival and the chance to win $5,000 at the raffle.

You can pick up raffle tickets during the Knights of Columbus Pancake Breakfast Sunday morning.

Baking Day

This week our preschoolers have been learning the letter “A.”

We had parent helpers come in to help us make Apple Muffins.

 We each added an  ingredient.

 

We all took a turn stirring.

 

Finally, it was time to eat our muffins.

Thank you parent helpers for helping us on baking day!

John Norman leaves for Rome

Before John Norman leaves for seminary, he stopped to say goodbye at all of the Masses last weekend. He will be ordained a deacon in October and a priest in June.