Congratulations!

09-04-2020Weekly Flocknote MessageFr. James Aboyi, V.C.

Congratulations to all of you on our performance in the Offertory Matching Opportunity! I am so excited to inform you that we exceeded our matching goal of $29,700 by 152%. The total new offertory increase donation is $45,231. This means that $29,700 of this amount will be matched, dollar for dollar, making a total of $74,700 increased donation to our parish within the months of July and August. The new increase in Offertory ($45,231) within July and August represents an average monthly increase of $23,000 in offertory and we expect this trend to continue. This is all from 172 of our parish families (84 new online givers and 88 increased givers) that participated in the matching appeal. The matching gift check from the donor will be mailed to us in the month of October. I understand that a few families participated right before the deadline on August 31st. I will give you more updates next week to include those new givings.

I honestly don’t know how to thank you all enough for this impressive and generous response to the appeal. Giving the impact of the pandemic, I was cautiously optimistic that we would make the goal when we started the appeal in the last week of June. To exceed our goal by 152% was beyond my wildest imagination. Thank you so much for your sacrificial giving in response to the need of our parish community. May God continue to provide for you as you support the mission of the Church. I thank everyone for your continuous support, even if you did not participate in the matching appeal at this time, your prayers and financial support are appreciated.

During the week, I sent a thank you letter to the donor family that provided this matching opportunity for our parish and school communities. I informed the family that we will offer a special prayer for their intentions during our Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, held today. I also informed them that we will offer Mass for their intention at our 9am Sunday Mass on September 13th.

Back to Class!

I welcome our students at St. John Bosco back to campus as we resume the in-person classes on Tuesday next week, September 8th. Given the unique circumstances with the pandemic, not all students will be returning in-person this week. We will continue to operate a hybrid class model until the situation improves. I thank the students, parents and the school community for their patience and understanding as we work our way through this unprecedented time.

Mary Prayer Garden

My special thanks to Cooper Grossgold for remodeling the Mary Prayer Garden on the SJB campus. Cooper devoted an estimated 180 hours to the project as his Eagle Scout project. The improved Prayer Garden now looks so beautiful and will serve as a prayer and resting spot for the students. Thanks also to the Eagle Scout and Knights of Columbus for their support of the project. We will be installing additional statues in the coming weeks, and will soon set a date for the blessing of the Prayer Gardens. Here are some pictures of the Prayer Garden:

Catholics in the Public Square

Members of the Knights of Columbus will be outside passing out free copies of the latest edition of Catholics in the Public Square written by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. Beginning in 2006 this booklet has become a biennial message from Bishop Olmsted to the faithful, providing information about the teachings of our Catholic faith in relation to our civic responsibilities and how we can bring the light of our Catholic faith into the political process. Please take a copy for yourself, your family and friends.

Have a wonderful weekend and Remain Blessed.

Fr James Aboyi, VC
Pastor