Weekly Update December 1 to December 7, 2024

Announcements

• Join our Parish Conversation in the Spirit: Wednesday, December 4, 6 - 8PM, Ave Maria Building.
  • Everyone, especially ministry directors and committee leadership, is encouraged to join this meeting.

Promoted event: New Frontiers in Nuclear Security: Technology, Treaties, and Challenges Ahead Friday, December 6, Noon-1PM, University of Kentucky Gatton Student Center's Worsham Cinema. Dr. Jeffery Kaplow will discuss our proximity to violence related to nuclear proliferation and how we can advance peace and justice through advocacy. 

• St. Paul's LGBTQ+ Ministry and Fortunate Families group invite you to our Christmas Party! Wednesday, December 18, 6 - 8PM. LGBTQ+ Friends, Family, Allies; ALL are welcome!

ReminderS/Updates

• Christmas Children's Choir: Interested in joining our choir? Please contact Kelly Curry at [email protected]. 
  • We will practice on Sundays, December 8th through 22nd, 11 - 11:30 AM immediately after mass.
• Christmas Plant Memorials: If you would like your loved ones memorialized in our Christmas bulletin and on our parish website this Christmas, please fill out the red form found at the side entrance of the church. A ten-dollar ($10) donation for each family name you would like listed is appreciated, as you are able. 
• From our Laudato Si' Action Team:  Reduce your Holiday Waste! 
  • Use a reusable shopping bag 
  • Reuse gift boxes and gift bags
  • Purchase items with less packaging and packaging that is recyclable in Lexington 
  • Use old newsprint, gift bags, and catalogs instead of purchasing new wrapping paper
  • Plastic bags, bubble wrap and plastic wrap are NOT recyclable in your blue cart, but many grocery stores have plastic bag collection bins for these items 
  • Give rechargeable batteries with gifts that require batteries. 
  • Think about giving experiences rather than things 
  • Donate unwanted items in good condition

Events

• Parish Conversation in the Spirit: Wednesday, December 4, 6 - 8PM, Ave Maria Building
  • Everyone is invited to take part in our Parish Conversation in the Spirit, a fruit of the synodal process. Please join us for this opportunity to dialogue with one another as we plan our future at St. Paul.
• Bible Study will continue Tuesday, December 3rd at 6PM in Brossart House.
  • We are using The Great Adventure program: "Unlocking the Mystery of the Bible" by Jeff Cavins and Sarah Christmyer published by Ascension Press.
  • We are discussing 1 & 2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea.
• LGBTQ+ Ministry's Christmas Party! Please join us at 6PM, Wednesday, December 18 to celebrate and support our LGBTQ+ Friends, Families, and Allies. ALL are welcome!
  

Drives and Fundraisers

• Thank you for donating to our 3rd annual Sleeping Bag drive for the Catholic Action Center. Together, we have donated more than one-hundred twenty (120) sleeping bags to the unhoused in our community!
• Our Winter Coat Drive is ongoing! We need coats and jackets, hats, gloves, scarves, and blankets. The collection barrel is in the narthex, by the stairs to the choir loft.
• The 7th annual Steeplechase Dinner Fundraiser - a five-course dinner with a flight of wine at Tony's of Lexington - is Monday, January 20, 2025 at 5:30pm. Tickets available now.
  

MESSAGE OF THE WEEK

Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

Last year a young man from the University of Kentucky called me a few weeks before Christmas and asked if our LGBTQ+ Ministry was doing anything on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I invited him to mass and told him that there would be some folks from the LGBTQ+ Ministry there. We had nothing planned. Then, I inquired why he was asking.

Ryan was attending UK. His family lived out of state and he couldn't go home for Christmas. He couldn't go home because after he came out to his family and told them about his partner, they told him he was not welcome in the family home - especially not with a partner. I am embarrassed to admit they were Catholic. They couldn't go to his partner's family either because his family disapproved of their son's "lifestyle." When he found out we had an LGBTQ+ Ministry he hoped we might be doing something.

I put Ryan in touch with a family whose son and his partner were going to be home for Christmas and Ryan and his partner joined them last Christmas. He told me they enjoyed the holiday and were grateful for the invitation.

Feeling alone on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day can be excruciatingly sad, especially for those shunned because of who they are or who they love. But, there are others, too, who find themselves alone and some we see and smile at every weekend when we come
here to mass. A smile sometimes masks heartbreak and inner tears.

We have a few weeks left before Christmas; if you suspect someone might be alone this Christmas, invite them to find family in your welcome. For Ryan and Chris it made all the difference.

Please pray for me.
JR

Ministries/services

Open Door Lunch Ministry

For the month of October, we gave out 773 lunches! 

Thank you to all who have volunteered and donated

If you would like to donate, we accept lunch related items such as: water, chips, cookies, soft fruit (bananas, grapes, oranges), cupped fruits, crackers, snack bars, etc. You may bring these donations to the office between 9:00 AM —4:00 PM Monday-Friday or when you come to Mass on the weekend.

The Little Mountain School

We have raised $32,747.05 with our coffee sales for the Little Mountain School in Guatemala. 

To learn more about The Little Mountain School in Joya Honda, Guatemala, and how you can help provide an education for the children, access their website at guatemalaneducationaloutreach.org.

Please keep The Little Mountain School in your prayers.

HELP FEED Your Neighbors AT the CATHOLIC ACTION CENTER

St. Paul purchases and prepares a meal for 150 people on the third weekend of every month. Contact Susan Brown to help: [email protected] | 859-536-0571