Weekly Update November 10 to November 16, 2024

Announcements

• 3rd annual Sleeping Bag drive for the Catholic Action Center continues during the month of November. As the weather gets colder, consider donating an adult size/0°F sleeping bag to help keep our homeless neighbors warm and safe this winter.
• Christmas Children's Choir: Interested in joining our choir? Please contact Kelly Curry at [email protected].
• One in Christ - 2024 Diocesan Annual Appeal is ongoing! We have surpassed our percent participation goal, and we continue to work toward our monetary goal. Help us reach our monetary goal. Please visit this page to donate.
• 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.
• 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.
• Follow our Laudato Si' Care for Creation page as we continue making updates in the coming weeks for more info on meeting our Parish Action Plan goals.
• No Daily Mass this Week: Please note that there will be no daily Mass celebrated this week, November 11 through 15, at Historic St. Paul Catholic Church, with the exception of our regularly scheduled Spanish Mass on Thursday at 7:00 PM.
• Altar/Altarcito: If you have a picture of a loved one that has passed, we encourage you to bring it and place it on the altar of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Please feel free to also put the names of lost loved ones in our remembrance book that is located at the altar as well. They will be prayed for during the month of November.

Events

• Fall Clean-up: Saturday, November 16 - 8AM to 11AM
  • Please join us this Saturday for a Fall Clean Up day. To donate or learn more, contact Dcn. Steve - [email protected].
• Bible Study is on Tuesdays at 6PM in Brossart House
  • We will be using The Great Adventure program: "Unlocking the Mystery of the Bible" by Jeff Cavins and Sarah Christmyer published by Ascension Press. This week we will be discussing the Exodus and Numbers.
• LGBTQ+ Families Group: Tuesday, November 12 at 6PM, Ave Maria BuildingSynod Logo
• Parish Conversation in the Spirit: Wednesday, December 4 - 6PM to 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.
• 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.

Check out ALL upcoming events!

MESSAGE OF THE WEEK

Dear Parishioners and friends, 

Last Thanksgiving/my birthday I made a solo trip to Buffalo, NY, to be alone and spend some time at my parents' grave. They were cold for several days and I spent a lot of time sitting there and talking to them. You see, I had no time to grieve after my mom's sudden and unexpected passing because my dad was in hospice for the next four months and it was my full-time labor of love taking care of him and talking about things that we never talked about in our lives prior. I could not possibly "waste" those precious months by my personal grieving. Sure, I grieved my dad's personal loss after 60+ years of marriage. But, my grief was put on hold. Even now, I am doing the work of grieving. This year, too, I will go for Thanksgiving/ my birthday and be alone to work on my grief. Thanksgiving was always a huge family time growing up - 12, 15 ,20, 30 people could be at our family table. If you read my book, you know all about it. Now it is a solo journey into memory and self-healing. 

November is the traditional month to remember our beloved dead. Our "altarcito" before Mary's altar with all the photos of our beloved relatives and friends is a beautiful visual. I share this, my personal story, because I have learned that the work of grieving is important even while clinging to and holding sacred happy memories and love. My tears are smiles, actually; they pour forth, like precious jewels stored in the treasury of my memory, from my eyes that must now rely on faith to see. 

Through the years, I have been honored to participate in the funerals of many of your loved ones; I pray that despite your tears, you can see by faith and your grief-work, like mine, will one day turn to unimaginable joy. Please God, increase our faith! Let us pray for each other and for those who have no one to pray for them - in life, and in death. 

JR

From the Pastor

I will be using the remainder of my vacation days this year to visit my “Roman family.” By Roman family, I mean the family I lived with in 2019 during my sabbatical in Rome and visited last November. Guido and Guilia Zucchelli own the Roma Borgo91 Bed and Breakfast which is three blocks from the Vatican. I always enjoy my visits with Guido and Guilia and their two children now in university, Riccardo and Margherita. I will be away from November 11 – 22 and will only miss one weekend of masses. For the weekend of November 16 & 17, Fr. Larry Hehman will celebrate the English masses and Fr. Francisco Alfaro the Spanish masses. Please refer to the bulletin for the mass schedule these two weeks. Thank you for your prayers for my trip and Arrivederci. 

In the heart of Jesus, 
Fr. Richard

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 $32,442 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