Embracing Inclusiveness
Advocating Mercy
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November 4, 2024
Announcements- We are beginning our 3rd annual Sleeping Bag drive for the Catholic Action Center during the month of November to help keep our homeless neighbors warm and safe this winter. Please bring an adult size/ 0 degree sleeping bag to the office or place it in front of the altar before Mass.
- National Vocation Awareness Week is this week, November 3rd through 9th. This week is dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life through prayer and education, and to renew our prayers and support for those who are considering one of these vocations.
- 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.
- Creation Care Meets Coffee Hour! Join our coffee hour after 10:00 AM mass. You will notice that in addition to paper cups we will now serve coffee in ceramic mugs.
- 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.
Events- Bible Study will resume on November 12th 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 Early World (Genesis 12-50).
- LGBTQ+ Families Group: Tuesday, November 12 @ 6pm, Ave Maria Building
- Diocesan Annual Wedding Anniversary Celebration: November 23rd @ 5pm, Cathedral of Christ the King. Click here for details and to register to volunteer as hospitality ministers.
- 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 WEEKDear friends and fellow Christians,
In the Gospel today Jesus tells us:"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
It sounds too simple, these commandments of love, and so we often get tripped up. We want our faith to be more, to have more to it. Quite often we explore and adopt doctrines, dogmas, and devotions in order to have a more robust-feeling faith.
And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Unfortunately, we sometimes lose sight of these two love commandments in our quest to have more. We can easily become very devout followers of Catholic doctrines and dogmas, while forgetting to love God and love our neighbor.
But Jesus calls these the first and greatest commandments, and so we would not be out of line to consider adopting and following these commandments first and foremost. In fact without these commandments of love, the rest of what we do might be insignificant. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians:"If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
Without these two Commandments of love, the rest of our faith loses its virtue and meaning.
And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing."
So let's follow Jesus and his example of love, and remember the two most important Commandments.
Peace,
Dcn. SteveFrom the PastorThank you to everyone who has donated to the 2024 Diocesan Annual Appeal. Happily, we have surpassed our percent participation goal, and we continue to work toward our monetary goal.
Also, thank you to everyone who donated to our Catholic Diocese of Lexington sponsored Habitat build and for those who were able to help on November 1 with the onsite construction.
We are beginning our 3rd annual Sleeping Bag drive for the Catholic Action Center (one of my favorite projects each year). During the month of November as the weather is getting colder, consider donating an adult size/ 0 degree sleeping bag to help keep our homeless neighbors warm and safe this winter. Please bring the sleeping bag to the office or mass and place it in front of the altar. If you prefer to order a sleeping bag (for example from Amazon) you may have it shipped directly to the office at 501 West Short Street, Lexington, KY 40507. Also, as an example I am including the information for the sleeping bag that I order each year from Amazon. Thank you in advance for housing the homeless in a sleeping bag this winter.
National Vocation Awareness Week will be celebrated in our country November 3-9, 2024. Please ask Our Lord for more dedicated, holy priests, deacons, and consecrated men and women. May they be inspired by Jesus Christ, supported by our faith community, and respond generously to God's gift of vocation.
In the heart of Jesus,
Fr. RichardMinistries/servicesOpen Door Lunch Ministry
For the month of September, we gave out 677 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 $32,187 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