This Week Letter from our Pastor
Dear Parishioners:
We congratulated those students who received the Sacrament of First Communion last weekend. We thank their parents for joining with us in preparing their children to receive this sacrament. They have made a big sacrifice to assist their children toward this celebration. We thank the catechist, volunteers, parents and to all those who supported us to celebrate our Faith. We also congratulated those students who are newly confirmed last week. It is a joyful month for us to celebrate with all the students who graduated this year. We are very happy to know that many of our students received accolades from their school. We are very proud of them for their achievements in their study. May the Lord continue to bless upon our Faith Community!
We are very happy to witness many of our parishioners attend Mass at the Catholic Cemetery on the Memorial Weekend. We celebrated Mass at each Catholic Cemetery and also had a prayer service at the cemetery which does not belong to the Catholic institution. We remembered all those who have died for our freedom and liberty. We thank you for your time in joining us for this special event.
We have met with the transition team and we have shared with you the information on our parish bulletin. I hope that you are able to mark the date of June 30th at Sacred Heart’s Church. We will start with Mass for thanksgiving at Noon and have a Farewell Party from 1:30PM to 4PM. The Farewell Party Committee will inform you on what you may want to do to show your appreciation to Father Francisco and how you can support him with his ministry. Please come to this event and meet with other parishioners to celebrate the life of the parish and to thank Father Francisco who has been with us and will transfer to his new assignment.
We thank the Long Range Plan Core Team for taking time to work on the final draft of the document, after they have asked the leadership for their feedback of the first draft. We thank you for your feedback and we ask you to participate in our plan to build up our parishes.
We thank you for your commitment card that you have returned to us. We are very happy with your commitment, as we have many who are able to support us financial and others who are able to support us with daily prayers and are able to volunteer to assist different ministries of our parishes to reach out to those in need. We would like to have 100% participation for the Annual Catholic Appeal this year. If you are not returning your commitment card to the parish office or to the Annual Catholic Appeal office, please fill in your commitment card and send it in.
We thank the parish staffs who attended a few workshops which will assist them to be more effective with their ministry at the parish office and the parish. They bring Christ’s love to those who they serve. I thank you for supporting them so they can be away to attend this special workshop to assist them. We live in a technological society, so we need to keep up to be more efficient. The basic requirement is to be able to know how to use basic computer software for their work. You have to learn and know how to use them. Many of us are afraid of it and this limits us, if we do not know how to use it. We need to be a good stewardship of God’s resource to each other. We need to share our time and talent to serve others. May you find joy and peace in serving our parish community!
Summer is coming and the Catholic Summer camp is the most important for the children to attend during the summer time. There is information on this camp, so you can send your children there. I used to work for the Catholic Youth Organization each summer during my Seminarian years. There are many games that we learned throughout the summer, but there are many important things like prayers, attending Mass and celebrating our Faith with others who are similar in age. There is a lot of fun to experience (being with nature) and the opportunity to make new friends.
There will be an Ordination to the Priesthood at St. James’ Cathedral. It will be at 10AM and you are cordially invited to join us to celebrate this great commitment of two transitional deacons who will be ordained to the Priesthood of Christ. We need more vocation to assist us in the parish life. May the Lord continue to bless upon you and your family.
We are very happy to complete the logging project at St. John of the Woods’ Church. The mature trees have been removed and the field is cleaned to prepare for next year as we plant saplings (trees). We thank the Core Team who assisted us last month to complete it. May the Lord continue to bless upon our committee members for a job well done!
We thank the Fund Raising Committee at Sacred Heart’s Church who has many different meetings throughout the month in the Church’s Hall. They are working on to write the grant that they hope they will get. We thank this committee for spending many hours to work on this project!
We welcome three seminarians, who will be with us for this summer. Two seminarians are taking the CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) in the hospital and one is working in the cemetery. You will see them around and please pray for them. We also are working on a ‘Welcome’ event for our new regional parishes’ Parochial Vicar J. Carlos Saenz, who will be with us in July.
We are working on a design and drawing of the plan for the church’s restroom at Saint Ann and St. John of the Woods Church. We are paying some money for an Architecture and Engineer for this plan. Please check our parish website and read the parish bulletin for more information. We thank you for your love and for your support. May the Lord continue to bless upon you!
Sincerely, Yours in Christ,
Fr. Tuan Nguyen, D. Min.,
Pastor