Our Door is Open!

Join Providence Mount St. Vincent and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish for a community event  'Letting it Go, Letting it Grow', a workshop to help participants clarify their priorities, purpose, personal mission and values - and to develop a thoughtful plan for getting organized, cleaning and downsizing.
Join us from 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. on Saturday Feb. 16, 2019, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Walmesley Hall, 7000 35th Ave., SW, Seattle. A $10 donation is suggested for coffee, refreshments and lunch.
RSVP to Marion Kari at [email protected] or 206-935-0358 (w) or 206-786-2579 (cell).

See full flyer here.

Safe Environment Training at St John

Thursday, February 21st from 6:30pm - 9:00 in Egan Hall

(Child Care available)

You need this training if you volunteer on campus or in the classroom, coach, chaperone or drive for field trips, volunteer at the shelter, participate in the ministries of the church such as ushers, lectors, Eucharistic ministers, sacristans, CLOW, etc.

The Archdiocese of Seattle requires all Church Personnel (defined as all clergy, all employees, and all volunteers who have ongoing, unsupervised contact with minors and vulnerable adults) to take part in our Safe Environment Program in three ways. They must:

You may complete these requirements by accessing the Virtus database, our Catholic Risk Retention Group focused on the prevention of abuse.  New church personnel will need to create a Virtus profile ( http://www.virtus.org/virtus/index.cfm) under the "Registration" tab.
For more detailed instructions on registration click here.

If you have already taken the initial training, you will only need to update every three years.  Sign in at the volunteer computer in the school office to find out if you are up to date.

BINGO, BREWS & BITES  
The St. John School Auction will be holding a fun, adults only BINGO, BREWS & BITES night on Friday, February 22nd from 7-10 pm in Egan Hall.  Don't miss out on the fun! Tickets are $35/person and include six BINGO games, 2 beer/wine drink coupons, and heavy appetizers. 
This event helps underwrite the wine served at the Auction Gala Event. 
Click here to purchase your tickets.

We need some help making "BITES" for this fun event.  Please sign up here for BITES or to volunteer your time at the event.  Thank you! 

Please join us for our next book club where we will be reading Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History by Rodney Stark. He is one of the "most highly regarded sociologists of religion and argues that some of our most firmly held ideas about history, ideas that paint the Catholic Church in the least positive light are, in fact, fiction. In each chapter, Stark takes on a well-established anti-Catholic myth, gives a fascinating history of how each myth became the conventional wisdom, and presents a startling picture of the real truth". 

The book club is open to everyone even if you didn't finish the book. We also embrace all forms of media including audio books and movies, so please join us at our next book club meeting in March (date TBD).  

I collect wisdom nuggets as well as prayer nuggets.  One of my wisdom nuggets is that non-fiction books are best short.  Publishers like books to be about 250 pages.  A book of 100 pages means that the author didn't fluff his few ideas into a "full book".  Or that she pared her presentation to the essentials.  The folks at Dynamic Catholic noticed early in the publishing revolution that the cost of printing books was dropping, nearly to zero.  So they're doing their best to fill the world with Catholic books.  I have a thin little book of theirs titled Finding True Happiness (78 pages!).  It's a collection of the best nuggets from Bishop Fulton Sheen.  This one is on the last page.

 

We always make the fatal mistake of thinking that it is what we do that matters, when really what matters is what we let God do to us.  God sent the angel to Mary, not to ask her to do something, but to let something be done.

 

Since God is a better artisan than you, the more you abandon yourself to Him, the happier He can make you.  It is well to be a self-made man, but it is better to be a God-made man.  Try it - I mean you, whether you be Jew, Protestant, or Catholic - by spending a Holy Hour a day in prayer and meditation.  Catholics should include morning Mass in their Hour, thus taking advantage of Calvary's sacrifice, in a world of lesser Calvaries.

 

God will love you, of course, even though you do not love Him, but remember if you give Him only half your heart, He can make you only 50% happy.

 

If you have nuggets you'd like to share, email Bill Marty, [email protected].  Thanks!

Feast: February 5