What's Happening
at St. John's
Parish News
Please take a few minutes this week to ponder the words of Don Hying, Bishop of Madison:

24-Hour Perpetual Adoration

St. John’s is fortunate to have 24-hour Perpetual Adoration. Please take advantage of this beautiful opportunity to stay close to God in these difficult times. Hand sanitizer is available in the Adoration entrance (south side of Church), and we ask that you practice social distancing and stay at least six feet from others while in Church.
Renew Your Love
of the Mass This Lent

Sign up to listen to Rev. Francis (Rocky) J. Hoffman's daily Lenten message that will dive deeper into the Mass.
Watch the bonus video below that explains the program
Lenten Spiritual Adoption Event

The Lenten Spiritual Adoption begins this weekend. After all Masses, parishioners and guests can pick up either a pink or blue prayer card or one of each! The cards contain a special prayer for the unborn and space for you to add the name of your adopted unborn child. You can pick any name that you like, boy or girl. You will be making a commitment to recite this prayer for your child each day during Lent. The Respect Life Committee especially encourages kids and teens to join in. They need everyone to remember our preborn brothers and sisters with their prayers and sacrifices during Lent. Members of the Respect Life Committee will be in the narthex to answer any questions you may have.
 
Also, the “40 Days for Life” campaign, which starts at the beginning of Lent, will fit in perfectly with your prayers for your spiritually-adopted preborn child so please include both with your daily “40 Days for Life” prayers.
St. John's Men's Group
A Strong Faith

Looking for something more this Lent? Try Father Larry Richards’ Men Strengthening Summit. The Summits are half-hour videos to prepare you to grow in your faith and bring God into the world. All men (and sons 12 and up) are invited to learn more about the Summit Program's value.

Please call Will at (414)531-7005 or
email him at wstarcevich@wi.rr.com.

Please pass the word on to others. The programs are held every Saturday beginning at 6:45 a.m. in the Church Hall. The first program is on February 20.
Your donations are needed and will help us
continue to operate during these unsettling times.
First Sunday of Lent
February 20/21, 2021

Today's readings remind us why we partake in this 40-day Lenten journey — to prepare our hearts for the resurrection of Christ on Easter.
 
St. Peter reminds us in our Second Reading of the blessings we receive from Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection — “Christ suffered for sins once… that he might lead you to God.” And again, “[Baptism] is… an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” 
 
In order to more readily receive the blessings from Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, we too are called to endure 40 days “in the desert.” In our Gospel, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert where Satan tempted him. Jesus was called to face trials and to confront evil. During this time, He committed to intense prayer and fasting. It was not necessary for Jesus to go into the desert so that He might be purified, but rather, to endure temptations of man for our sake. He was fully man and experienced temptations just like us, yet responded to them perfectly, never falling into sin. 
 
We should strive to fully participate in this Lenten season by mirroring Jesus, the model steward by Whom we are called to imitate. We will confront evil through our time in the desert by weeding out the roots of sin in our lives through fasting. And we will be sustained and nourished in the desert by prayer. 
 
Let us strive to purify our hearts so that we might be ready to receive the glorious gift of Christ and partake in the riches that pour forth from this Gift. 
School News
On Wednesday, we began our preparations for Easter with our Ash Wednesday liturgy. In a normal year, we would have celebrated Paczki with Pop on Fat Tuesday, inviting all of our dads, granddads, uncles, and friends into our building for some early morning treats and conversation. This year, members of our Home and School braved the extremely cold weather and provided drive-through paczki and coffee for our parents. Although this certainly can’t match fellowship in our building, it is a wonderful way to let our parents know how important they are to us!
 
Our children will focus on fasting, prayer, and almsgiving throughout the Lenten season. We love the season of Lent. It is an opportunity to take some time for quiet activities before the busy spring season begins. Our children will benefit greatly from time spent in Adoration and frequent classroom opportunities for prayer. Our students (and staff members) will abstain from unnecessary treats. We also encourage our students to consider giving up a bad habit. Unkind words toward family members and other students are often a struggle for our children. Lent is the perfect time to stop and consider how we can improve our relationship with God and each other.
 
In addition, our students will receive Reconciliation, and we will gather to pray the Stations of the Cross each Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, this year we are not able to invite our families or parishioners to join us as we pray the Stations. Please consider stopping whatever you are doing each Friday afternoon and saying a quick prayer for our students. Your prayers support the efforts of our teachers and students as we all travel on the path to Heaven.
...Together in God’s Name

Mary Laidlaw-Otto, Principal
Live-streaming: Mass and Adoration
 
We are live-streaming daily and Sunday Masses as well as Adoration for those who are unable to attend:

Daily Masses are:
Monday thru Saturday 8:00 a.m.

Weekend Masses are:
Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
Sunday at 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

Our YouTube channel is SJE-Greenfield.

If you miss the livestream, you can watch the upload of each Mass on our YouTube channel.
CDs from Augustine Institute

Did you know we have CDs (and other items) located in the narthex? Each week we will highlight one of the available CDs.

Cost is $4 each.
Holy Week is the holiest week of the year. But why do we call the entire week “holy”? Does anything important happen on the days between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday? Follow Scripture scholar and professor Dr. Brant Pitre as he walks through each of the seven days of Holy Week and explains how the words and actions of Jesus on the last seven days of His life are deeply significant, relevant, and rooted in the Old Testament. Enter Holy Week and make it your most life-changing week yet.
Start earning the easy way with the new mobile app: RaiseRight by ShopWithScrip
RaiseRight is simply the right way to fundraise for our organization. Shop gift cards from more than 750 top brands to earn on your daily purchases—right from your phone.

Turn your shopping list into fundraising
  • Discover new earning opportunities every day 
  • Narrow your search with categories that fit your everyday shopping needs
  • Easily browse brands offering bonus earnings
  • Add brands you love to your Favorites for faster shopping
  • Manage your gift cards in one place: your Wallet

Pick up right where you left off. Sign in with your same ShopWithScrip username and password. Access your gift cards right away. And check out with payment information already saved to your account.


SCRIP will now be sold before and after all weekend Masses. As always, SCRIP is available at the parish office during regular business hours. We have materials available below if you would like to set up an online account.






You can also click here to view a how-to video from Scrip on how to open an account.

To protect the program from fraud, please contact the Parish or School offices for the enrollment code. Once you have an online account you can pay by direct debit from your checking account (Presto Pay), by credit card, or by check here in the parish office. If we do not have the item in stock, we will order on Monday and have the cards by Thursday. Once you have the physical card you can enroll it in your "wallet" and reload it as needed.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call the parish office at 414-321-1965.
This program allows .5% of your shopping on Amazon to be donated to St. John the Evangelist.

If you purchase Scrip, St. John's receives an additional 2.25%. That's 2.75% of your purchases to St. John's if you are already shopping Amazon.
The newsletter is published on Thursdays. Articles for each week's publication are due on Mondays at noon.

To submit articles e-mail to: newsletter@stjohns-grfd.org
"Remember God's Will in Yours!"

Please keep the needs of St. John the Evangelist in mind as you do your estate planning. For information on how to include the parish as a beneficiary, contact the Parish Office at 414-321-1965.
Like us on Facebook