Dear Friends,
We have embarked on one of the most fruitful seasons – the season of Advent. As you witnessed last Sunday, our masses begin two minutes early, with the dimming of church lights, and a minute of silence before the opening hymn. I would like to invite you to come early, to savor those quiet moments of prayer, and then participate in the Liturgy with our minds and hearts set on God. The season of Advent is a time of reconciliation; we will be offering communal penance services in both churches. Kindly look at the schedules posted in this letter/bulletin.
Fulton J. Sheen was one of the greatest communicators of the Catholic Church, and was literally the face of the Church in the United States. We will be offering copies of a book titled “The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen,” a collection of inspiring quotes from his life and works. The books are available to you in the vestibule or the parish office. They are offered freely, but if you wish to give a small donation to defray the costs, we will welcome that.
There are two liturgical Marian celebrations in December that will help us in our Advent preparation – the Immaculate Conception on December 8th and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th. I invite you to participate in these celebrations, as a way of preparing for Christmas. We were very blessed with our brothers and sisters of Hispanic descent during the pandemic, and as we did last year, we shall celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to the music of Mariachi on Sunday, December 12th at the 4.00pm Mass at CTK. Our Hispanic friends will be here preparing the altar for the feast.
This summer/fall we have completed a number of projects here on the campus and we are looking at a couple of projects for the new year in both churches. Completed projects include:
· Repair and replacement of siding panels, installation of new speakers and microphones at St. Stephen Church. (St. Stephen)
· Installation of Television monitors in the Parish Hall. Purchase of new refrigerator and freezer, ice-making machine. (St. Stephen)
· Installation of security cameras in and around the campus. (St. Stephen)
· Repair and replacement and repainting of the trellis structure around the parish hall and adjoining conference rooms. (CTK)
· Renewal of the kitchen in the gym including a new twelve burner stove, ice machine and dishwasher, repair of the cabinets and drawers, stainless steel counter tops, new paint job for the walls and cabinetry and a heavy cleaning of the tiled floor. (CTK)
· Removal of the old sod that was damaged due to the temporary marquee we had for our “Covid outdoor church” and replacement with new sod.
· Construction of a new restroom in the old religious education area at the north end of the parish hall. That facility will service the Red Cross in their use of the rented space that was the religious education area. (CTK)
· Upgrades to the gym including a new motor for the backboard on the east end of the gym, new adjustable baskets in the area that used to be the stage area in the gym and six new benches, four for the teams and two for the spectators. (CTK)
· Repair of a leak in the water piping between the gym and the parish hall that could have ruined the new gym floor. (CTK)
· Retirement of all of the heavy much abused rectangular tables and many excess old folding chairs, (we still have 450 but all will soon have rubber feet). We have purchased 30 new six foot diameter tables and 6 five foot tables to go with the 15 five foot round tables we now have. We can now seat about 460 in the gym.
Projects that are in the planning stage include re-paving the asphalt parking lots (St. Stephen and CTK) and upgrading the school student vegetable garden area. I will keep you posted as we get more and more information. Thank you for your continued generosity.
Fr. Paulson
