Faithful can subscribe to the notes by contacting the parish office and providing their e-mail address. Thanks for your support of our border town parishes!!!

Please remember - Fr. Pete does not send out text messages, e-mails or social media posts to solicit

funds for himself or any organizations outside of the parishes he serves. Fr. Pete's emergency phone

number is (815) 685-1359 and his e-mail addresses

are either pjankowski@yahoo.com or pjankowski@stfrancis.edu.

Please do not trust any correspondences that

utilize any other phone number or e-mail address.

Feel free to contact Fr. Pete at email pjankowski@yahoo.com. If you have an emergency, please contact Fr. Pete at (815) 685-1359

First of all, I would like to thank all of you who have prayed for me during my hernia operation and its aftermath. Health wise, this has been an interesting year for me, getting COVID and enduring the various sicknesses I endured in Europe, along with the root canal surgery and now the hernia operation. Needless to say, insurance help capped out - getting to the other side of my illnesses has caused a different kind of illness - to my wallet! God love insurance companies...

A few years ago, an engineering student from Kankakee Community College named Ethan Fritz began working on a cemetery project for us. Both sextons of our respective cemeteries (Roger “Bones” Hess at St. Patrick’s and Jim Sparenberg at St. Anne’s) knew that recording everything on paper was time- consuming and fraught with problems – God help us if the papers got destroyed.

The archivist of the Joliet Diocese (Rev. Scott McCawley) was able to put on disk a copy of all sacramental records for every parish in the diocese – including ours – on a computer disk so that they and we would have access to those records electronically. We wanted to do the same with our cemeteries, so that parishioners would have access to which person is buried where in each cemetery.

Software programs exist for doing this but the programs are really expensive. My contact from Joliet, Richard Tapella (former director of Joliet’s Cemetery Office) suggested we get an engineering student to undertake such a plan. Ethan was able to lay out the cemeteries for us (which you can access below) but was not able to input the names and specific locations for all the deceased.

Because of Ethan’s time constraints, I was able to download both cemetery layouts as Excel Spreadsheets. You can access these online versions below (prior to us inputting the names of our beloved deceased). 

Click Here to View the Layout of

St. Patrick's Cemetery in Momence

Click Here to View the Layout of

St. Anne's Cemetery in St. Anne, IL

Mr. Tapella currently has the time to input the names of those who are buried in our cemeteries onto these spreadsheets. Rich was kind enough to pay us a visit on Monday to start this project at St. Pat’s Cemetery and subsequently at St. Anne’s – he had a chance to visit with Bones and Jim to work on this project. We are hoping to get this project finally completed so that you all have access to the cemetery information, which we will place on our parish websites upon their completion (obviously, we will update these sites periodically, depending on who is buried after we update what we have on the spreadsheets).

Meanwhile, Ashley Childress and St. Anne’s Service Commission is hosting a Fall Fellowship Event after the 9:00 a.m. Mass this Sunday in the parish hall. Among the highlights of the day…

• A special blessing for the re-dedication for the Church after our recent upgrades (fixing the boilers, re-doing our roof, re-painting and re-carpeting the inside of our church, etc.
• Commissioning Prayer for the Religious Education Catechists.
• Announcing the other projects we will complete in the near future, including the renovation of the church bathroom and outdoor ramp.
• At the social, a presentation about the Rosary from our catechists and students
• A tour of our facilities (which includes the lighting project we completed in the hall and church.

Thanks also to Viatorian Fathers Moises Mesh and Pat Render for covering the Masses I normally celebrate in Momence so I can remain with the St. Anne faithful during their event.

We also had a significant problem at St. Patrick’s Church last Sunday – OUR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PROGRAM HAS DOUBLED IN ONE YEAR!!! So many kids were in our parish hall that the room became a noise chamber! The fix is simple enough – we have three floors of a gymnasium at our disposal, including two locker rooms, a renovated “Good Shepherd Hall” (which AA uses) and the entire first floor of the gym and stage. One parishioner (thanks, Joanne Hermann – yikes!) suggested we start a $1,000,000 capital campaign to build classrooms behind the church (with all the renovations we need – including $15,000 to put internet on both campuses and $45,000 to install generators on our properties… as well as a $139,000 debt… I’m not sure the diocese would look nicely on our request).

That said, that we now need more space to accommodate our kids is a WONDERFUL dilemma (I am told that St. Anne’s had to add a teacher as well to their roster). While the bishop is contemplating whether to reduce the sixteen parishes in the Joliet area by half (maybe), we have a nice dilemma that our parishes GROWING SO MUCH! More on that subject in November.

Our bulletins this weekend (which you can access by clicking the links below) highlight some of the charitable activities on which we will be focusing this next month which include, but are not limited to...

• Angel Tree Gifts for the Needy
• The Manteno Veterans Home Collection for Veterans' Day
• Thanksgiving Food Drive for Our Respective Food Pantries
• Poinsettia Orders for Advent & Christmas
• Time & Talent Forms

Yes... the bulletins could be bound this weekend into books, they are so large!!!

Finally, I celebrated two funerals this last week - one for Lucy Houk on Tuesday at St. Anne's and one for Jean Gibson.at St. Patrick's. Next week, I also have a cemetery service for Arnold Boudreau next week Tuesday. In a way, I laugh because prior to my arrival, there were very few weddings, funerals and baptisms at our parishes (and practically NO quinceañeras - now all of sudden, sacraments are coming out of the woodwork... which is a GOOD thing!!! Last Saturday, we celebrated three English baptisms at St. Patrick's, the attendance from which filled up an entire side of the church!

Have a blessed week, everyone!!!

From September 6-15, Pilgrims from the Border Town Parishes Visited Marian Shrines in Medjugorje, Fatima and Lourdes. Below are the four homilies that Fr. Pete preached at these holy sites. Included with the homilies are video highlights of the holy sites the pilgrims visited.

Registration for Religious Ed. Begins this Weekend in Church at St. Patrick's and on September 10 at St. Anne's!

We have included Religious Education Registration Forms here in the Notes; you can also stop by the office to pick up the forms. RE Meets at both parishes on Sunday mornings – starting at 8:30 a.m. at Pat’s (starting September 10) and at 10:00 a.m. at St. Anne’s (starting September 24). For students in Religious Education, two years of formation are required to receive First Communion and Confirmation. The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) begins in October with David Surprenant and Ana Rivas – any student aged 14 and over can sign up for RCIA, which is a one-year program, leading to the sacraments on Easter Weekend. Remember – confirmation is required for any young lady who wishes to celebrate their Quinceañera in church.

Registration

• Parish Registration
• Religious Education Registration

Formas de Registración

• Forma de Registración Parroquial
• Inscripcion Para Educacion Religiosa

RCIA

• RCIA Registration - English
• RCIA Brochure
• Forma de Iniciación Cristiana para Adultos
• Folleto de RICA

Because of the power outage at St. Patrick’s last weekend, we ended up moving our wedding service etc. over to St. Anne’s (a smaller but newly painted church that very nicely fit the crowd that attended). Because we were at St. Anne’s for the Mass, we tried recording their wedding with our new video camera system (you can watch the video below).

In case you have not figured this out, since we have the capabilities now of recording special services (Quinceañeras, Weddings, etc.), this and the fact that both parishes have a hall to celebrate receptions and two wonderful campuses to take pictures etc., you might wish to pass the word that both parishes are like a “one stop experience” for the sacraments – a family can celebrate everything at one place!

Also because of the power outage, we realize the reason why both halls are so important to our small communities. The governments from the county, state and federal levels offer Grant Money for small towns like ours to upgrade and preserve what we have. Both parish halls could benefit from free-standing generators, parking lots and air conditioning. One industrious parishioner wrote me the following for our consideration…

I went to the website you provided for the USDA Grants and Loan program. I found that our gym at St. Patrick’s may qualify for a grant because it is a Community Center. In addition, the Hall at St. Anne’s may qualify for funds as well because the facility is being used for a food pantry. The information states that funding priorities are for communities with a population of 5,500 or less also that individuals should contact their State Director to apply and discuss their particular situation: Each state has their own individual office to contact.

Writing grants is a specialized skill; I can do this for the parishes but if anyone knows of a person who has experience with this particular discipline, please contact our office.

ONLINE VIDEOS THIS WEEK

Mass for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Celebrated at St. Patrick's Church - Momence, IL

Have you ever been fed a "Manure Sandwich?" Fr. Pete explains how many of us are as the secular world sweet talks the Christian into following their ways instead of God's ways.

For Catholic Daily Reflections (based on the scripture readings of the day),

CLICK HERE!!!

CLICK HERE for the Readings for This Weekend!

One of our seniors has taken it upon themself to take courses on writing grants. The US Government offers millions of dollars of grants that are accessible for those who apply for them. Since both parish halls are seen as "Community and Emergency Centers" by our respective cities, we need help in getting generators and internet on our properties to help the cities... and us!!! ... in our efforts to serve the people of our area.

1973 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1981 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1986 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1993 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2004 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2006 St. Patrick's Academy 100th Anniversary Commemorative Booklet

2010 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2016 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2023 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1960s St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

1970s St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

1989 St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

1998-2004 St. Anne’s

Church Photo Directory

2023 St. Anne's Church Photo Directory

For weddings and such, Fr. Pete offers a special blessing on the first Sunday weekend of each month and is willing to purchase an Apostolic Blessing for anyone who asks (and if he can afford it... since he pays out of pocket!!!).

If you are interested in receiving an Apostolic Blessing, you can do so by clicking the link below or by calling the parish offices.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR OWN APOSTOLIC BLESSING!!!

Fr. Pete offers the anointing of the sick at both parishes at the First Friday Masses every month (St. Patrick’s at 9:15 a.m. and St. Anne’s at 5:00 p.m. (English) and 7:00 p.m. (Spanish).

1. Do you know of any adults who wish to receive the sacraments at Easter? The RCIA Process begins in October. Information is available in the bulletin and brochures can be found in the Narthex of the Church.
2. You are invited to include the names of your deceased loved ones in our Book of the Dead, which is located at the back of the Church, in remembrance of those who have died this last year. The Mass in Commemoration of All Souls will take place on Wednesday, November 1 at St. Anne’s (5:00 p.m.) and St. Patrick’s (bilingual at 7:00 p.m.). St. Pat’s will also offer the All Souls’ Day Service on November 2 at 9:15 a.m. All names of our beloved deceased will be honored at the weekend Masses on November 04-05.
3. After this weekend, all Sunday Masses will take place indoors.
4. St. Pat’s is sponsoring its “100 Bricks for Life!” Promotion, in honor of Rite to Life Month.
5. We begin our “December Drawing” at St. Pat’s at St. Pat’s – 1000 tickets at $20 a piece. Please check the bulletin for further information.
6. Our 2023 Rosary for Life will take place on Saturday - October 28 at St. Anne's Pavilion at 12:00 noon (inside Church during inclement weather) and at the St. Patrick's Grotto at 3:00 p.m. (inside Gymnasium during inclement weather). We will re-dedicate the Gymnasium at that time.

To View St. Patrick's Bulletin for

October 22, 2023



CLICK HERE!

To View St. Anne's Bulletin for

October 22, 2023



CLICK HERE!

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR SICK: Mary Kay Blankestyn, Sue Bonvallet, Ashley & Jesse Childress, Guadalupe Maria De Leon, Austin Fuhrmann, Ron Gall, Kathy Griffiths, Joel Hart, Karen Hensa, Joanne McCracken, Marilyn Peterson, Joanne Prather, Evelyn Provost, Ruth Sparenberg, Cynthia Vickery, Gary Witherall... and all those on our sick list.

At St. Anne's... Eva Bell, Paula Bertrand, Lola Billings, Duane Blanchette, Cheryl Boswell, Patrick Burns, Cindy Capriotti, Jesse & Ashley Childress, Abraham Daily, Tom Dandurand, Aria Dionne, Carol Futcher, Raelynn Garrett, Jack Houk, Val Lagacy, Bentley Lottinville, Linda Miramontes, Cynthia Vickery and John Wojnowski.

At St. Patrick's... P. Anderson, N. Atkinson, R. Bailey, D. Barth, Beedle Family, D. Brown, W. Bukowski, B & E. Coffman, S. Conner, M & D Cousin, M. Cruz, A. Delaney, D. Demack, M. Dionne, J. Dobbins, E. Duke, D. Dunlap, G. Field, C. Fritz, R. Gall, J. Grill, R. Harper, J. Hibbs, D. Hiller, C. Jones, L. Kane, R. Kazee, A. Kijewski, L. Lee, L. Leranth, E. Lopez, B. Love, J. Marcotte, W. Marten, L. McNulty, L. Mercado, R & V Morse, C. Ortman, D. Petronio, M. Peterson, C. Piec, C. Provost, E. Provost, R. Rehmer, P. Reising, D. Roberts, B. Ryan, A. Schaff, J. Schopf. Schmied, K. Simpson, B. Siwicki, B. Spagnola, M. Tolbert, M. Tolmer, H. Tousignant, M. Velazquez, C. Vickery, M. Williams, M. Witherspoon, S. Young, A. Zimmerman, M & L Zink and G. Zokal.

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR BELOVED DECEASED: Jean Gibson, Lucy Houk and Arnold Boudreaux

CLICK HERE TO READ

ALL OF FR. PETE'S HOMILIES!

Click Here for the Parish

Registration Form in English

Click Here for the Religious Education Registration Forms FOR BOTH PARISHES

Click Here to Register for the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults

Click Here for the Time

& Talent Form in English

Click Here for the Link to All the Parish Forms

Help support our parishes buy purchasing copies of Fr. Pete’s Homiletic Books! You can purchase them at the parishes or online at Amazon.com!

Cycle A Homilies - Cycle B Homilies

Cycle C Homilies