Fr. Joe's Weekly Notes - 01/08/2017

Have a Blessed Celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany!!

What Gifts Do We Give?

The Feast of the Epiphany is an occasion for us to reflect on the gifts brought to the Holy Family, in particular Jesus.  Gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh were their gifts.  Traditionally, these gifts tell about Jesus as Priest, King and Redeemer. What gifts do we give to the Lord in our lives?  What do you intend to give him this year?  How many families pray that God will call a son or daughter to the priesthood or religious life?  I have heard of families who have done this hoping that one of their children would be called to serve the Church.  This all begins in the home.  Our homes and our upbringing should be centered around our faith in the Catholic Church.

Blessings Received in 2016

I want to share a couple of blessings that I have experienced in 2016.  First, the overwhelming generosity of your contributions to the request made by the Archdiocese for the Beyond Sunday Campaign.  Unbelievable goals were met!  Secondly, I was blessed with the opportunity to sit down with many parishioners and visit with them through this process.  I sat down with about 100 families, and this was a great experience for me.  I actually wish that I could have done this with more families.  Because of your generosity, we were able to meet the requested goals.

Repair Plans for Our Beautiful Stained Glass Windows

I recently talked with Father Jack Costello about the beautiful stained glass windows in our church, and our plans to do the necessary maintenance on them.  He said this would be such an improvement to the inside and outside of our church.  They had also done similar repair work their windows at St. Peter.

In 2017, Pray for Vocations

In moving forward into 2017, let us continue to pray for religious vocations, especially from St. Francis Borgia Parish.  The first step for all of us is to encourage and promote religious vocations by our attitude and conversation.  You have been blessed with three priests here at our parish who really enjoy being priests, and enjoy being with you.  This is a blessing that we can all be thankful for and not take for granted.  Let us all pray and witness the Lord’s call to our young people.

Thanks for all you do!