Monday Message, October 4, 2021
DO
Very last call for your entry in the online directory, which will launch this week. Do not be left out. Enter your information today. You can always change something later.
Check out the refreshed Institute website.
Join us for Parish Leader Check In number 24 on Tuesday.
WELCOME
To Carmela Williams, our new office administrator. You can reach Carmela via email here. She will handling registration, nuts and bolts, and all the really hard questions you have!
KNOW
Do you remember back at the Catechetical Summit in August how I told a story about a DRE friend of mine who always meets with parents before she meets with young people? She offers them a challenge to get their marriages in order, go to Confession, receive the Eucharist – all the things we want our young people to learn and to do. Remember?
Well, one of our pastors who attended the Summit took the challenge to heart and made the offer at his first meeting with parents. Guess what? Twenty-seven parents took him up on the offer. In his retelling of the story, he could not have been more joyful at the chance to bring so many closer to full communion with the Church and the person of Jesus Christ. What about your parish? Are you willing to challenge the parents, even at the risk of more work?
Youth in Action grant applications are available from the great folks who manage the JPII fund. You will receive an invitation to apply separately, but I wanted to jump start the conversation by encouraging you to consider opportunities. Remember:
- Ideas must be “by youth and for youth”
- Applicants must be Diocesan high school students, members of a parish high school-aged youth group, or members of a young Catholic adult group (ages 18-35)
- Proposed projects must include two of the three following elements: evangelization, collaboration, or justice and equity for historically underserved groups
- Applications open Monday, Oct. 4 at 10 am and close Friday, Nov. 19 at 11:59 pm.
- Applications will be reviewed by FIF’s board of trustees at their December meeting. Applicants will be notified if their project was selected for funding or not by the Christmas holiday.
You can also let them know to direct any questions to Rose Brennan via email 0r by phone at 203-416-1393.
Finally, and this is an important one. Please make sure you are following local mask mandates. If Trumbull requires masks indoors, for instance, then all catechists and young people must wear masks – no matter the vaccination status. Know the local requirements and follow them!
REFLECT
Today is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Perhaps no other prayer is more perfect for today than his plea to become a channel of God’s peace.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
LAUGH
