August 6th

Dear Friends, 
If you have not yet made a donation to the cause for this year’s Summer Mission Appeal, please do that soon. Each summer the parishes in the Archdiocese take up a special collection for a particular cause out in the “mission field.” They usually send people to talk at all the Masses, but after discussion with the Parish Council, we decided to forgo the speakers and simply take up a collection for the cause. The expense and effort related to bringing in the speakers, the difficulty in understanding them because of strong accents, and their frequent ignoring of guidelines for he length of their homilies led to the decision to just use written information about the cause and simply take up the collections.  
This year the cause selected for our support is the Sapaterre Mission in Haiti. As you know, Haiti has been ravaged by weather events and earthquakes, and many there live in extreme poverty. The Sapaterre Mission is focused on providing education for children living in an impoverished rural community. Please be generous in your support of this second collection this weekend. You can also make your donation online via GiveCentral or you can bring your gift next week (special envelopes for this are available on the tables in the back of church). You can visit their website for more information: www.chohaiti.org 

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 As the school summer vacations begin to wind down, I am happy to report that our schools are fully staffed and we are ready to hit the ground running with the new school year. Our registration information went out this past week to our Religious Education families. Our summer Bible Study is underway, and we are starting to take names for adults interested in taking part in the Fall ALPHA, slated to begin on September 6th.  We are working on the State of the Parish report, which will be mailed out mid-September.  
 
May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today!