Sacrificial Giving

by Fr. Bob on May 26, 2013

This weekend was time to talk again about Stewardship, about our responsibility to share in the Mission of The Church of the Precious Blood. As I mentioned, a few months ago we talked about the Time and Talent aspect of Stewardship. Each of us is challenged to find some way to help the parish live the Mission. By being a lector or one who brings Eucharist to the sick or plants the parish garden we all help build the parish and more and more live as a community of disciples.

But the other part of Stewardship is our Treasure – contributing financially to the community so that we can take care of the needs of our local community as well as the larger community beyond our boundaries.

We are challenged to embrace an attitude of Sacrificial Giving as we take upon ourselves the responsibility to support the community.

Sacrificial Giving is defined by four principles:

1. Our contribution is a Gift We give it gladly from all that we have received. And we “package” the gift either by using the contribution envelope or by using On-Line Giving.

2 Our gift is proportionate. We decide what portion of our income we will devote to the parish. It doesn’t matter what that portion is – but its a decision we make.

3. Our gift is planned. We have distributed Intent Cards. We ask you to look at them, pray about it and use the Intent Card. This is not a pledge. It is our Intent.

4. Our gift is Sacrificial. We don’t give what is left over or what we have in our pocket. We budget for what we will give to the parish community just as we budget for other important things in our lives.

Please join me in praying about how we can help one another to live fully the Mission of the Parish. As disciples of the Lord we pray to be good stewards – to recognize our responsibility to be a Community of Disciples of the Lord Jesus.

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Our Parish Census

by Fr. Bob on May 5, 2013

We are well on our way to updating our Parish Census. Indeed, it is a lot of work. We are in the process of looking at all the names that are on the parish membership list and verifying information. In some cases people are no longer members of the parish. In may cases the record has not been updated to reflect children in a family, to acknowledge that someone is deceased, etc.

And so I encourage you, if you haven’t looked over your census form and made the corrections necessary and brought it back to church, please do so as soon as possible.

And, of course, we’re discovering so many people that have worshipped at The Church of the Precious Blood for a while but are not registered members.

The end result of this major task is to be able to answer the question of WHO makes up the community of the Church of the Precious Blood. What do we really look like as far as number, where we live, what the ages are, etc.

In the end it will be great to look at and know. And it will help us to better serve one another as we attempt to live our Mission and be disciples of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for all who are helping in this project.

Peace

Fr. Bob

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Fr. John Kielb May the Angels Bring you to Paradise!

March 28, 2013

Yesterday, Wednesday, March 27, Fr. John Kielb, Pastor of The Church of the Precious Blood from 1989 until 2011 went to his eternal rest. As most of you know, Fr. John was living at Villa Vianney, a health care and retirement residence for priests since he left Precious Blood in 2011. He was living in [...]

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Faith Sharing for Lent

January 30, 2013

Its time to form our Lenten Faith Sharing Groups. This is a great way to spend Lent  -to prepare for Easter Joy. We’re once again using the RENEW Faith Sharing Program Lenten Longings. Each week the groups reflect on the Sunday Scripture for the following week and wonder together how it impacts on their lives. [...]

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Time and Talent – Building up the Community of Faith

January 13, 2013

We celebrate the Baptism of the Lord.  We enter into Ordinary Time. Of course the title of this time is not to imply that there is anything ordinary about it! The name comes from the fact that we name the Sundays in Order – Second Sunday, Third Sunday, etc.  After celebrating Christmas we spend these [...]

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Happy Three Kings Day!

January 5, 2013

In the midst of this Christmas Time we celebrate this wonderful feast of the Kings who searched and found. (Yes it is still Christmas! I hope you didn’t take down the tree and decorations yet!) It is a feast of the manifestation of the Lord. Its not just about  Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar finding the Christ. [...]

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Happy New Year

December 31, 2012

We begin the journey of another year together. I’m sure that there are a good number of reason to be glad that 2012 is gone. How unfortunate that Hurricane Sandy ushered it out! But we also need to reflect on the blessings we experienced in the past year – the people who were part of [...]

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Merry Christmas

December 27, 2012

Merry Christmas! I know its two days after the 25th – but I just stopped for the first time in a while! Its been a wonderful season so far – and I guess it is made all the more meaningful and real because we know more than ever what we have – how gifted we [...]

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The Christmas Spirit!

December 22, 2012

We really got into the spirit of the season with our Christmas pageant on Sunday, December 16th! Due to all the challenges because of the “SuperStorm” the annual pageant was put together with a little haste. But it was a grand hit!  With a host of angels and shepherds and wise men and the main [...]

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Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund

December 8, 2012

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy we have had so many people from near and far who want to help. Christ the King Church in Springfield Illinois,  Divine Mercy Parish in Gardner Kansas, A Cursillo prayer group in Atkinson, Illinois are  three groups that have sent checks with the hope that they can help. In each [...]

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