606 Etolin St. + PO Box 495, Sitka, AK 99835
(907) 747-8371 + FAX: 747-8401
Corrigan Hall 747-8352 Bishop Kenny Center 747-6997
29 November 2009— First Sunday of Advent
Welcome Bishop Burns! The Bishop is to celebrate our annual First Sunday of Advent Mass at Centennial Hall. We are grateful to our Shepherd for visiting our parish and for presiding over the entrance of several new members into the Catholic faith and conferring the Sacrament of Confirmation upon these and several other adult Catholics.
Congratulations and welcome to the new members of the Church through their Profession of Faith today: Dawn Barragan, Joy Larson, and Judy Gangle. Congratulations as well to these and those who have received the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation, additionally including: Gina Garcia, Tiffany Gluth, James Wallace, and Mallory Inman.
Thank you to all who so generously helped to make today’s Mass and festivities so special. Most particularly, we owe a debt of gratitude to Barbara DeLong for coordinating the event as a whole, to Mary Soltis and her choir for providing the music that lifted our hearts and minds to God, and to Mary Bean for providing the wonderful entertainment. Thank you to these and to all who helped in any way!
St. Gregory’s Women’s Group will have their annual Christmas party December 11th from 7
-9 PM. All women are invited to attend. Please bring a finger food to share and a gift for the gift exchange. Our church will be hosting Sitka women from other churches.Tridentine Mass. The celebration of the Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form will be introduced next Sunday at 12:30 in Ave Maria Chapel. For those seeking a more contemplative experience of the Eucharist according to the deep tradition of the Roman Catholic liturgy, please consider assisting at this Mass.
Collection countering volunteers are still needed to help, on Monday afternoons, to prepare the deposit of the prior Sunday’s collections. Please contact Fr Scott if you are able to help.
"Saturday Soup and Sandwich," our planned outreach to feed the poor, has garnered a good number of volunteers, as well as probable participation by our brethren in the Russian Orthodox Church. Coordination planning should begin this week. If you have an interest in this important ministry, there is still room on the sign-up list.
Events:
Tuesday 1 December: Life in Christ, our continuing education program for Catholic adults resumes for the new year with a series on Catholic Apologetics. The topic tonight will be "How to Explain and Defend the Catholic Faith."
R.C.I.A.
(Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) will not be held this week.Birthdays:
Sunday: Edmon Dumag, Adora Villanueva; Monday: Kari Perensovich, Andres Ramil; Tuesday: Karel Arce, Vickie Denkinger; Wednesday: Helga Garrison, Dwayne Gutierrez; Friday: Bruce Bonorden, Jose Carlos, Tami Perensovich; Saturday: Michael Frawley, Tehsa Grutter, Kathy Inman. Happy Birthday! God bless you all!Wedding Anniversaries:
Wednesday: Victor & Eliza Dumag (17). Congratulations!Stewardship:
Offertory Collection for last Sunday: $2,361.
Catholic Campaign for Human Development special collection: $1,123.
Faith in Action, our annual diocesan appeal, supports such worthy ministries as our rural missions, evangelization and vocations outreaches, religious education, and many others. Please pray for the success of this first appeal by our new bishop and be as generous as God has been to you.
Last week’s FIA contributions: $1,300 ($17,230 collected to date– 69% of goal).
It is better to give alms than to store up gold.
(Tb 12:8)