Author: Jane Maki (Page 1 of 23)

Centered in the living presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, we, the Parishioners of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church … serve our loving God and one another through worship, witness, and works of charity.

These words, taken from the Parish’s mission statement, constitute a commitment by the St. Joseph’s faith community that squares with this weekend’s Gospel message to love God and to love neighbor. To that end, the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) has been meeting and deliberating over recent months about how to fulfill most effectively the greatest commandments of the law identified by Jesus. Church Law prescribes that every parish should have a stably constituted PPC to assist the pastor in his leadership role of planning and organizing the spiritual and temporal gifts brought by the parishioners. Although our reorganization of the St. Joseph’s PPC is still a work in progress, I am happy to announce the following appointments to some of the principal chairs:

Chair of the Parish Pastoral Council: Paula King
Chair of the Building & Grounds Committee: Mike Iarocci
Chair of the Liturgy Committee: Colette Crowley
Co-chairs of the Faith Formation Committee: Paula King and Annie Anderson
Chair of the Peace & Social Justice Committee: Peter Eisenhauer

I am ever grateful that these parishioners have agreed to help guide the parish under the auspices of the Holy Spirit and in accordance with the St. Joseph’s Parish Mission Statement. Please pray for the PPC members as we continue our reorganization, and, of course, please let us know if we can be helpful in any way.

With prayerful best wishes,
Fr. John Mahoney

For almost 50 years, the Catholic faithful have been called to observe “Respect Life Sunday” during the month of October.  It is a Divine call to confront the multiple ways in which life is often devalued in our world—capital punishment, abortion, bullying, and judgmentalism, among others.  It is a call to self-reflection about our personal and collective behavior.  We can take this call to heart in every situation we encounter, and each day offers many opportunities—large and small—to respect life by the ways we treat one another.  What is one positive choice for life that you have made today?  How can the faith community at St. Joseph’s collectively say “yes” to all forms of life and charity?

Speaking of saying “yes” to a Divine call to respect life, for centuries the Catholic faithful have venerated the Blessed Mother during the month of October.  It is not surprising that Our Lady of Fatima began to appear once a month to three children in Portugal in 1917—beginning on May 13 and ending on October 13.  On the last day, with more than 70,000 people gathered in anticipation, many reported seeing an unusual heavenly phenomenon that has been called the “dance of the sun.”  Ponder in prayer today what Saint John Paul II identified as Fatima’s significance: “A call to conversion and repentance … the nucleus of the message of the gospel.”