40TH ANNIVERSARY PLEDGE

This weekend we are inviting your pledges for our 40th Anniversary Fund. I truly believe that this effort is most worthy of our support. Please join me in making a commitment to the future of our parish ministries.

This effort is based on gratitude; gratitude to God; gratitude for our founding parishioners; gratitude for all of you. Thank you for your prayerful consideration.

SISTER PARISH UPDATE

Sue Kellett who leads our sister parish effort with Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Jinotega, Nicaragua, is again visiting there. She has been sending back some very interesting emails. As we conduct our pledging for the 40th Anniversary Fund please remember our commitment to tithe 10% of what we receive to our sister parishes. Sue reports:

"I woke up early and went to mass at 9 at the little chapel in my neighborhood.  I know people there and Padre Eliar says the Mass.  Victorino (who heads the Avodec agency) picked me up at 10:30 and we went again to Elena’s to do some measuring of the cook stove.  Victorino had never seen it and was impressed.  German was with us and he and Victorino discussed ways to mass produce it.  Again Elena was singing its praises!  We also went to Raimunda's house to measure her new little one hole stove.  Then we went to see the factory where they now make tile and latrine toilets.  Victorino thinks that they can make the stove in parts and then assemble it on site or at least make molds and then make it on site.  It was a valuable day.

"We went back to town, had lunch and then his family and I went out to see the latest latrine project.  They are still in need of about 1000 latrines and we might contemplate this in the future.  We stopped at a little cantina on a little lake in this area and had a pop and some tacos.  His kids are so cute!!  It was fun to be with them. They call me madrina, godmother.  And they fight over whose godmother I am.  Griselda, Victorino's wife, insisted I drive home.  She wanted to see how I drive.  She doesn't drive like many of the women here.

"Tomorrow we will have a more detailed meeting to decide the next step for the cook stoves. I will have a busy day.  The countdown is here!"

FRANZ JAGERSTATTER

On October 26, in Linz, Austria, there was a Mass for the beatification of Franz Jägerstätter the Austrian farmer who was martyred for refusing to fight in Hitler's army. Franz believed that he would be committing a sin if he acted against his conscience and agreed to fight for the National Socialist state. For him, this was a situation in which he had to obey God more than the commands of secular rulers. In following the commandment “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” Franz decided that he could not fight with weapons of war. For refusing to undertake military service he was sentenced to death in Berlin and was beheaded in Brandenburg Prison on August 9, 1943.

The Mass was celebrated in St. Mary's Cathedral in Linz, the home Diocese of the Franz Jägerstätter and his family. The presider was the Diocesan Bishop Dr. Ludwig Schwarz, who was one of the promoters of the cause of beatification. Franz's widow, Franziska, was present.

Speaking of Franz the Bishop said: "Franz Jägerstätter is a prophet with a global view and a penetrating insight which very few of his contemporaries had at that time; he is a shining example in his fidelity to the claims of his conscience, an advocate of nonviolence and peace, a voice of warning against ideologies, a deep-believing person for whom God really was the core and centre of life. His prophetic witness to Christian truth is based on a clear, radical and far-sighted analysis of the barbarism of the inhuman and godless system of Nazism, its racial delusions, its ideology of war and deification of the state, as well as its declared programme of annihilating Christianity and the Church. His educated, mature conscience led him to say a resolute 'No' to Nazism and he was executed due to his consistent refusal to take up arms as a soldier in Hitler's war."

4OTH ANNIVERSARY FUND

This weekend I am speaking at all the masses as we announce our 40th Anniversary Fund. We have just celebrated the 40th Anniversary of our parish's beginning. It was a great celebration and it was wonderful to have so many of the founding and early parishioners with us. We have much to be
thankful for.

Our parish leadership also wants us to look ahead so that we continue to build on the great foundation that has been given us. As pastor I am very excited at the wonderful ministries that take place here every day. Our parish has much to share as we seek to follow Christ as disciples.

With an aging physical plant and growing energy costs we have a real opportunity to renew our commitment to be good stewards. The 40th Anniversary Fund addresses these concerns. Over the coming weeks we will communicate our hopes via mailings and some special gatherings.

Please be open to the message that is shared and keep us in your prayers.

NO ONE DIES ALONE

The Star Tribune newspaper had an article this past summer on a program called "No One Dies Alone." I am often very edified by the presence of family and friends at the time of death. Unfortunately, some people have neither family nor close friends with them as they near the end of life. No One Dies Alone, an end-of-life program, provides the reassuring presence of a volunteer companion to hospital patients who would otherwise die alone. These volunteers undergo special training to do this work.

People in their last hours of life can feel tremendous comfort and peace when someone is at their side. Just sitting quietly, perhaps reading or holding hands, helps people feel loved. The knowledge that they are not alone as they make their final journey can help them feel safe and hopeful.

Each November we have a special remembrance of parishioners and loved ones who have passed away. We begin this Thursday, All Saints Day with the special Mass of Remembrance. And throughout the month with have the Christ Candle burning during Mass alongside the Book of Life where we can enter the names of our deceased. Our November liturgies remind us that these deceased and their surviving loved ones are not alone in death. We remember them. With Christ's love no one is alone.

40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

The weekend celebrations were just wonderful. I want to thank all who participated and in a special way thank the committee and other parishioners who helped put this together. I just had to show up. We have such talented and generous people. So many parishioners, especially founding members, told
me how happy they were that we had this event.

I received the following lovely message from Casey and Gordie Dirlam:

"Just wanted to let you know, and please forward to the staff, what a beautiful and moving celebration you provided at the 5:00 Mass on Saturday. So much work obviously went into the planning and execution. I loved the music and especially the history reading. Was also so wonderful to see all the founding parishioners in the middle two sections. I strolled down memory lane to 1980 when we joined and tried to place the people that I saw (only 30 years later!). It was fun to see Fr. Kevin again as he had such energy and connected with our kids when they were young...Thank you again for making such a difference in our lives."

OTT FAMILY MESSAGE FOR WORLD MISSION SUNDAY

"All the Churches for all the world": This is the theme chosen for this weekend's World Mission Sunday. It invites the local Churches throughout the world to a greater awareness of the need to share the love and message of Jesus Christ. We are especially blessed to have our wonderful parish relationships with Our Lady of the Angels parish in Jinotega, Nicaragua, and with the Teresa Toda Home for girls in the Dominican Republic.

And for the last 5 years the Ott family, Mike, Jojo, Seamus and Maddie, have served with the Maryknoll mission program in Brazil. They have just come back in August. It is very appropriate that they have a special message for us this weekend.

JOB HUNT

We have a parishioner with great skills in warehousing and distribution who recently was displaced at his work. He has nineteen years experience in the warehouse/shipping business and is proficient in Microsoft Office, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, UPS Worldship, and EDI with experience in all aspects of UPS, USPS, LTL and full container loads. Additionally he is skilled in United States customs import and export procedures and is Bilingual (Spanish). He is looking for a Distribution Manager position. If you know of any companies that may benefit from his skills, please let me know or feel free to pass on my information.