“Come away by yourselves...and rest a while.” With these words, recorded in Mark 6:31, Jesus reminds his disciples of the importance to take time where we leave our daily cares and our familiar environment to dedicate a bit of time to allow our hearts to listen to him in quiet and tranquility. This is the basis for the time-tested practice of a spiritual retreat. In that regard, our parish staff will be making a retreat next week (April 27-28). As a result, the parish office will close at noon on Monday, April 27 and re-open on Wednesday morning, April 29 at 8am. I offer this notice not only to help with your planning, should you have some need of contacting the parish office during that time, but more importantly, to ask for your prayers for our staff in the week ahead; please pray that this may be a spiritually fruitful time for us to re-focus and renew our resolve to serve Christ in his Church through our ministry to the people of St. Charles Borromeo Parish.
I would like to offer a word of gratitude to all those who have already returned your parish pledge cards for the fiscal year 2015-2016. As you know, these pledges help us with planning and budgeting for the coming year that we may be good stewards of the resources of the parish and plan to use them in such a way as to carry out the mission of the Church and advance the message of the Gospel while serving the needs of our parish and community. If you have not yet returned your pledge card, I would ask you to prayerfully consider how the Lord is calling you to support your parish in the coming year, fill out the card and return it to the parish office at your earliest convenience. You may drop it off in person, mail it in, or put it in an envelope and drop it in the collection basket on Sunday morning along with your weekly offering. As always, I am edified by the generosity of St. Charles parishioners in your continued support for the ministry of the parish in all its works of prayer, worship, apostolic activity and Evangelization.
For those who are not yet aware, the former vesting area just off the west end of the vestibule has been converted into a handicapped accessible restroom built according to the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In the coming weeks we hope to install a diaper changing table as well to accommodate young parents who may need to avail themselves of such an amenity. Of course, we still have the larger restrooms at the bottom of the stairs off the hallway in Borromeo Hall. Since we now have a restroom in the back of church, I would kindly request you please refrain from using the restrooms on the north end of the Church during services as this can be an unnecessary distraction from the action in the sanctuary.
In other facilities news, I am happy to report, thanks to the recent tremendous generosity of a single anonymous donor, we are able to proceed with the completion of phase I of our school building maintenance upgrade. Specifically, by the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year, all our classrooms will have modern, efficient climate control with both heating and air conditioning. The final phase of this project—the replacement of windows, including a cosmetic upgrade to the façade of the east wing of the school—will be completed when funds become available. Please contact me or Deacon Joe Whiston if you would like to contribute to the completion of this important project, or if you are aware of a grant or foundation which might be suited to assist us with this project.
-Fr. Joseph Totton