Dear Sisters and Brothers in Faith:
The merry month of May promises to be event-filled
for us here at St. Vincent de Paul Parish.
First, we will have to be filling open positions on our
two Councils—Parish Pastoral Council and Finance
Council. The original members of both councils who
have declined to serve for an extended period of time
will need to be replaced. The positions to be filled will
be for a term of three years because we are now en-
tering into the phase wherein every term is for three
years. If you, or someone you know, would be inter-
ested in serving, please complete the form elsewhere
in this bulletin and turn it in to the office or in the col-
lection. Names will be drawn at 9:30am Mass Sun-
day, May 29.
Second, the Catholic Services Appeal [CSA] for 2016
will begin this month. A formal appeal will be made
during the weekend of May 14/15. All parishioners
should be receiving letters during the next two weeks
from both Bishop Cistone and me. It will be in these
letters that you will be given the pledge cards to fill
out and return. In 2015 we reached our goal for the
first time in recent memory and I am grateful to eve-
ryone who contributed to make that happen. Our
CSA target for this year is $44,221. I am sure we can
reach this goal some time during 2016, but wouldn’t
it be nice if our new Pastoral Administrator did not
have to mention CSA every weekend for six months?
Third, May is one of the months during the year when
we Catholics focus especially on honoring Mary, the
Mother of God. There was some dispute in the early
Church about whether Mary was actually the Mother
of God. The council of Ephesus [431] defined Mary
as Theotokos, Mother of God, against a man named
Nestorius who claimed she was only the mother of
the man Christ. This past Wednesday at the St. Pat-
rick site a crowning of Mary took place wherein the
children of the religious education classes brought
flowers to place before a statue of Mary. This was
followed by the usual Wednesday evening Word and
Communion Service, which was followed by a recita-
tion of the rosary, which was followed by the usual
pot luck dinner in the hall. These events serve as a
reminder that Jesus gave us Mary as our spiritual
mother as he hung upon the cross for us, and we
honor her in a very special way during month of May.
I hope you have a Christ-filled week!
St. Vincent de Paul, pray for us!
May the Holy Spirit always be with you.
Deacon Mike