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Saint Scavenger Hunt

Students travel the room seeking to learn about some of the heroes of our Catholic faith. They then listened to the middle school/ high school student share a short story about their saint. They tried to guess which saint the student was speaking about choosing from their Saint Scavenger Hunt list. They received a token to help remember the saint.

A big thank you to our middle school and high school students for providing a great learning experience for our younger students with a saint scavenger hunt!

The students had so much fun, future saints in the making!

Take a look at some of the photos from our event.

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Pastor Update

Dear Parishioners,

The readings of the weekend focus on marriage. One of the most beautiful things I enjoy seeing is very elderly
couples walking together holding their hands. Definitely it is not that easy to have a very long married life. It
needs God’s blessings and a lot of sacrifice. When I bless the couples on their milestone anniversaries I normally
say that your life is your message. According to a statistic I read a few years back, the divorce rate in our country
is 43%. We have to try our best to keep our families safe from all kinds of damage. Definitely keeping our Lord
as the center of our family is very important to achieve that goal. I normally bring this in the wedding homilies. A
former Judges was asked to give a piece of advice to a newly married couple. He said; I have only one thing to
say. Don’t ever try to make your home a court room, rather make it a confessional. In the courtroom everyone
tries to say I am right and you are wrong. In the confessional everyone says I am sorry, my mistake. If you can
practice this, you will be successful in your married life. This is very practical and let us keep that in our mind as
we meditate up on this topic today. Let us also pray for all the families going through tough times in their relationships.

I would also like to answer one more important question that comes from many people these days.

What about the festivals in our parishes?

This question was asked by many and we don’t have a clear answer to all the questions. Many of the answers are evolving as we have a few more meetings to go to figure out the details. Yes, we have decided to have one festival in our NW parishes. We know that St. Louis had one in the past and we didn’t have enough volunteers to run it and had to cancel last year. The only remaining one was St. Rita festival. We will continue to have a festival at St. Rita’s. We may have a new name. But as part of the collaboration there are people from all the parishes also ready to volunteer. So, we will have more discussions to make it more collaborative by figuring out certain percentage of the income being shared by all the parishes in the cluster on the basis of the number of volunteers from those parishes etc. Again, we haven’t figured it out. They are being discussed. When we have clarity, we will let you know.

I am happy to see the collaboration in all the other events as well. Volunteers from the other parishes in cluster had already stepped in to help last year at St. Rita festival. We could see that with Chicken Dinner at St. Louis too. Those are the great opportunities for us to come together as one community and have fun. Going forward I would like to see at least one more social event that brings all communities together. We will plan them in the future.

Before winding up let me express my gratitude to all of our staff members and leaders for making the dream of one office location a reality for us. It makes it much easier for all of us to be more productive in our daily work. I am sure that everyone understands the importance of this move and help us with the inconvenience it might bring to a few of our people.

Peace,

Fr. Thomas Vathappallil
Pastor
Pastor NW parishes of Racine

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Pet Blessing 24 Thank You

Thank you for joining us for our 2024 Pet Blessing

Thank you to everyone that came out to our annual pet blessing yesterday. The weather was amazing and our event had great attendance starting right at 12:00pm with over 25 cars. A wide variety of dogs and cats were blessed. A special thank you to Deacon Jim and Kathy & Deacon Keith for your continued time, your blessings and for all of the puppy treats handed out as well. 🐾❤️⛪️
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Feast of St. Louis Update – Raffle Baskets

Another feature of our “Feast” on August 25th is our famous Raffle Baskets … they are always a huge hit.

You will be able to peruse and purchase tickets from 11am-2pm. The drawing will be after the dinner, around 2pm. You do not have to be present to win.

A few of the baskets we will feature are: SC Johnson products, Dog’s Rule basket, Bee basket, Gift cards, Men’s basket, Baking basket, Summer Lemonade, and other surprises.

Be sure to stop in get your tickets in for your favorite baskets.

Contact Mary Kay with questions at: 612-401-6141.

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Pastor Update

Dear Friends of NW Racine parishes,

It has been a month since we got into the boat together and started sailing. We are so happy that He is with us and He is not sleeping yet. Your prayers and support keep Him up in our boat.

Fr. Marco and I would like to thank you for the warm welcome and the great support you have given.

We are so happy to be with you in this journey.

We have met with so many of you and had chances to listen to many as well. The Leadership team also has brought up some points to be addressed immediately. We know that in our busy lives we are not able to pay attention to all the details of everything and we forget things as well. We do understand the fact that the more we communicate, the less we really say, so it’s necessary to have periodic letters to keep everyone in the loop. We would encourage you to read the bulletins as well as it will have the updates published after each planning meeting. Some of the letters may have repetitions, please understand that they are for the new parishioners and the ones who missed the previous letters. We will use all the means to keep you in the loop as we work together in building up this NW Racine cluster more efficiently.

We would like to address some of the common questions that came up recently: 

  1. What are the immediate changes that we anticipate? And when?
    You have already seen some of the changes. Two priests for the four churches. The major changes for the year are the following: (a) One bulletin for the cluster. Plans are underway and will happen as soon as the initial process is complete. (b) New Mass Schedule. Effective on Saturday, November 30th we will have a new mass schedule. (c) One Pastoral Council. We will have one pastoral council for the cluster. The process of building one council will begin soon, so that they can work on making a vision and mission for the cluster. Hoping to have it done by January 2025. (d) One Staff for the cluster: Effective on July 1st. Decisions will be made by March 31st.
  2. Who is making the decisions?
    Most of you are aware of the Big planning team having four representatives from each parish. Their names and the areas they serve in the subcommittees have been published in the bulletins. If you haven’t seen them, please check July 21st bulletin. The subcommittee studies, in detail, the areas that pertain to their subcommittee and bring suggestions to the Big planning committee guided by the Archdiocesan Planning team. With the approval of the pastor decisions are made. The areas we need approval from the Archdiocese are done accordingly.
  3. Why do it?
    It’s a short question but long answer. It’s impossible to give all the details in this letter. The letter you have received from each pastor in the beginning of the planning process explains all the reasons why we do it. In case you missed it and if you would like to have that letter we can make it available through the parish office. Or you can approach the parish representatives and they will help you understand. In Short, less attendance and too many Masses, Clergy shortage, and Shortage of the resources.
  4. Are we going to close?
    No that is not in our thoughts right now.

We will keep you posted with updates as the planning committee meets.

Please feel free to talk to us with your concerns and ideas. Let us continue our journey trusting in Him who will save us from the winds and waves.

Blessings,

Fr. Thomas and Fr. Marco

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Feast of St. Louis Update – Chicken Dinner

One of the best parts of a ‘Feast’ is the food. So join us on August 25, 1lam-2pm for a chicken dinner catered by Rupenas for our “Feast of St. Louis”

The adult dinner will include ½ roasted chicken, roasted parsley potatoes, creamy cole slaw, green beans, roll/butter, and a beverage. The children’s dinner will be ¼ chicken with the rest of the ‘fixins’.

Prices are $18 for adults ( ages 12 and over) and $12 for children ages 3-11. Children 2 and under are free. Take out dinners will be available. Serving dinner until 2 pm or until gone.

Don’t forget there will be other things happening that day as well. We’ll have raffle baskets, bake sale, farmer’s market, book sale, and pull tabs.

If you have questions, or if you’d like to help out in any way, please contact Barb at 414-418-9577 or bmaller98@aol.com.

Can’t wait to see you there!

 

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Feast of St. Louis Update – Calling All Bakers

Another feature at the Feast of St. Louis (held August 25, 11-2) will be the Bakery Booth. So “Calling All Bakers”!!! 

We have the best bakers in the area and we need you. There are actually several areas where you can help.

Friday August 23 – 9:00am – Jacque will be making her ever popular turnovers and can use helpers filling, baking, and frosting.

Saturday August 24 – 9:00am – Barb will be in the kitchen wrapping those turnovers and much, much more. Please stop in.

Baking at home. – We’d love to have your family favorite homemade cookies, muffins, pies, breads, cakes, snacks or bars to share with our “Feast” goers. Please label your desserts and specify if they have nuts or may be gluten free. We cannot accept any item that needs refrigeration. Also please put your name on the donation so we know who to thank. It would be helpful if you can wrap your bakery, but we would be happy to do that for you. You can drop off donations on Saturday.

Help in the booth on Sunday – We can always use a few people to help our shoppers with their sweet treats.

If you are able to help in any of these areas, (or any other area of the “Feast”), contact Barb at 414-418-9577 or bmaller98@aol.com

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Eucharistic Congress – Tune In From Home

THIS JUST IN! 

EWTN and Relevant Radio will offer streaming and live broadcast coverage of portions of the National Eucharistic Congress (July 17-21, 2024), including live coverage of the major evening events as well as some other daytime sessions and worship. 

Congress speakers include Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and founder of Word on Fire; Fr. Mike Schmitz of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, and host of “The Bible in a Year” podcast; Sr. Josephine Garrett, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and host of the “Hope Stories” podcast; and Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in “The Chosen.” 

Visit www.EWTN.com/eucharist and https://relevantradio.com/indianapolis for details!

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Feast of St. Louis Update – Book Sale

One of the features of our Feast of St Louis-August 25, 11 am-2 pm, is our Book Sale.

Books will be accepted during the month of July. There will be a cart by the gathering area doors for drop off. Please drop your books there.

For larger donations you can call Mary Kay 262-835-2453. We can arrange to meet you up at church for drop off or if weather isn’t the best.

Thank you for supporting with books, games or jigsaw puzzles.

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Archdiocesan Eucharistic Congress

Register today for a faith-filled morning of inspirational speakers and opportunities to worship together as we reignite our love of the Eucharist. Bring your friends, family, fellow parishioners, or even someone who’s non-Catholic, to our Eucharistic Revival to profoundly encounter Jesus Christ.

Use this link to see the schedule, more details and to register by June 1, 2023. https://archmil.regfox.com/archdiocesan-eucharistic-congress. We hope to see you at the Mary Mother of the Church Pastoral Center 3501 S. Lake Dr. St. Francis, WI. on June 10, 2023!

For questions, please contact the Office of Evangelization by emailing thompsonj@archmil.org.

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