St. Mary's Catholic Church

Dear Friends in Christ, 

Over the past few months several parishioners have donated their time and talent to the beautification of our campus and our church.

I am cautious about identifying these individuals because they prefer not to have attention drawn to themselves, and I’m also concerned that I will accidently leave someone off a list that should be on there. With that in mind, however, I would like to try to highlight some of these contributions.

Just in terms of people who have directly used their talents to beautify our campus in the past few months:

• Dave Moats has provided designs for many renovation projects, including the brick wall, the gym at Pangborn Hall and the Msgr. Passarelli Dining Hall.
• Jimmy McCarter hand crafted the pedestals that the statues in our windows sit on as well as the credenzas in the back of church.
• Dan Taylor hand crafted the prayer intention bookstand underneath the St. Michael statue as well as the prayer card holders underneath each of the pictures of the Lord, the Blessed Mother, and saints.
• Ron Eyler upholstered the new kneeling cushions at the Communion Rail as well as the new pads in the hymnal pockets in the pews and tabletop in the sacristy.
• Maria Axline sewed the tabernacle veils and garments for the Infant of Prague.
• Marcia Williams and Donna Kelly decorate the altar specially at Christmas and Easter.
• Mary Beth Hackett, Mary McNeil, Paula Bowers, and Larry Milihram – with the help of their spouses and families, have beautifully tended to our gardens.

If we went back even farther, the list would be much longer!

And we now have another parishioner stepping forward to offer her talents to beautify our church.

Saskia Smith has offered to donate much of her time and talent to clean  and paint the statues of Mary and Joseph in the niches above their altars. Saskia has worked with me to select colors that will complement the beauty of our church. She has provided a color board and samples of other similar projects for you to see in the back of the church.

Saskia writes: “I want you to know that throughout the cleaning process and in every brush stroke, I will spiritually brush in your intentions and needs, first onto our Lady of Lourdes, then eventually St. Joseph. So PLEASE pray for me too that I may serve you well. Let’s do this project together in the Spirit! So that together, when completed, we may experience answered prayers and behold a glimpse of the beautiful majesty & creative renewing power of God!”

For several weeks, Saskia will put all her other projects and work on hold to do this; therefore, I ask that we take up a collection when each statue is finished to thank her for the sacrifice she has made.

Finally, please note that this work can’t be done where the statues are now, so we will have to take them down. If we have a smaller statue of the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph that we can put in their place temporarily, we will do so. Saskia will also provide pictures to be posted on our Facebook feed.

We all have a role to play here, many of them behind the scenes. Thank you to everyone for your contribution. If there’s a contribution you think you can make, please let me know. Please take a moment to say a prayer of thanksgiving for Saskia and everyone who contributes to the beatification of our church and campus, seen and unseen.

May God bless you and keep you in His care, and may the
Blessed Mother intercede for you,
Father Cibelli 

Thanks to a generous donation by the Pangborn Council of the Knights of Columbus, every member of our community now has access to a great online resource called FORMED.org. FORMED provides an impressive number of video, audio, and e-book resources directly to your phone or computer that cover just about any topic you can imagine on the Catholic Faith. They are high quality and very engaging from some of the most prominent names in solid catechesis today (and from the past too!) such as Edward Sri, Fr. Mike Schmitz, and Bishop Fulton Sheen. It’s often described as “Catholic Netflix”! I’ll be highlighting specific series or individual programs that are especially worth checking out. See below for how to create your own personal account, you can click on the flyer to take you to the set up page.