My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus,

On behalf of our St. Max clergy, pastoral team and parish staff, continued blessings and best wishes to everyone throughout this glorious Easter Season!

During the month of May, we would like to encourage the praying of the rosary both in home and here at church.  Before every Mass – weekends and weekdays – the rosary is prayed in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel starting thirty minutes before Mass.  We would like to encourage everyone to take advantage of this devotional prayer opportunity.  Most certainly, everyone will not be able to do this every time!  But might it be possible that over the course of several weeks and months everyone might pray the rosary before Mass in the chapel at some time?

Certainly joy and gratitude are two traits we as Christian disciples and stewards want to witness.  But these two go hand-in-hand!  How joyful are we in gratitude for the many gifts granted by the Lord?  The witness we need is in today’s first reading where Paul and Barnabas leaving Antioch “were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.”  In this reading and the second reading we are reminded that we are a chosen people, among every “nation, people, race, and tongue.”  And what more could we ever be joyful about than our Lord’s promise in the Gospel that we are given eternal life? 

In a few weeks all St. Max families will be given the opportunity to give a joyful and grateful response to God who has given us everything we have!  On Pentecost weekend, May 18-19, we will have our Stewardship Renewal; a time to place our trust in the Lord as we pledge to share time, talent and treasure with our parish community for the next year.  The more we come to see that God is the source of all we have and it is He who entrusts these things to us for the purpose of serving His people and glorifying Him, the more we will be able to offer them joyfully back to Him.

Congratulations to all families who celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation this past Friday night and to all families who have already celebrated individual First Communions.  Our large-group First Communion weekend is coming up in two weeks as well as many more individual First Communions during the Easter season.  Let us keep all these families in our prayers!

And as Easter season continues, you are invited to bring containers (small to modest sized!) to church so that you might have blessed water from the Easter Vigil for use in your home.

That’s all for now.  God bless one and all!

Fr. Geoff

St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish was founded on July 6, 1989 – thus, we are quickly approaching our twenty-fifth anniversary!  A committee has been meeting for several months to begin planning for our Silver Jubilee.  I am very excited about this upcoming milestone and very thankful for the parishioners who have already undertaken the work of planning for it.

It is with great joy that I now announce to the parish a three-year schema which will not only prepare us to celebrate the jubilee but also propel us into our second quarter-century as a community of faith!

·       A Year of Anticipation (2012-2013) with the theme Firm in Faith will begin in just a few weeks on Sunday, July 1, 2012

·       A Year of Celebration (2013-2014) with the theme Bound by Love will be celebrated as our actual Silver Jubilee Year starting on Saturday, July 6, 2013 (the twenty-fourth anniversary of the parish founding, thus the beginning of our twenty-fifth year) and concluding on Sunday, September 14, 2014 (a few days after the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first parish Mass at Freedom Elementary School.)

·         A Year of Continuation (2014-2015) with the theme Steadfast in Hope will then be observed

The purpose of this pastoral letter is to share some thoughts and reflections as we begin the 2012-2013 Year of Anticipation for our Silver Jubilee.  It is my sincere hope that all St. Max parishioners – from the youngest through the oldest, from the most recently registered families “back to” our founding families – may all be more Firm in Faith as we prepare to celebrate our Silver Jubilee!

To read the complete letter please click here.