My thanks to all who helped during the Holy Week liturgies: Lynn Sullivan and choirs, Nancy Sand, Chris Simmons, Ellen Smith, Wendy Serbonich, all our altar servers, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, Lectors, Deacons Dan and Tom, our seminarian Austin Windland, and all who joined in prayer and praise. Do you have ideas on improving the Triduum liturgies? Let me know!
Congratulations also to our first communicants and their families. Thanks to those who helped prepare the reception after the Mass.
Deacon Tom will be ordained to the priesthood on Friday, May 16, at 7:00 PM in Steubenville. If you are interested in going on a bus from our parishes, please sign up at the entrance to the churches. There is no guarantee that we will get a bus, but we want to gauge interest in such a trip. The bus would leave Athens at 3:00 PM on Friday and return to Athens around midnight.
We will be getting a seminarian for the summer. Matthew Gossett, a second-year theologian at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, PA, will be here from May 27 to August 2. Matthew is the brother of Fr. Michael Gossett, who is an assistant at St. Mary in St. Clairsville and the new Vocations Director for our diocese. Matthew is from St. Peter's Church in Steubenville, and brings to us a wealth of talent. He is a 2008 graduate of Ashland University in Ashland, OH, with a bachelor of music education degree. He also holds a master's degree in music performance from Kent State University in Kent, OH. Welcome, Matthew!
Our seminarian Austin Windland will also be back with us this summer, having finished his first year of philosophy. Please extend your kindness to them this summer!
I'm feeling a bit behind right now... if I've been delayed in responding to your requests, please be patient. On Easter Sunday, I lost my cell phone (which has so much of my information on it). For days I searched and searched, to no avail. Then, I went home and searched by black coat for the third time. As I was feeling the coat, I realized it was not my jacket, but Deacon Dan's! We had mixed up jackets in the sacristy, and he had taken my jacket with the cell phone in it home! Luckily, he returned it to me and I was able to get back "on the grid"! Now I know why priests are so protective of their black jackets at diocesan events!
DPSC Update: To date, Christ the King parishioners have pledged $32,359.60 to this year's DPSC. The goal is $35,685.00. We are $3,325.40 short of the goal. The money returned to us goes toward ongoing maintenance projects around the parish. St. Paul parishioners have pledged $41,175.00 to the DPSC. The goal is $35,802.00. We are currently $5,373.00 over the goal. Remember, this rebate money will go toward the refurbishment of the stained glass windows, whcih will cost around $20,000.00. The DPSC is an important way for us to accomplish projects in the parishes without major fund drives. Thank you for your generosity!