Pastor's Letter

Dear Friends,
 
Last week I included a letter sent to school parents regarding our fund-raising efforts for St. Hubert School. It explained why we are having a raffle this year with a goal of $75,000. It’s called We Hold God in Our Hearts.
 
I take this opportunity to remind all our parishioners that the school is not separate from the parish. It is not the “parish and school,” but rather St. Hubert Parish, which includes a church and a school. Consequently, it is the responsibility of all of us to support our ministries including our school. Therefore, I am asking our parishioners to consider buying a raffle ticket for $25.00. If you would like to contribute more or take extra chances, it would help our school budget tremendously. I thank you in advance for your generosity and support. Tickets may be purchased in the narthex after the Masses.
 
Our new Music Director, Ed Magistrado, will begin on February 16. For his first 4 days he will spend time learning the routine and infrastructure of our parish. I have asked him to simply observe our liturgies during the weekend of February 18/19. He will have his first rehearsals with the choirs on the following Monday and Tuesday. In the near future, we will publish a bio and picture of him and his family. I know that I can count on you to give him a warm St. Hubert welcome.
 
It’s that time of year again when the Archdiocese asks us to conduct the Annual Catholic Appeal. So, as we are holding God in our hearts for our school raffle the theme for the Appeal is “Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.” The Appeal is much different than a one- time special collection. It is a pledge Campaign where you can make a gift payable in installments. This theme is a reminder that our gifts can make a difference to enable the funded ministries and services of the Archdiocese to help the Pastoral Center in serving our large Archdiocese. We exceeded our goal last year by about $7,000. The parish will get a rebate for this. This year’s goal is $82,631.
 
If you received your pledge form in the mail, please complete it and mail it back or bring it to Mass next weekend. For those of you that did not receive a mailing or have not had time to respond to it, we will conduct our in-pew pledge process at all Masses next weekend.
 
Prior to Christmas I sent a letter to last year’s donors to remind them to pray about how they would like to divide their contributions for this year. I hope by now, you are giving a percentage of your gross income to charity. May protestant churches recommend tithing or 10%. I realize that Catholics are not used to thinking this way, but I do think that our giving should be a prayerful response to God, with some percentage of our annual income. It’s too easy to fall into the temptation to just give whatever we have left over in our pockets. We hope for a deliberative and intentional prayerful response to thank God for His gifts to us.
 
Later this year the new Pastor will be required to run the Campaign, To Teach Who Christ Is. Our parish will be responsible to raise $1.8 million. If your funds are limited, like most of us, I ask you to consider waiting for this campaign next fall.
 
For your information, I will be out of the office until February 27.
 
Enjoy the last month of winter.