A message from the administrator

August 8, 2004

Welcome to our Cookout/Picnic & Ice Cream Social!
What a wonderful old-fashioned event for us all to get together, visit with old friends, meet new friends and enjoy the community which is our parish and now our cluster. I know there will be visitors from Sweetest Heart of Mary and St. Josaphat Parish with us today. This is another opportunity to continue to get to know each other. We all have so much in common and fund raising events like today's are one certain thing we all must do. It can be fun! It is so very necessary for financially challenged parishes like ours. I know that some of our guests today are making their very first visit to Historic St. Joseph Church. Take time to observe all the splendor of the church and its great beauty which comes to us from a by-gone century. What a treasure our church is and what an awesome responsibility falls upon us to keep up that treasure. The good and faithful parishioners who have organized and put together today's event are making a fine start in this direction. We will however need additional fund raising events and activities. I am looking to you the parishioners to use your creativity in developing these events. No one knows the parish and its people better than you do. We need to get parishioners who have fallen away to come back. We need to bring in brand new parishioners and of course we need to increase the Sunday offering. Please never hesitate to share your ideas with me or with members of the Parish Pastoral Council.

Census Forms
Again, I want to stress how important it is to return your census forms. All parish data is being loaded onto a new computer program. We will be loading only the information we receive from the census. So everyone who wants to be officially considered a parishioner must return a completed census form. Please don't procrastinate in doing this as we are trying to move quickly in setting up new records. Either mail it in or put in the Sunday collection basket. I know some people do not like the idea of being counted or letting other organizations, even their own parish church know even the basics about themselves, but as I wrote in the letter that accompanied the census form, NOW IS THE TIME for every St. Joseph parishioner to "stand up" and be counted! We simply must have an accurate and up-to-date count of our parishioners to serve you properly and make the best plans for the parish's future. Additional forms can be found in the back of the church. They may also be used to register oneself in the parish. Simply write "new parishioner" on the cover of your form.
[Download a census form here.]

Wednesday Masses
For our visitors: I want to point out that in addition to our 10:30 a.m. mass in the venerable and ancient Latin language, and 12 noon English mass on Sundays, we also have mass every Wednesday at 12:10 p.m. After this Mass, which is usually the votive Mass of St. Joseph, the Husband of Mary, we pray our perpetual novena to our patron Joseph and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament takes place. We cordially invite you to join us for these services. What a blessing it is in the middle of the work week to have the greatest treasures of Heaven made available to us with Mass, Holy Communion and Benediction.

Reverend Mark A. Borkowski
Parochial Administrator

FrmarkB@aol.com