Dear St. Louis Parishioners,
Veronica drew near to Christ along the way of the cross, with a simple gesture of
kindness. She offered Him her veil, with which to wipe His bloody face. This past week, we used a children’s reflection on the Stations of the Cross (by “A Religious of the Cenacle,” printed by Paulist Press, 1936) at both Family Faith Formation on Wednesday night and our Parish Stations on Friday night. It reflects, “St. Veronica pushed her way through the crowd and wiped Your face with her veil. To thank her for being so brave, You left the picture of Your face, there on the veil. Teach me to remember that I must never be afraid to say I belong to You and am Your child.” Veronica teaches us all to seek to offer assistance to suffering members of the Body of Christ. Yet, she also teaches us to seek His face! We do see His face in those who are suffering. Still, one other important place where we see the face of God is in the simple faith of children. As He said on the outset of His journey to Jerusalem, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in My Name receives Me.” We have spent a great deal of our time, energy and attention on focusing on how we can better serve our children and young people, in order to help them to grow their faith, that they might never be afraid to say they belong to Him and are His children. We have focused on building up our programs for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Family Faith Formation, and Youth Ministry and continuing to involve the children in our Greenhouse. We have begun to consider how we can offer more events that are more intentionally designed to involve young families with children - such as the Parish Family Easter Celebration (April 8th). And I am grateful that I have been able to set aside time, on a few occasions, to visit some of the area Catholic Schools, where some of our parish children now attend, in order to join them for their School Mass. Along these same lines, I am very pleased to now be able to announce...
PARISH TUITION ASSISTANCE FOR CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: Our parish finance committee has been discussing how we can continue to support our parish families who choose to continue to send their children to Catholic schools. We recognize the hardship placed on families, by the lack of a Catholic school in Princeton, as well as the great sacrifices being made by those families who continue to seek to choose this option for their children. As a parish, we want to make use of our resources both to encourage that choice and to help make that more possible. For this reason, we have decided that we will begin to offer tuition assistance, amounting to a 50% match paid directly to the school, based on the parish members’ paid out of pocket costs for tuition. This offer will be extended to active parishioners sending children to an area Catholic elementary school (K-8) or high school, including St. Bede Academy. In addition, our parish continues to pay assessments to those Catholic elementary schools where some of our parish children attend, resulting in our parish families being eligible for the parishioner rate at those schools. For further questions, please feel free to discuss financial details with Renee Toomey (Business Manager) or pastoral concerns with me.
In Christ through Mary,
Fr. Gifford
St. Louis, pray for us!
Blessed Mary, Queen Mother of the King of Kings, pray for us!
Comments