Spend the day with Sarah Hart...

Singer, Sarah Hart, will lead a retreat day for the women of St. Vincent de Paul Parish on Saturday, August 16th. Set aside your usual, fast-paced Saturday & relax for a few hours with wife and mother, Sarah Hart. Soak in her lovely voice & inspirational lyrics, as you explore with her Jesus’ teaching on the Beatitudes. Sarah’s retreats are a blend of music, story, reflection & prayer.  It will be a wonderful day of fellowship with the women of our parish, you won’t want to miss.

Schedule:

8:30         Check-In & refreshments

9:00         Retreat begins

11:45        Lunch

1:00         Retreat continues

3:00         Closing

Sarah Hart is coming to St. Vincent de Paul!

Our parish is thrilled to announce that it is jump starting a year focused on Jesus with a free concert by Catholic composer and musician, Sarah Hart. The goal of the “Year of Jesus” is to deepen personal relationships with Jesus. Because listening to the music of Sarah Hart is often a transforming experience, St. Vincent’s is opening the event to all. The concert is on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15th, at 7:30 P.M.

Sarah’s concerts are a lively blend of folk, pop, and rock designed to delight listeners of all ages. Her sweet, compelling voice is captivating; her lyrics inspiring. A wife and a mother, Sarah weaves storytelling and prayer throughout her concerts. Her audiences are brought to laughter & may brush away a few tears, as they become immersed in the spirituality of one who has discovered that Jesus walks with us in our daily lives.

A spiritandsong.com artist, Sarah’s music is found in print in churches around the country. Her songs have been recorded by artists Matt Maher, Amy Grant, Robbie Seay, 33 Miles, This Beautiful Republic, Sarah Reeves and Jamie Jamgochian. Her music has also been heard in television shows Joan of Arcadia and Strong Medicine and in the film Coyote County Loser. Sarah has received eight Unity awards for her work. Her recent release, The Give and the Keep includes her Grammy nominated, “Better Than a Hallelujah.”

The concert has been underwritten by the St. Vincent de Paul Endowment Foundation. It is open to all without cost.

The Blessing of our Prayer Banner

If you think a way back to last August, we presented to the parish an alternate way of praying.

Through the creative and prayerful inspiration of Mary and Gary Booker and their love of weaving, we learned this ancient art as a way to pray.

Many hands have helped us arrive at this day. We took on the challenge of writing our prayers, then weaving them into an offering banner. And now you can see the visual result of those prayers. Sometimes we don’t realize how much we do pray. Thousands of prayers by our parishioners, over 2,100, have been written, woven and offered in this beautiful visual expression.

We symbolically raised and offered our prayers and as they hang within our worship space they will always remind us of the power of our prayers  and the support we have for each other in community.

Growing Faith-Filled Kids: Mealtime

Make the most of mealtime. The family meal is, without doubt, the single most powerful ritual for growing faith-filled kids. Start with prayer. You can use the traditional Catholic grace, pray the Our Father, or take turns leading a spontaneous prayer. Many families have the tradition of holding hands while grace is prayed. Then enjoy each other! Put away all electronic devices & teach your children the rapidly fading art of conversation! Some families have a custom of each member sharing an important moment in their day. This could be a God moment (a time when God seemed near), a chance they had to help someone, the part of their day that was especially nice, something they learned, or the most interesting part of their day. It usually works best, especially at the beginning if the parents share something about their day first.

June 22, 2014

Growing Faith-filled Kids is a new feature in our bulletin and on our website. It will be just a paragraph with helpful and fun suggestions or ideas to help parents make faith part of their family life throughout the week and throughout the year. These same ideas will be collected in one spot on our website.

As we end our fiscal year on June 30th we will probably have a deficit in our regular giving and expenses. I am fairly certain it will be significantly less than last year, but still in the $40,000-60,000 range. Any extra gifts at this time would be most appreciated to help narrow the gap.

I want to thank all the adults and youth that made Vacation Bible School this past week a great success. It is wonderful to see the children’s energy and enthusiasm. I send a special thank you to Fran Wuesterwald for her great leadership and enthusiasm.