As most everyone at St. John is aware by now, our parish secretary, Tammy Richards, has decided to retire. She has faithfully and devotedly served as parish secretary for nearly 17 years, through several pastors and administrators. I first came to know Tammy during my time as pastor of St. Regis in Trafford, where I was her parents’ pastor. Over my first months here in Latrobe, she has been a great help to me, helping me to get to know the parish and parishioners. While I am sad to see Tammy retire, I am happy for her that she will have more time to spend with her wonderful family. And, of course, she will still remain active in the parish. Tammy, thank you for your many years of service to St. John Parish; may God bless you and your family!
Succeeding Tammy as St. John Parish secretary will be Lesley Benyo. She has been training with Tammy over the past few weeks in order to make the transition as smooth as possible. Lesley has a degree in hotel and restaurant management and has been involved in her parish in faith formation programs and volunteered in her children’s school programs. She is quite detail-oriented and is anxious to get started. Please make Lesley feel welcome as a member of the St. John Parish Family!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who helped make my first celebration of Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum in Latrobe so fantastic! A huge shout out to our Bob Mason, our coordinator of liturgical music, and all of our music ministers who put in so much extra time preparing, rehearsing, and being present for these sacred liturgies. The combined Holy Family/St. John choir did such a fantastic job at the Tenebrae service and at the Easter Vigil and the hand bells, as usual, added such a nice touch to the celebration on Easter Sunday. Thank you all for sharing your gifts with our parish. Thanks also to all of the rest of our liturgical ministers; thank you for giving of your time and talent so generously. Thanks to all who helped decorate and prepare our worship spaces for Easter. I am also most grateful for the assistance and ministry of Deacon Mike and Holy Family parishioner and diocesan seminarian Thomas Oldenburg in planning for and celebrating the liturgies of the Triduum. Finally, I must say that I was so edified and gratified by prayerful spirit of everyone at all of the liturgies throughout the week. Our parishes’ observance and celebration of these most sacred of days has been a most fitting expression of faith. As we continue our celebration of the Easter Season, I pray that may continue to hear and respond to the call of the Risen Christ in our lives and so grow together.
And, on a personal note, I am most grateful to everyone who remembered me this Easter with cards, gifts and goodies. I am not very good at getting out thank you cards in a timely manner, but I do want you to know that I am so very grateful for the generosity shown to me from so many. Please be assured of my continued prayers for you throughout the Easter Season and always.
Our 2024 Diocesan Lenten Appeal keeps rolling along...
¨ As I mentioned last week, Holy Family has passed its diocesan target! That means that everything we collect for the remainder of this year’s appeal will be returned to the parish, assessment-free so that we can get to work on our parish project: updating of the church’s security and fire alarm systems. We are now over 80% of the way to our parish goal and so far we have only heard from one-sixth of the parish; big thanks to those who have made a pledge or gift to get us this far!
¨ St. John is just a gnat’s eyelash from the diocesan target and a little over three-quarters of the way to our parish goal. So far, 42% of our households have made a pledge or gift; thanks to everyone who is helping to move us forward. Remember that our parish project is to do some needed repair work to our main entry doors to the church and to add an automatic opener to improve access.
¨ The weekly graphic elsewhere in the bulletin will keep you updated on our progress at both parishes.
¨ Please prayerfully consider your pledge or gift to this year’s DLA in the coming days. You may return your pledge or gift by mail, in person during office hours, drop it in the collection basket, or online.