Happy Pentecost!

April 25, 1982 is the anniversary of the founding of our parish and afforded us the opportunity to commemorate the 31st Anniversary of the founding of our parish and the many ways the Holy Spirit is at work within our Catholic Community with a Founders Day celebration in the labyrinth area on campus.  Earlier in the afternoon we honored those celebrating anniversaries of employment at St. Francis.

In particular we recognized Ms. Patricia Kowite’s 25th anniversary as a member of the pastoral staff.  Pat has faithfully and enthusiastically served in many areas originally as volunteer and then as Director of Faith Formation and currently as Coordinator of Finance and Administration.  Congratulations to Pat and all of our employees who faithfully lead us in living out our mission to proclaim the reign of God.

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Mark

St. Francis of Assisi Staff Anniversaries

25 Years

Pat Kowite

15 Years

Maureen Leahy

Joan Port

Fr. David McBriar, O.F.M.

10 Years

Debbie Braga

Donna Sincock

Shelly Freeman

Javier Cid

5 Years

Jamie Hall

Patsy Thieken

Laura Keltie

Connie Eastmann

Lena Fortier

Tricia Henry

Joe Leone

Donna Hennesen

Jennifer Bigelow

Happy Mother’s Day to all our moms who are present here and to all who nurture and bring forth the life of Christ through the witness of their daily living and caring for others.

On April 25, the day on which our parish was founded, The Center for Volunteer Caregiving presented The Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi with the John M. Meares, Sr. Memorial Award to acknowledge the collaborative partnership of caring for the needs of parishioners and neighbors since 1996.  The Center’s mission is to provide volunteer services to help Wake County seniors, family caregivers, and adults with disabilities live at home as long as possible so that they can maintain independence, dignity, and quality of life.  This award is presented annually to recognize an individual or partner that exemplifies commitment to the spirit and tradition of neighbor helping neighbor.

The Center calls St. Francis a “Model Partner” for the continued financial support to The Center, the many volunteers who serve, and the ministry leader of the volunteers.  One of the care receivers who benefits from the St. Francis community recently wrote in a survey, “I can’t imagine what my life would be like without the St. Francis Caregivers.  I don’t see how I could live alone.”  Another wrote, “I have met some wonderful people through this organization.  I am so grateful and my prayer is somebody will be there for each one of you.” Congratulations, and a big “thank you” to the many volunteers through the years who have helped us live out our parish mission by serving those in need in our community in collaboration with the Center for Volunteer Caregiving.

We were fortunate to have Bishop Burbidge with us last Sunday.  He expressed his heartfelt appreciation to all who have generously donated to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal, especially so many who have made sacrificial gifts.  I echo his gratitude and invite those who have not yet sent in their pledge cards to please do so.  Every gift makes a difference!

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Mark

Congratulations to our young children who receive their First Eucharist this weekend. Welcome to grandparents and godparents who join us.  May the enthusiastic witness of our youth coming to the altar to receive the Body of Christ help each of us to grow in our love for the gift of the Eucharist which feeds the deepest hungers  of our lives. Thank you to the many catechists including Maureen Leahy and Laura Keltie who have supported parents in preparing our 225 children and their families for this sacrament of initiation.  Congratulations to Laura Keltie on her retirement from St. Francis after serving the past five years as Administrative Specialist to the office of Family Faith Formation for children.

During the First Eucharist retreat last month, the children provided food and toiletries to the homeless. Fr. Michael Duffy, O.F.M. wrote with tremendous gratitude that “the guests at the Inn really appreciated the items and were very grateful.”

Congratulations to our parishioners Ron and Jeanette Doggett who last weekend received from Bishop Burbidge the Catholic Charities Bishop Gossman award for their outstanding service and stewardship to those in need. As founding members of our parish, they have been leaders within St. Francis in many capacities. Ron has served on our Finance Council since the beginning of our parish and has been a wise counselor to each of our pastors including myself.  Jeanette chaired the God’s Work, Our Challenge campaign for  the parish and also helped to lead our Friends in Faith

initiative. Having celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last summer, Ron and Jeanette continue to be great witnesses to God’s love at work in their lives.

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Mark

Congratulations to our young children who receive their First Eucharist this weekend.  Welcome to their special guests especially grandparents and godparents. May the enthusiastic witness of our youth coming to the altar to receive the Body of Christ help each of us to grow in our love for the gift of the Eucharist which feeds the deepest hungers of our lives.

Thank you to all who have made a sacrificial gift or pledge to the 2013 Bishop’s Annual Appeal. Your support means a great deal to supporting the good works of the diocese and reaching out to those in need beyond our parish boundaries.

Thanks for Rick Miller-Harraway and Lateisha Sallah who spoke at the liturgies last weekend to put a human face on the appeal. A portion of Rick’s reflection is reprinted below. For the full text, please click here.

“I am here today to invite you to join with Catholic Charities in tending to and feeding his sheep by supporting the Bishops Annual Appeal. Last year, Catholic Charities tended to 60,000 throughout the Diocese and 45,000 people in Wake County alone. Catholic Charities has 8 regional offices throughout the diocese. Catholic Parish Outreach Food Pantry  provides a week’s worth of groceries to people in need of emergency food assistance. St. Francis has been a tremendous supporter of Catholic Parish Outreach not only through your support of the BAA, but also through direct financial support of CPO and through your food drives twice a year and through the dozens of volunteers at CPO from St. Francis. Currently CPO serves an average of 10,000 people per month. To give you an idea of how much poverty has increased in the past few years in Wake County, in 2007 we served an average of 4,600 people per month.

According to Wake County public schools, there are over 2,200 children registered in Wake County schools who are homeless. Some are living in the woods or in cars, many are living in homeless shelters and even more are living two, three, and four families in one home. To address this challenge, Catholic Charities has the Support Circle Program for Homeless Families where we recruit and train churches of all different denominations to form Support Circle teams of 6 to 8 people. Once trained these Circles are matched with a family living in a homeless shelter. These Circles provide assistance with obtaining furniture, better employment, budget counseling, tutoring and other support for the children for at least a year. They also help the families obtain medical and dental care.

Catholic Charities could not provide these services without the support of the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. About 25 percent of the BAA goes to support Catholic Charities providing about 30 percent of our total budget. The BAA also supports 30 other ministries such as Youth Ministry, Evangelization and Faith Formation, Pro-Life Office, Hispanic Ministry, African Ancestry Ministry, vocations and more.

The hardest thing we do at Catholic Charities is to turn people away because we simply do not have enough resources to help. Please share your resources so that we can tend to more of God’s people. Thank you so much for all that you have already done as a parish to support the BAA and Catholic Charities.”

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Mark

This weekend we’ve been fortunate to have Lateisha Sallah at the 9:30 and 11:30 am Masses share her story about how she has benefitted directly from the Bishop’s Annual Appeal and Rick Miller-Haraway speak about the good work of Catholic Charities here in the Raleigh Deanery at the other Masses.  The BAA provides direct financial support to those in need through more than 30 Diocesan ministries, whose primary functions are charity, evangelization, and worship. This year’s theme, Rooted in Faith: Revealed in Love, is a reminder of the responsibility each of us has to live out our baptismal call of serving one another as Jesus served.

In asking for support of this year’s appeal, Bishop Burbidge said, “Each year, parishes across the Diocese seek to carry out the teaching of Christ by participating in the BAA. When we reach out to serve the poor and defenseless in society, we are putting our faith into action, by caring for those in need through charity…. When we open the door of faith to others to know and love God, we are becoming joy-filled witnesses in bringing others to Christ through evangelization…. And when we nourish and strengthen our faith through the Holy Eucharist, we participate fully in the worship and celebration of the cross, aligning our suffering and those of others with Christ.  I encourage each of us to reflect upon the gifts God has given to our families over the past year and pray for discernment and guidance in determining our pledge for this year’s appeal.”

Last year, the 2012 BAA was combined with the Cathedral Campus Campaign allowing for one campaign rather than both the BAA and the Cathedral Campus Campaign being conducted in the same year.  While the BAA is normally conducted in January and February of each year, this year it’s being conducted in April/May since many parishes concluded their Cathedral Campus Campaign in December 2012.  To learn more about the 2013 BAA and view four short videos providing examples of your BAA contributions at work throughout the Diocese, click here.

Thank you to those who have contributed already to the BAA, and if you haven’t yet made your pledge, please do so in the upcoming week.

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Mark

Many thanks to Adam McCarthy, our 2013 Bishop’s Annual Appeal chair who speaks at each of our masses this weekend echoing the words of Pope Francis: Don’t forget the poor.  The BAA is our opportunity to partner with the Catholic Church throughout the 54 counties of Eastern Carolina to serve the needs of others, especially the poor.  Thank you to those who have already submitted their pledge cards.  Next weekend will provide us the opportunity to learn more about and make our commitment to remember the needs of the poor through the BAA.

I thought you might be interested in this new “prayer opportunity” – The Franciscan friars of Holy Name Province, we belong to are offering the faithful a new way to pray in the digital age by accepting prayer requests via text messages.  Its’ “Text a Prayer Intention to a Franciscan Friar” initiative, which is described as faith at your fingertips, is a novel way for Roman Catholics to connect.  “People are always saying to friars, ‘Can you say a prayer for me?’ Or ‘Can  you remember my mother who has cancer?’” Father David Convertino O.F.M. the New York-based executive director of development for the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Name Province, said in an interview.  “I was thinking that a lot of people text everything now, even more than email, so why not have people have the ability to ask us to pray for them … by texting.”

The faithful simply text the word ‘prayer’ to 30644, free of charge.  A welcome message from the friars comes up along with a box to type in the request. When the text is sent, the sender receives a reply.  The intentions are received on a website and will be included collectively in the friars’ prayers twice a day and at Mass.  It is one of several ways the friars hope to reach a younger audience, increase the number of faithful, and spread the faith. “If the Pope can tweet, friars can text,” said Father David.   “We’re trying,” said Father David when asked if the friars are well into the digital age, adding that they were “rushing madly into the 19th century.  We’re really excited about this working, I think we’ll be able to keep up (with all the intentions). That’s what we do, we pray for people.”

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Mark

In autumn the pastoral council met with ministry leaders of the parish and learned that issues of formation, training, and tools for ministry are foremost in their thoughts for us to address. Therefore we’ve created a conference designed for ministry leaders and volunteers/future leaders, and all parishioners:

Bringing Passion and Purpose to Ministry

Saturday, May 4
Clare Fellowship Hall
8:30 am to 2:00 pm

Bro. Loughlan Sofield, S.T., a distinguished author and international speaker will open the day focusing on engaging your passions and gifts while growing in Christ. Following the keynote address, there will be a variety of breakout sessions.  Please plan on joining us on Saturday, May 4 as we learn together how best to engage our passions and gifts and those of others in our ministries at St. Francis of Assisi.  Click here to register and choose breakout sessions.

Throughout the year there are many retreat opportunities to experience God’s love and peace in our lives – retreats for youth, women and men as well as on special topics like last month’s “dancing in the crack.”  If you’ve never taken the opportunity to experience a retreat, I encourage you to consider it.  One such special offering sponsored by the diocese is for women and men who have experienced abortion in their lives.  “Project Rachel” weekend retreats are opportunities to hear Jesus’ words of peace and experience God’s love, forgiveness, and compassion in a supportive and confidential environment.  If you are suffering from an abortion, this retreat is an opportunity to experience the love of Jesus Christ.  Each retreat combines discussions, spiritual exercises, the sacrament of reconciliation, a memorial service and a Mass of the Resurrection. Participation is strictly confidential.  The next retreat will begin at 6:00 pm on Friday, May 31, and end at 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 2, in Smithfield, NC. The cost is $125 for lodging, meals, and all retreat materials (financial      assistance is available). Our culture and media would have us believe that abortion is a woman’s right as well as a solution to a problem. The truth is abortion hurts women and men.  For more information: www.projectrachelnc.org or 919 852-1021.

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Mark

Happy Easter!

Congratulations to all who have received Easter Sacraments of Initiation this weekend.  We welcome you to the Roman Catholic Church and to this particular Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi.  Thank you to all who have enriched our Lenten experience, helping us to renew our baptismal promises and celebrate the new life that comes to us through the cross of Jesus Christ.

With the election earlier this month of Pope Francis there seems to be a renewed energy in the Church.  A few days following his election, Pope Francis explained how he came to choose the name Francis.  In his words: Some people wanted to know why the Bishop of Rome wished to be called Francis. Some thought of Francis Xavier, Francis De Sales, and also Francis of Assisi. I will tell you the story. During the election, I was seated next to the Archbishop Emeritus of São Paolo and Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes O.F.M.: a good friend, a good friend! When things were looking dangerous, he encouraged me. And when the votes reached two thirds, there was the usual applause, because the Pope had been elected. And he gave me a hug and a kiss, and said: “Don’t forget the poor!” And those words came to me: the poor, the poor. Then, right away, thinking of the poor, I thought of Francis of Assisi. Then I thought of all the wars, as the votes were still being counted, till the end. Francis is also the man of peace. That is how the name came into my heart: Francis of Assisi. For me, he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation; these days we do not have a very good relationship with creation, do we? He is the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man… How I would like a Church which is poor and for the poor!

As we celebrate the risen Christ, Pope Francis exhorts Christians everywhere to “protect Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, so that we can protect creation!  The vocation of being a ‘protector’, however, is not just something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another; and then; as parents; they care for their children; and children themselves; in time; protect their parents. It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect, and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God’s gifts!” (Pope Francis’ inauguration homily 3/19/13)

As we journey together this Easter season, embracing the paschal mystery, may we be protectors and witnesses to the new life God gives to us in the gift of one another and this Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi.

In the peace of the risen Christ,

Fr. Mark

As we begin the holiest week of our liturgical year, aptly called “Holy Week,” we celebrate the paschal mystery (the life, death and resurrection) of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  As we journey together this Holy Week, embracing the paschal mystery, may we witness to the new life our God gives to us in the gift of one another and this Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi.  I urge you to join in our community’s prayers and celebration of the Triduum, the last three days of Lent:  Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.  Please accept this invitation to set time aside to grow in holiness during this Holy Week.  The schedule is noted in this bulletin.

Throughout our lives, we live the paschal mystery as on a pilgrimage, passing through this world encountering the redeeming grace of the Lord despite our human frailty and sin.  Most importantly, we experience new life through the birth of children and grieve the loss of loved ones who pass from this life.  Our Church teaches that the sacraments of our Church are “powers that come forth from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving.  They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church.  They are the masterworks of God in the new and everlasting covenant.”  Each week we celebrate the sacraments of the church as we accompany one another on our journey of faith.  Beginning this Sunday, I will be including in the bulletin those who have celebrated sacraments so that we may rejoice in gladness or share in sorrow and join in prayer with one another.

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Mark

After much personal discernment on his part, Frank Lesko has resigned as Coordinator of Justice and Peace effective March 22.

In his resignation letter, Frank wrote, “I have grown tremendously both professionally and personally through this role.  I appreciate greatly the welcome and support that the whole community has offered me in my time here.  Like many of us who sow in the vineyard, I hope that God has been able to work some good through me as I planted seeds that others may harvest.  The commitment of this parish to justice and peace is outstanding and certainly a beacon far and wide.”  I’m grateful for Frank’s commitment to the work of peace and justice here at St. Francis and also within the Diocese of Raleigh.  The 9:00 am Mass on March 22 will provide an opportunity to gather with Frank and the pastoral staff to express our thanks and appreciation to Frank, followed by coffee in the Assisi Café. Trevor Thompson will assume responsibility for the  Justice and Peace office while continuing to provide oversight to the area of Pastoral Ministries.  Trevor’s passion for Catholic Social Teaching with its corresponding peace and justice outreach make him the right person to serve in this capacity.

Last week I reported on the impact our generosity is having on those severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy.  In addition, we have also received letters of gratitude from:

Passage Home: Your support is helping to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty, empower women and families who have been homeless, giving education and opportunities to youth, strengthening neighborhoods, and providing hope to communities in need.  You are helping families lift themselves out of poverty and become self-sufficient

Habitat for Humanity of Wake County:  Your gift will end the cycle of poverty housing for a family earning a modest income.  As a homeowner recently told us, “My home is more than a blessing to me; it is for my children and their children.”

Alliance of AIDS Services – Carolina:  In this past year, with help of individuals like you, we have provided food, emergency financial assistance, pastoral care, care teams, education, and advocacy for thousands of our fellow citizens.

Our Lady of the Rosary (OLR) Food Pantry:  Thank you!  You came to our rescue with over 400 bags of food, plus diapers, and baby food.  The prayer shawl ministry provided knitted hats, scarves, and mittens that were delivered on one of those exceptionally cold days recently.  They were put to immediate need!

The Inter-faith Food Shuttle:  We want to continue to spread our message that hunger is not acceptable.  Thank you for your recent donation; we could not continue our mission without your support.

St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia:  Many thanks to you for the collection for the poor.  We were especially delighted to receive the new underwear; that was a very practical and welcome item.

Witness for Peace Southeast:  Thank you for cosponsoring the Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice.  Your support helps make the 2013 pilgrimage possible.

In the peace of Christ,

Fr. Mark