St. John Neumann
Catholic Church

Look at what the Lord has allowed us to accomplish! Though our nation has experienced the worst economic downturn in over sixty years and though many in our parish family have experienced the pain of unemployment and under- employment, look at what the Lord has allowed us to accomplish! Even the great flood of 2009 could not stop us.

Several months after I joined you as a parishioner and as your pastor, we began the Building a Legacy of Faith project. We began the project after hearing from the parish through a professional polling of the membership. The results of that 2007 poll showed the parish saying strongly: we need and want a new worship space; we need and want a parish hall; we would love a small devotional chapel as well. These three stated desires are the three phases of the BLF project.  

Phase One has been completed and mostly paid for. We have a beautiful new worship space and a lower level of meeting rooms for ministry. Let us complete our pledges, redeeming all by December of 2010.

Phase Two is ready to commence. Phase Two will see the former worship space become a four-star parish hall, where we will be able to offer fellowship after the Sunday Masses, a place for our Tables of Fellowship community meals, a space for ministry retreats and get-togethers, a site for the wedding receptions we hope to have at SJN and the like.

Phase Three will take place after we have completed the Parish Hall Project. Phase Three will be the designing and building of a small devotional chapel alongside the new church (on the Tom Smith Road side). Such a devotional chapel would be perfect for "small" weddings and funerals and baptisms. It could serve to ignite a desire for the ongoing Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  It could serve the various ministries that might want to have a time of prayer together.

We will build a parish hall!  I want it to be a four-star hall that we will enjoy for years and years. But as I've said before, we will build with the dollars you offer the project. When you receive my letter in the next week or two, asking for your financial support of the Parish Hall Project (the second phase of our BLF renewal), I pray that you will be able to support it, with gusto! I am and can't wait to see how our new church and our soon-to-be-completed parish hall ignites a fire in the hearts of all, to build what Pope Paul VI called a civilization of love, right here... at St. John Neumann.

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The next Msgr. David's Book Club and Study Group begins on the 9th of September, in rooms 4 & 5 of the lower level of the Church. We begin our meetings at 7 PM and conclude them between 8:30 and 9 PM. A nursery will be available on these nights. I hope and pray that many of you will dedicate some time to the study of the great St. Teresa of Avila. We will be reading The Book of Her Life, found in The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila (Volume One), ICS Publications, second revised edition (1987).

For the meeting on the 9th, I will ask all to complete the Introduction and the first four chapters of the Book of Her Life. The following is the schedule for our study of St. Teresa (Thursdays at 7 PM): 9 and 23 September; 7 and 21 October; 4 November; 2, 16 and 30 December; 13 and 27 January; 10 and 24 February; 10 and 24 March; 7 April; 5 May; 2 June.

If you can't make Thursdays or are looking for a different type of ongoing adult formation, why not try Deacon Greg's course on the Catechism of the Catholic Church or one of the bible study groups starting up in September? Take a look at all that is offered at SJN (study, ministry, service, fellowship), and come and see.

AMDG

Msgr. David Talley