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Saturday, 21 July 2007 |
Natural Family Planning Awareness Week runs from this Sunday through Saturday, 22-28 July. This year’s theme is Married love and the gift of life (a document from the Bishops of the United States Catholic Conference (USCCB). As most of you are aware, the design of Natural Family Planning (NFP) respects our Catholic Church’s understanding of God’s plan for human love and the vocation of marriage. According to the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, NFP is a system for the regulation of births, consistent with the moral teaching of Christ and His Church (p.521).
In the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read that for just reasons spouses may wish to space the births of their children. NFP is a proven method for the regulation of birth, a system that respects fully the divine plan of marriage (CCC, 2366-2372). Please know that NFP is not the same thing as “the rhythm method”.
SJN’s own Julie Tran is coordinating a workshop on NFP for Saturday, the 28th of July (10 AM to Noon), to be held in rooms 103-104 of the SJN Regional Catholic School, our next door neighbor. I would encourage all the workshop. If you have questions about NFP or the workshop to be held at SJN, please call Mrs. Julie Tran at 770-931- 4602, or contact her at
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From the earliest days of Christ’s Church, we have held that our obedience to God’s Word, to God’s plan of life is THE way of honoring God (1 John 2. 3-6). We honor the Lord in our obedience to the Way of Life. We also honor the Lord in the way we worship as a community of faith. As I have said before, our liturgical prayer gives glory to God and in fact, allows us to experience something of the majesty of God’s love. One of the joys I have as a member of SJN is in presiding at the breaking of the bread... holy Mass. So many parishioners assist in this offering of liturgical prayer.
One of the keys of a beautiful liturgy is in taking care of the sacred worship space... the interior of the church. Without any notice, without any desire for praise, a group of women take care to clean and make ready everything that is used for the Divine Liturgy. These women are members of the SJN Altar Guild Ministry. This ministry cares for the vessels and clean everything week by week and make sure all is ready for the ten Masses that are celebrated each weekend. I am asking you to consider joining this ALTAR GUILD MINISTRY. The ideal candidate might be a mom (or dad) that has chosen to stay home with young children. This mom (or dad) might be able to give an hour or two for this ministry. Another ideal candidate might be several of our seniors, men and women that love the parish and the liturgy, and would find the time for a weekly assignment of caring for the “things of God”. If you think you might want to assist in this, please contact Barbara Ann Basye (the coordinator) at
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In addition to a whole group of new Altar Guild Ministry members, I am still searching for a couple of parishioners that might become part of a renewed Sacristan Ministry team. These folks keep the two sacristies in good order for us. Please contact me if you might be ready to serve in this way (I’m hoping that a few will say “yes”). AMDG.
Msgr. David |
