School Year Begins

Dear Parishioners,

School Begins
The school year officially begins after this Labor Day.  That means that we will once again see the beautiful faces of our little ones on our campus.  If you have not decided to enroll your child at our school yet, there is still time without any great struggle for makeup homework or figuring out proper placement in classes.  If you have a child that is age 4 yrs. old, we offer a fantastic full-day Pre-K.  If your child is 5 yr old, then why not enroll them in our very successful Kindergarden class?  Come by the school office and inquire.  You can get a tour and meet our wonderful teachers.  We strive to live out our mission statement: “St. Anne Catholic School is committed to faith formation, scholarship, leadership, and service according to our Catholic values.”  Come check us out and see if St. Anne’s Catholic School is right for you.  

Faith Formation & Youth Ministry
Whether your children are enrolled in the public school system or in our Catholic School, we have other wonderful opportunities to help build your children’s faith whether they are in grade school, middle school, or high school.  Our Faith Formation program is receiving registrations already and you can find them online, in the vestibules of the Church, in the main parish office, or at the Faith Formation Office located in the Parish Center.  you can also call Jessica McCormick at 541-479-4848.  Our youth ministry program is also an excellent way for your middle school or high school teen to experience our living faith in a way that speaks their language.  If your teen is a Freshman or later and hasn’t been confirmed, again, we are gearing up for Confirmation classes.  Seek out Natalie Scott, our Coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for details 541-476-5802.

Golf Tournament
On a totally different note, our annual parish golf tournament is two Saturday’s from now, the 14th of September!  Have you signed up your team of four?  The tourny is open to men and women and teens alike.  Last year, one of our teens, Donnie Thomason really schooled many of our vetran players.   I hear that Fr. José was even thinking of swinging some clubs. Last year was a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to this year as well.  The funds raised go to the general fund of the parish which will help us in our ministries and much more.  Please come by the parish office ASAP and sign up your team.  Time is getting short!  Hope to see you out there!

Blessings,


Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor

Year of Faith Opportunities

Dear Parishioners,

The school year is coming to a close and many of our young people are graduating from  high school, college, and even kindergarten!  But, most of our young people will be simply moving to the next level in their educational journey.  As a parent, the first priority for you is the faith-life and education of your child or children with whom God has entrusted to you. You might remember that you made this promise when you participated in the baptism of each of your children.  So, in that context, I want to encourage you to give serious consideration to your child’s participation in and education in the Faith.  We have many ways that you can consider to further that mission with which you’ve been entrusted.

The first is our grade school which brags of a full-day Pre-K and Kindergarden.  St. Anne Catholic School has been accredited from our earliest grades all the way up to 8th grade.  Our school has awesome teachers who know that the mission of faith comes first and foremost.  Our school offers more hours of faith formation and education per week than any of our ministries.  Our teachers are great at lifting up their students to excel in reading, mathematics, science, and the arts.  The classrooms are welcoming and the student to teacher ratio allows for maximum potential for contact with each other.  Our graduates have a wonderful track record of becoming leaders in the faith and the community.  They are well prepared and often are well ahead of their fellow students when they reach high school.  If you have children who are of age to attend our school, I want you to give serious prayer and thought to bringing your child or children to St. Anne Catholic School.  Enrollment is now open, so don’t hesitate.  Contact the school office and learn more about how the school may be a wonderful opportunity for your family.

Another way to fulfill that commitment of raising your children in the faith is enrolling them in our Faith Formation Program which also begins with the school year.  We have dedicated catechists who spend hours preparing for lessons to reach the hearts of our young ones.  The classes are placed between our Sunday Masses which allow you as their parents to also grow in your faith.  As such, we will continue to offer an assortment of adult faith formation opportunities.  This past year, we watched Robert Barron’s Catholicism DVD series.  This coming year, we will continue to offer monthly opportunities for adult catechesis and Faith Formation.  So, please don’t just drop your children off and pick them up later.  Come and stay while they are going to Faith Formation classes.  Learn about the faith yourself.  Become a resource for your children when they ask those hard questions.  This Summer, we will host our annual Vacation Bible School which will help our children learn about our Lord through compelling stories, music, and activities.  Sign up now before it’s too late!

Lastly, if your child is in Middle School or High School, then be aware that we have a fantastic ministry to our teens.  Our youth ministry program is based on Life Teen which is an internationally recognized program of resources, training, and methods all geared toward creating opportunities for the teens to encounter Christ, most specifically in the Eucharist which is our source and summit.  We commit ourselves to tackling the hard topics that besiege our teens in our culture today.  This past year, we spent five weeks learning about Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, arguably the most compelling teaching on sex and marriage ever articulated.  This summer, our teens will participate in Joe’s Camp which will help them learn about the dignity of work and the needs of the less fortunate.  The High School teens will have the opportunity to attend Steubenville NW Youth Conference with thousands of other teens and nationally recognized speakers who will challenge them to live their lives as committed disciples of the Lord.

Pope Benedict XVI called for a year of faith.  That challenge is for all of us.  What are you doing to increase your love and knowledge of the Catholic Faith in your life and the lives of all your family members?  As your pastor, I want to encourage you to take the challenge seriously and consider all these options which I’ve describe here.  If you do not have children or they are already grown, consider how you can support these endeavors while at the same time growing in your own faith walk.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger

Pastor

Getting Involved In Your Faith

Dear Parishioners,

We are well underway for the school year. As such, it is a time to ask, as a family or individual how you are going to grow in your faith. Well, we here at St. Anne’s have a myriad of opportunities in which to learn and grow in your faith.

Children’s Faith Formation, formerly known as Religious Education or CCD, meets almost every Sunday between the two Masses. It is open to children from grades K through 5th grade. Faith Formation speaks more directly to the mission than previous titles. It is not enough just to have intellectual knowledge of the faith. It is also important to have that faith living in one’s heart. If your child is in second grade, this is the time to enroll them in preparation classes for First Reconciliation and First Communion. Those classes will begin meeting in October every other Wednesday in the evening. See the “Faith Formation” section of our bulletin or talk to Terry Knouff for more information.

Youth Ministry is intended for our young people grades 6th through 12th. Our Middle School students meet each Wednesday evening while the High Schoolers meet each Sunday evening. If your teen is a sophomore, then this is the time to make sure that they sign up for preparation classes for Confirmation. They will be meeting between the Masses on Sundays like last year. See the “Youth News” section of our bulletin or talk to Natalie Scott for more information.

If you have a child who is almost seven years of age and has not received any Sacraments or has only received baptism, we have special classes for them which will help integrate them into their peer community while also helping them grow in the special areas they need in order to receive the sacraments they need. Depending on their age (described above), seek out either Terry or Natalie.

If you know a family who has been away or is unaware of these wonderful offerings for their children, please make an effort to let them know about what they are missing. It seems that every year there is someone who approaches us near the end of the school year who realizes that they had forgotten to enroll their children in sacramental preparation. Who knows? You may be the one who can remind them and help them before it is too late in the year.

For our adult parishioners, keep your eyes peeled to the bulletin and listen to the pulpit announcements for some amazing opportunities this year which include Catholicism 101, The Great Adventure Bible Study, the ACTS Retreats, a Mission with John Michael Talbot, and much more. Maybe consider giving your time to a ministry such as Faith Formation or youth Ministry. If you speak Spanish, seek out Esperanza Robles, our Coordinator of Hispanic Ministry, who is always open to having more people to get involved.

Finally, if you are an adult who desires to join the Catholic Faith or are a Catholic in need of any of the Sacraments of Confirmation, Reconciliation, or Eucharist, please seek out Terry who can help you connect with a wonderful group of other adults who are journeying in the same way.

St. Anne’s is a wonderful place where many things are ongoing. It certainly isn’t stagnant nor boring. Take a moment and ponder on how God is calling you and your family to grow in the Faith. Hopefully, some of these things mentioned will give you inspiration to make some decisions, if you haven’t already, to get involved.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger

Pastor

Job Openings

Dear Parishioners,

This week, Julie, our Coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry (CYM), approached me and discerned that she needed to leave and pursue other opportunities in her life. She will be missed by us all. She has been an enthusiastic presence in our parish which was a delight for us all. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors back home. She has agreed to stay on until August or until we find her replacement, which ever comes first. I ask that you keep her in your prayers as she strikes out in a new direction.

In the meantime, I have posted ads for a new CYM on our web site as well as other local and national locations. Please pray that in the course of our search, we will be able to find the right person for our community. I am not worried, but hope-filled that we will reap the fruits of being faithful as we were when we hired Julie. If you know of someone interested in this position, please direct them to our web site for full details. It is very late in the year to be seeking out a new CYM. Many candidates have already taken their perspective jobs. I am also not going to rush this process if it means just filling the position. We need to have the right person more than we need to have a warm body doing the work.

As you also may know, our school has two position openings as well. One is that of a Pre-K teacher and the other is for a teacher for our 3/4 grade class. Information about these openings has been on our web site for a month. Those searches are well underway.

This season of year is always a time for change and renewal. May God be with us and our former employees moving on. May we all be open to His promptings and follow our Lord where ever He leads us.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger

Pastor

Theology of the Body

The Church & Sex

Now, there’s a title, eh? Did that get your attention? Just as it should, the Church and sex dwell in the deepest part of our being. God desires that we live in harmony, joy, and fulfillment. Our participation in the Church and fully living as sexual beings can give us these things. If that claim sounds outrageous or simply foreign, then you may want to learn about what has become to be called, the Theology of the Body.

The Theology of the Body, was a catechetical program pro- claimed by Pope John Paul II during his first 129 Wednesday audiences between 1979 and 1984. Believe it or not, by the time he completed this catechetical program, he had written and spoken about two-thirds of all that had been said about sex and marriage to date.

Parents & Teens

This Sunday (Jan. 16), at 6:00 PM in the Kelly Youth Center, I will be offer- ing a two hour workshop on the Theology of the Body for adults. All adults are invited, but most importantly, I want to urge the parents of our teens to attend, because the following week we will begin a five week series of youth nights covering the Theology of the Body.

Parents need to understand what the Church teaches and what we, as a youth program, will be doing for their teens. This program for teens will not be offered every year, so that makes it all the more important to also involve your teens. It is the ideal time to learn and ask questions that will equip parents for the questions that are so often difficult to understand and answer.

What Will Be Discussed?

The workshops focus on the teachings of Pope John Paul II and include discussions about current issues surrounding marriage, contraception, topics that OBGYN’s don’t discuss, and even how what Pope Benedict XVI calls a “dictatorship of relativism” effects our ability to make moral choices today.

The five week youth component will begin on January 23rd and continue into late February. Each night will begin at 6:30 PM and conclude at 8:30 PM. The teens will meet, as usual, in the Kelly Youth Center. A Parental Consent/Youth Conduct Agreement is necessary for a teen to be present due to the mature nature of the topics. These forms are available at our office and on our web site. If your teen has never attended any of our youth nights, no problem. This is the perfect time to connect if only for these five youth nights.

Come and extend your understanding of our Catholic faith.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger

Pastor