The followign is Father Strebler's Pastor's Column for the weekend of August 5 & 6, 2023.

“Payday at my house is like the Academy Awards. My wife says: May I have the envelope please.”

 --Henny Youngman

Dear Parishioners:

You will soon be seeing a change in your contribution envelopes.  We have changed our envelope provider and changes will be coming for the envelopes beginning in September; you will be getting your new envelopes in August.

• We have a new design for the envelopes. I think it is a good-looking design.  I hope you like it too.

• Envelopes will be coming every-other month rather than monthly. This will reduce our costs.

• There still are envelopes for monthly and weekly contributors.

• There will be one monthly envelope (colored gold) that replaces several other envelopes. This covers repairs and improvements, food bank, Heart of the Shepherd (until the end of 2024), as well as other, designated to cover non-regular collections such a disaster relief, Ukrainian refugees, etc.  Please mark clearly how much goes to each collection.

This is the time to let us know if you want a change in your envelope status.

   If you are not getting envelopes and would like to, please let us know.   Please know that those with no record of contributions in the last 5 years are not scheduled to get envelopes.  I recognize that some people want to give anonymously or like to give loose cash.  If so, you might want to cancel your envelopes.

This might be a good time to switch over to direct deposit; again, call the office for assistance with this. If you have switched or are switching over to the direct-deposit method and do not want envelopes, please let the office know so we won’t send envelopes in the future.  

Take 2 minutes, 47 Seconds and see how easy it is to setup weekly giving through Realm!

Now for the required pastor line in the way you’d expect me to say it:  You will soon be seeing a change in your contribution envelopes, I hope I won’t be seeing change in your contribution envelopes!   But seriously, thank you to all who contribute on regular basis to Holy Spirit.  We are able to do what we do only because of your generosity.

I will be away on retreat this week.  It is a retreat for priests, deacons, and seminarians near St. Augustine, FL.   I am going with Fr. Ed Suszynski and Fr. Chris Trenta from our diocese (both of whom served at Holy Spirit for field education while in the seminary!)  Please keep us and all the other retreatants and the retreat directors in your prayers this week,

Sincerely,

Rev. Charles F. Strebler
Pastor