Dear Friends of our Pastorate of the Visitation,
This weekend, we celebrate the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time and have another parable about a vineyard. This one is about a father with two sons. He asked one son to go work in the vineyard, and the son says in reply, “I will not” but later changed his mind and went to work. He asks the other son to go work in the vineyard, and he replies, “Yes, sir” but doesn’t go. Jesus asks who did the father’s will? Ultimately, it was the first son, because he eventually went to work in the vineyard. He goes on to chastise the chief priests and the scribes, because they did not believe the teaching of John the Baptist, yet tax collectors and prostitutes did. They initially were saying “no” by the example of their lives, but ultimately came to believe; while the others were “saying: ‘yes’” but never actually believed John.
This weekend is the Renewal weekend for our “Faith Renewed – Mission Sustained” Fall stewardship program. Last weekend, you were asked to reflect upon the ways that faith has sustained you and our parishes while beginning to recall how grateful you are for God’s grace and blessings in your life. This weekend, we will be asking you to help our parishes sustain our mission by making a commitment to support our parishes by praying, increasing your offertory gift (and consider moving to online giving), and volunteering of your time. We have many needs that would benefit by your financial gifts and gifts of time. For example, at St. Jane’s, we have had a difficult time with the trees around the campus. Some were damaged over the summer by storms (as some of you had to deal with at home), and others have succumbed to pine beetles. At OLC, we had to replace part of the entrance road due to a wash out of the soil beneath the asphalt. Both have been unexpected (and therefore unbudgeted) expenses. And we are always in need of additional volunteers to serve at Mass including lectors at SJF and EMs, and altar servers at both Churches. Consider this the Lord’s invitation to come and work in His vineyard at our Pastorate!
We continue to announce that our Pastorate now has a Formed.org account that is available to all of our
parishioners! Formed is an online tool offered by the Augustine Institute that contains a wealth of programs, movies, bible studies, etc. that you can access from home. Create a FORMED account by going to www.formed.org and click on “Find your parish subscription” at the top of the screen. The account is under Our Lady of the Chesapeake but also includes St. Jane Frances.
Wednesday Night Group (WNG) for our Pastorate high schoolers occurs every Wednesday evening from 6:30pm–8:30pm and rotates between OLC and SJF. Both Tim (OLC) and Carrie (SJF) co-sponsor this weekly activity. The schedule for the high school WNG can be found at https://www.olchesapeake.org/grow.
We are in the midst of a Jubilee Year in honor of the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi. The Blessing of Animals in honor of St. Francis will take place at St. Jane Frances on Sunday, October 4th at 5:00pm and at OLC on Monday, October 5th at 6:00pm.
Thank you for keeping our Pastorate of St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake in your daily prayers.
God Bless,
Father Steve
