Fr. Hien's Weekly Letter

My Dear Parishioners,
     Please join our church’s family next Sunday, August 7th to celebrate Fr. Dwight Birket’s 50 priesthood anniversary at our Sunday, 9am Holy Mass.  Father will celebrate this special Mass, and the ladies of our parish will hold a reception in the Fischer Center West, immediately after Mass, for Father and everyone to stop by and congratulate him.  Father was pastor here at All Saints and he loved it here.
     Parents, have you registered your children to attend All Saints Catholic schools yet?  We would love to have your kids join our school.  Please do so ASAP so that we can order the materials for each student and to help you form your children in the way of faith, for the good of their bodies, minds, and souls.  Catholic education is a special gift to every stewardship family, to have their children learning in the Catholic environment.  Your child will be in uniform, pray throughout the day, attend Holy Mass, adoration, and serve as altar servers, cantors, lectors, etc.…  All 6th graders and older will be prepared for their confirmation in the spring.  Bishop is scheduled to offer the sacrament to our children.  Thankfully, All Saints Catholic parents don’t have to pay tuition for the Catholic education of their children. (The average private school tuition in Kansas for elementary school is $7,306 and high school is $10,948 per year). 
     Recently, we paved two new parking lots, one is east of the Fischer Center/in front of the gym for our teachers and staff to park during school days.  This will free the exit driveway to allow kids to be picked up along this driveway, in front of the gym.  Second, we paved a large area where the kids were standing and waiting to be picked up.  Now, they don’t have to drag dirt and water into their vehicles and homes, especially on wet and snowy days. 
     I also have been working on the concrete statues and crosses for the outside of our church and school buildings.  The two crosses will be on top of All Saints’ signs on Grand Street and on Harry Street.  This will help people notice right away that they are coming to a Catholic church.  In front of the bell tower will be two angels standing, one on the left and one on the right hand of Jesus who is welcoming everyone to All Saints.  Jesus is 6 feet tall, standing on two pedestals that are about 4 feet in height.  There will be two statues of Jesus, a Mary statue, and an angel statue in front of the church, south entrance.  One welcoming Jesus’ statue at the adoration chapel’s entrance door.  Lastly, one special praying statue of Jesus at the entrance of the school for everyone, especially children to touch and to be around Jesus.  I hope that this will help them to feel close to Jesus and to pray to Him every day.  I am thankful that I have been able to get a lot of work done for our church and school, even though it has been so hot.  God is good to us all.  If anyone would like to donate to these projects, please memo it as “statues.”  Thank you and greatly appreciated, with much love and prayers, Fr. Hien