March 10, 2019

​My Dear Parishioners,
     40 days of Lent is here for us to deepen our relationship with God through our personal prayer, acts of penance and almsgiving to the poor or in our church.  Prayer: please know that God is always listening to you; please pray to God as often as you can and whenever you can, day or night.  Penance: please make an examination of conscience every day, especially when you come to church.  Don’t be afraid to make a good confession in order to receive God’s blessings and forgiveness in the Holy Sacrament of confession (confession times: after Mass Tuesday & Thursday, before every weekend Mass). Please know that God’s mercy is waiting for you and it’s endless.  Almsgiving: please make a personal/family commitment to help others, especially in our parish.  Do you know that most of our children are from low income families; therefore, their parents can’t always give much financially to our church.  Please help our parish with your time, talent and treasure so that we can continue educating and forming our children in the way of faith, hope and love.  On the behalf of our children, thank you for your love and generosity. 
     Lent: please remind each other not to eat meat on Fridays during Lent, and to pray the Stations of the Cross or to spend time in adoration.  Sign up for an hour to be with Jesus.  Jesus would love to be with you: to love you, to strengthen you, and to bless you.  Again, if you don’t know the new code to the new chapel, please contact the church office.  Again, Tuesday & Thursday Masses are held in the chapel at 5:30pm. 
     This Friday, March 8th, please join our Knights of Columbus for Stations of the Cross at 5pm in church, followed by their fish fry in the Fischer Center (Stations of the Cross in Vietnamese at 5:30pm every Friday).  Everyone is invited!  Let us support our Knights in their efforts to help our parish to become a church family where we pray together and share our lives and food together.  God bless our church family.  The Vietnamese parishioners will hold their annual retreat with guest priests beginning Friday, March 15th to Sunday, March 17th.  Our Altar Society Retreat will be on Saturday, March 23rd.  To begin their retreat, I will celebrate a Holy Mass for them at 8am.  Every lady in our parish is invited to join our Altar Society. 
     Finally, please keep our confirmation students in your daily prayer as they are preparing for their Holy Sacrament of Confirmation at the Cathedral on Thursday, March 28th at 6:30pm.  Soon, I will provide their names to you so that you can pray for them by name.  PS: Don’t forget to forward your clock this Sunday, March 10th, Fr. Hien
     Building Fund: From everyone in our church family, we want to thank many individuals and families, parishioners and non-parishioners, who have contributed generously to our building fund. Up to date, we are blessed with $159,912. Every registered parishioner/family was asked for a suggested amount and if you have not contributed yet, please know that we are still waiting for your gift to our parish so that we can reach our goal of $170,000. We are grateful to you and the following donors:  Thao & Nga Vu, Tu Ngoc Vu & Oanh Thi Nguyen, Larry & Phyllis Walker, John Walsh, Carol Warren, Robert & Catalina Weber, Abraham Weiner, Michael Yocum, Leonard & Marg Zarchan, Marshal Ziegler, Charles Steven, Sarah Ball, Huong & Thong Bui, William & Susan Goheen, Joseph & Bill Hotze, Donald & Laura Knipp, Melvin & Laura Leiker, Robert & Rebecca Lies, Richard & Cathy Ludwick, Rory & Teresa McCandless, Rex & Sheryl McKnight, Doris Rohr, Greg & Charlene Versch, Delores Williams, Kim Thuy  Thi Phan, Mark & Cindy Little, Minh Tran & Huong Truong, Rick & Debra Koehn, Paul & Connie Stone, Vi & Dinh Nguyen, My Dung Phung, Nam & Mary Duong, Ha & Tam Nguyen, Florentino & Enid Tuason, Patricia Crowe, Hao & Trang Tran, Juliet Werdann, Brando & Cuc Dao, Danh & Nhu Nguyen, Jason & Kristen Phillips, Becky Hotze, Khoa Bui, Glen & Benita Cox, Shanda Knipp-Barnes, Floyd Fletcher & Theresa Pitzer, Evelyn Tajchman, Tommy & Alisha Chang, Lucky Market, Annie Trinh, Virginia Simmons, Bill & Terrisa Compton & many more.