In our last full week of summer, with the leaves just beginning to turn different shades of green, brown, orange and yellow, the Diocese again asks for our stewardship of support.  Together As One—our Diocesan Annual Appeal—is kicking off so to speak this week with a letter sent to all parishioners throughout the diocese.  We priests received our Annual Appeal letter and pledge information last week.  Every Together As One gift goes to support diocesan programs and ministries which in turn provide services that no parish can offer on its own.  
Those ministries include the Vocations Office supporting the seminarians presently preparing for the priesthood, and vocations awareness programs; Outreach to Minorities, providing programs, aid and information for those within our parish who would otherwise struggle to stay connected to their faith; Sacramental preparation information and programs supporting marriage, baptism, Confirmation and Reconciliation for all parishes (which we rely on heavily here in Boone; adult education programs and outreach to parishes; provides programming and material in support of parish level Religious Education classes; supports counseling services for individuals and couples struggling in their relationships; support of diocesan outreach to parishes for the ongoing protection of the most vulnerable from conception to natural death; and diocesan outreach to all parishes, supporting efforts of evangelization and bringing individuals into the Catholic faith.
On my behalf, thank you for your support of Together as One, our Annual Appeal.  Your support helps ensure our parish and faith community will continue the mission to open each person to the  healing and gracious heart of Jesus.  In times like these, within the circumstances we are confronted with, our faith in God helps us to keep things in perspective.  Our parents gave us a gift when we were baptized into the Christian community.  Our participation draws us together as a Catholic community here in Boone County, utilizing the gifts we each can share for the one gift that sustains us through challenges and blessings: faith.
Our goal as set by the diocese is $45,019.  One hundred percent of every dollar pledged or donated above our goal is returned to our parish community in Boone County.  Again, thank you for your consideration and generosity.  As you receive your Together As One mailing, this year’s letter from Bishop Nickless may be his last as we expect a new bishop to be ‘called’ forward in the near future.  Thus, I turn to St. Ignatius of Loyola’s simple prayer:  “Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous; teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost.”
“Get behind me Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  Played out in the full view of all through the gospels, Peter shared a rare and trusted calling, and a tumultuous relationship at times with Jesus.  A brief reflection from one of my favorite spiritual writers, Frederick Buechner, sheds light on this uncommon man called to be our first pope.  “Everyone knows Peter started out as a fisherman. . . .The first time Jesus laid eyes on him, he took one good look and said, ‘So you’re Simon, the son of John,’ and then said that from then on he’d call him Cephas, which is Aramaic for Peter, which is Greek for ‘rock.’. . .According to Paul, the first person Jesus came back to see after Easter morning was Peter.  What he said and whatever Peter said nobody will ever know, and maybe that’s just as well. Their last conversation was on the beach, at daybreak.  Some of the other disciples were there, and Jesus cooked them breakfast.  When it was over, he said to Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ And Peter said he did.  Then Jesus asked the same question a second time and then once again, and each time Peter said he loved him—three times in all, to make up for the other three times.  Then Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.  Feed my sheep,’ and you get the feeling that this time Peter didn’t miss the point.  From fisher of fish to fisher of people to keeper of the keys to shepherd.  It was the Rock’s final promotion, and from that day forward he never let the head office down again.”
God Bless, Fr. Tim
FYI: “Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others.”  (Barbara Bush)