BREAD
FOR THE WORLD – This weekend we have an opportunity to continue what St. Anastasia has done for thirteen of
our forty years, participate in the Bread for the World letter writing campaign. Bread for the World is a collective Christian
voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. This campaign attempts to provide better
aid for the world’s poorest countries and improve education, agriculture, nutrition, health and clean water. Our world
has made progress in fighting poverty. For the first time in decades, there are fewer than 1 billion people living on less
than $1 a day. But that’s still too many. Therefore, this weekend we will be offering letters and asking members of
Congress to increase funding by at least $5 billion per year for programs that give people in developing countries the opportunity
to work their way out of poverty.
PRAISE
AND WORSHIP & LASER TAG - I invite you to join us in our church this Friday from 7—8pm for a Praise and
Worship Service. What is Praise and Worship? It is an hour of contemporary and traditional music done in a reflective and
fun way. It will include readings as well. Greg Wehrung, Scott Zimmerman, Emily
Hope, and Erica Miller will join our youth minister, David Graves (all of whom participated in campus ministry and led liturgies
and choirs at John Carroll University),
and a few of our own parish musicians will lead the night. Afterward the teens will all go off to play Laser Tag. Come join
us!
RIGHT
TO LIFE CROSSES - Each day, 4400 babies die in the United States
because of abortion, and that is 500 children in Michigan
per week. To invite people to be aware of this horrible situation and to hopefully do what is within their power to change
this, we are supposed to witness. We have had some trouble from the city to get permission to put them up, but if all goes
well, 500 white crosses will be placed on our front lawn. Pray and vote well. Just a reminder, we do a 24 hour adoration each
month to ask the Lord to assist us in attempting to do what is within our role as His disciples to have a positive impact
in changing these horrible statistics.
HOLY LAND - On Tuesday of this week I will be arriving in Tel Aviv and will begin an exciting
journey later that day in Bethlehem. Our Lady of Loretto,
where I served as pastor for seven years gave this pilgrimage to me as a farewell gift (Only a one way ticket though?!?).
This two week journey is my first ever to the Holy Land. The Gulf War prevented me from going
to the Holy Land as was planned in my seminarian training. It will include many exciting
events: Wednesday I’ll swim in the Dead Sea; Saturday I will be in Jericho; next Sunday I’ll celebrate Mass on
Mount Tabor; Tuesday April 29th, I’ll be in Capernaum and Tiberius; next Wednesday, I’ll be at the
Mount of Beatitudes; next Thursday, I’ll be in Caesarea; and the next day, I will do a holy hour in the Garden of Gethsemane;
May 3rd I will go to Jesus’ tomb; and will end up the final day with Mass at Emmaus. I have never been gone
for a two week stretch before, so please keep me in your prayers. Be assured of my prayers for you at all the shrines.
