Parish News

Religious Education Registration

Religious Education registration for the 2013-2014 school year has begun. Parents of students currently enrolled in our program should have received their registration materials.

New families wishing to enroll their children may pick up registration materials in the parish office during normal business hours.

For questions or additional information contact Marge Czop, the director of our Children's Religious Education Program, at (847) 395-3474 or by email at: religiouseducation@straphaelcatholic.org

October 27, 2013 - SAVE THE DATE!

A benefit event for St. Raphael the Archangel (SRA) Catholic Church - hosted by parishioners from the former St. Peter Canisius (SPC) and the former St. John of God (SJG) Churches - will take place on Sunday, October 27, 2013 at the White Eagle Banquets in Niles, Illinois.

Former St. Peter Canisius and St. John of God alums, clergy, faculty, neighbors, parishioners as well as anyone else interested in supporting this great cause should send their contact information to the SPC/SJG Conjoint Parish Reunion Event to Benefit SRA Planning Committee at PO Box 8338, Northfield, IL 60093 or to Barbara Balkonis Barrett (SPC '67) via email at bbarr30874@aol.com to get on the mailing list.

You won't want to miss this once in a lifetime event!

Year of Sunday Mass

The Archdiocese of Chicago has launched its Strategic Pastoral Plan: Reflect Christ's Light.

The goal is to grow the Catholic Community of faith in each parish over the next five years and to more deeply merge the faithful in the life of the Church throughout the course of their lives. The plan has a series of launches:

• July 2011: Year of Teens and Early Young Adults
• July 2012: Year of Sunday Mass
• July 2013: Year of Parent Formation
• July 2014: Year of the Sacraments

Know the Mass One Word at a Time - Thank

If as children we were trained to be polite, the words "thank you" may roll off our tongues dozens of times daily. Of course, it's good to be polite, but, in the routine of saying thank you, we may have lost its deeper meaning. In its fullest and deepest sense, to thank someone is to acknowledge their gift or their favor and also to acknowledge that we cannot give something back in return. To thank someone in this more authentic sense means to stand grateful but also indebted before someone who has been so good to us.

"Let us give thanks to the Lord our God." We hear the invitation at Mass, and it is not an invitation to repeat a commonplace, hastily spoken thank-you. To give thanks to the Lord is a full and humble acknowledgment of God's goodness to us manifested in the Death and the Resurrection of Jesus. There is truly nothing we can offer to "pay back" the Lord for all his goodness. Together, we stand before God grateful and indebted. God has done great things for us. We will never forget.

More information can be found on the Strategic Pastoral Plan web page at www.archchicago.org/StrategicPastoralPlan/