Auugust
5, 2007
Better
Late than Never
Mass
Schedule Update
Last week I mentioned that we are not planning on reinstating the 10:15
mass in the chapel in the fall due to the loss of several priests and
less-than-half full attendance at the 9am and 10:15 Mass. So far I’ve
gotten lots of feedback regarding a new mass time for the chapel mass
on Sunday morning both through a written survey at last week’s
9am mass and via e-mail. I’ll be sharing the input with our staff
in the next week so if you didn’t weigh in yet, there’s
still a day or oso to do so.
Welcome
Back Father Luca
Father Luca Favarito is back for his second summer with us. He brings
Bishop Giuuseppe’s greetings and he’ll be celebrating the
Italian Mass, as well as weekday English masses, throughout the month
of August.
Online Masses
We are now able to stream masses and other events live over the internet
to homebound folks and to relatives who live in other lands. If you’re
interested in this, in this, click
here.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
July 29: Sunday in the Chapel
July 15: Celebrating Kelly
July
8: I'm so not dead yet
July 1: Worse than Raccoons
June 24:Sommertime
June 17: Celebrating
Fr Cine
June 10: When Nature Turns
June 4:Celebrating Father
Jim
May 27: Praying in Tongues
May 20: Making (up) the
difference
May 13: Loving our Mothers
May 6: About Father George
April 29: Hearing Voices
April 22:Three Stones
April 15: What a week!
April 8: Alleluia! Alleluia!
April 1: Holy Week
March 25: Climate Change
March 18: Take A Step
March 11: Cold Enough for
You?
March 4:Stocking the Shelves
Feb 25: Basket Case
Feb18: Ashes and Desert
Dust
Feb11: Get Ready, Get Set,
REST!
Feb.4: Lent Lurking
Jan.28:Catholic Schools
Week
Jan.21:Crying in Church
Jan.14: Love ahead
Jan.7: So How
Was Your Christmas?
Columns
from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns from
2003
Columns from 2002
Every
year the Finance Council and I release a financial statement which shows
the income and expenses of St. Brigid’s Parish. The fiscal year
ends in August and usually it takes a few months to prepare the report
after the final numbers are in. Therefore I usually publish the report
around January each year.
This past year, I never got around
to printing the report. There’s no reason -- good or bad -- it just
was low on my “to do” list -- and I’m not proud of that.
So during my recent convalescence, I’ve been clearing up some things
that needed to be done and this week, I’ve finally gotten around
to print the (drum roll please) the 2005-2006 Annual Financial Report
of St. Brigid’s.
*Note
to our online readers. We published the financial report in the bulletin.
If you missed getting your own copy, we have some extras in our business
office.
The information there is really
a year old so let me take a moment here to tell you what’s happened
since that report:
• The parish began this current fiscal year owing $150,000
in outstanding bills. We paid $100,000 of the debt and
we’ve stayed current on our bills this year. That’s a great
accomplishment.
• The only significant outstanding bills are ones we
owe the diocese for the past several assessments
• Since February, we’ve lost $18,000 a month in rental
income from the convent. That’s $108,000 to date.
We owe the diocese $117,200. That means if we hadn’t
lost the tenant, we would be very close to break-even!
Our remarkable ability to balance
our budget (except for the rental loss) came from increased giving in
the collection, the number of people who signed up for automated giving,
rental income from the use of the school building, increased religious
education income, staff reductions and streamlining printing costs.
Thank you for your ongoing support
of the parish. We keep working toward finding a new tenant for our convent
building so please keep praying for success in this endeavor.
