Happy Ascension Sunday! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Today is the birthday of the Church! Happy birthday, Church!

According to St. Luke, for forty days Christ had been teaching the Apostles about the coming Kingdom of God. They are gathered together on the last day, and what do they ask? “When are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” Oy! When will they understand that the Kingdom of God is not the Davidic Kingdom of Israel? When the Holy Spirit comes, apparently. All the teaching and preaching of Jesus himself could not make them understand. The Spirit needed to enter their hearts.

Of course, Jesus left the Church in the hands of humans, and it’s been a predictably rough time, from medieval entanglements with secular power and wealth to the abuses that gave rise to Protestantism, to religious wars, to modern sex abuse scandals.

Currently the Annual Catholic Appeal is under way to support the Church in Western Washington. While Catholics tend to be very parochial, thinking their own parish community is the one and only, the bishop and the diocese is the local administrative and teaching authority of the Universal Church.

The Archdiocese of Washington has been a leader in developing safe environment and stewardship practices for over thirty years. It manages health insurance, retirement and other benefits for staff and provides payroll services. It oversees the financial practices of parishes and advises on the management of facilities. It advises on religious education curricula and runs one of the largest education systems in the state of Washington. It recruits, educates and manages the retirement funds of priests. It contributes to the retirement and health fund of sisters.

Please give generously to the Annual Catholic Appeal.

Ministry Opportunities

Victoria Ries has volunteered to continue the garden in support of St. Mary’s Food Bank! Yea!!! She had begun tending and caring for it with the help of a couple of volunteers. But she needs your help! If you’re interested, contact her at victoria.ries@comcast.net.

We need someone with a modest familiarity with computers to help Nicole run our livestream equipment. Although we are now celebrating two Masses on Sunday, we still are at less than capacity, and many parishioners are still staying away because the COVID danger is still with us. The livestream is our best way to keep our parish vibrant. If you are able to watch Mass on your computer, you are computer-savvy enough to help. Contact Nicole at nicoles@st-therese.cc.

Ellie Wakefield (a Garfield junior and parishioner) is seeking to a help to make lunches for the Matt Talbot Center. The goal is to provide 30 lunches once a month for the center. She needs three volunteers to make ten lunches each and drop them off at the house of a fourth volunteer who would then drive them downtown to the Matt Talbot Center. Depending on how many people sign up, you may only need to volunteer once every 3-4 months. If you are interested, contact Ellie at ellieawake@gmail.com. (My all-time favorite email address!)

For you newcomers, the MTC ministers to individuals who want to recover from addiction. It was engendered by the Holy Spirit at the same 1981 Cursillo retreat where the Gospel Choir was rooted and is led by former St. T parishioner Greg Alex.

Collections
July 1 - May 13, 2021     $366,166
Where we need to be: $341,761
Last year at this time:   $328,951