Sts. Peter & Paul
Pastoral Council Meeting
December 3rd, 2015
6:00 p.m. in Family Room
Those in attendance:
Father Tony
Deacon Rusty
Jill Peterek
Curt Hand
David Henk
Cyndi Foster
Mike Senneway
Those not in attendance:
Steve Minus
Mario Silva
Lidia Rodriguez
Mary Kay Wilson
Joyce Blasizzo
Greg Machalec
Juanita Lopez
I.
Opening Prayer – Father Tony distributed “Blessing Prayer for the
Christmas Crib” (copy attached) which the council prayed aloud.
II.
Reviewed Minutes of the November Meeting – Motion to adopt the
minutes as presented was made and seconded, respectively, by Cyndi
Foster and David Henk. Motion was adopted.
III.
Deacon Rusty updated the Council on the Masses for December, 8,
Feast of the Immaculate Conception:
8AM and 7PM, no Holy Day mass on Monday, the 7th.
IV.
Deacon Rusty updated the Council on the SPP Christmas Masses:
Christmas Eve: Two at 5PM, 7, and 12 (Midnight)
Christmas Day: 8AM and 12 (noon)
V.
Discussed new council member candidates to replace the five
members whose terms will expire in JanuaryCurt offered Toby Galander as a candidate and Joyce suggested Andy
Schwab and Kim Schlegater.
VI.
Ministry Reports
A. Joyce Blasizzo
1. Catholic Daughters: Christmas Social 12-15.
2. St. Anne’s Christian Mothers Altar Society: No report
3. Helping Hands: No report
4. Doll Ministry: No report
B. Greg Machalec
1. SOS Food Bank: No report
2. Little Flowers: No report.
3. Ushers and Greeters (Hospitality Ministry): No report.
4. Knights of Columbus: No report.
C. Mario Silva
1. School – No report
2. Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic School Charitable Trust – No report
3. Lectors: Nothing to report.
4. Eucharistic Ministers: Nothing to report.
D. Cyndi Foster
1. Healing Ministry –
- At November meeting we had our annual food drive from our
members and left all in the food box.
- We have a new leader for the Ministry, Ann Trost. She is a
certified social worker who has experience leading support groups
and has worked for and in hospitals for many years. We are very
excited to have her take on this ministry and hopefully we will be
able to reach out and help more people.
- We would like to see if there is a way to work with the Deacons
and others who visit those in the hospitals or the homebound to
see if they can hand out something to the people they visit to tell
them about our ministry.
This request was addressed by Deacon Rusty at the November
meeting, please refer to the minutes of that meeting.
- We are also changing our meeting date to the 2nd Thursday of the
month, starting in January.
2. PTC – No report
3. Family Promise – Hosting 4 families with 4 adults and 8 children in
the program this week. We have 27 Sts. Peter and Paul volunteers
that have either donated food, drinks, or are staying as an overnight
volunteer this week with the families in the program. We are so
fortunate and blessed to have the volunteers from our parish that
continue to enable us to participate in this ministry. We also want to
give a huge thank you to the owner of Hill Country RV Resort for his
donation of the cabins each time that we host for Family Promise.
E. Lidia Rodriguez
1. Bereavement: No response
2. Rachel’s Journey (formerly Project Rachel): No report
3. Welcome Committee-Ministry Awareness Weekend : See handout
(attached) on particulars for the February 13/14 event.
4. Lending Library: No response.
5. Divorce Support Group: No response
F. David Henk
1. Catholics for Freedom of Religion- Our "Keep Christ in Christmas" magnet, decal, and yard sign sales
are going well, not as robust as in the past, but didn't expect them
to be. This is the third annual sale and the market of "buyers" is
shrinking. Many people have already bought and are still using
the products they bought in prior years.
We've completed our sales at SP&P (11/14--15) and OLPH (11/2829) and have a final sale scheduled at Holy Family Dec 12-13.
- The "Keep Christ in Christmas" Musical is just around the corner,
December 13 at 5 PM in the NB Civic Center. Admission is
FREE, so folks should make plans to attend.
- Looking at hosting a movie night in observance of National
Religious Freedom Day, Saturday, January 16, 2016. We've
almost settled on showing A Man for All Seasons, the story of St.
Thomas Moore, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King
rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and
remarriage.
2. Marriage Encounter:
Christmas Party this year is a combined party with the Spanish
speaking WWME community. It will be held Saturday, December
5th, at St. Jerome's Parish in San Antonio, from 7-10 P.M. All
Encountered couples are welcome.
3. Gardening Angels: Nothing scheduled.
4. Disaster Relief – No Disaster Relief activities in New Braunfels
G. Steve Minus
1. Divine Mercy Cenacle –
- Now have three Cenacles meeting, one on Tuesday morning, one
at 1:00PM on Tuesday, and one on Tuesday evening.
- We have an induction ceremony in the DIVINE MERCY
CHAPEL on Dec 1 for the evening group.
- With start of the “YEAR OF MERCY” as proclaimed by Pope
Francis, the Cenacle is a perfect way to grow in ones faith and to
truly understand the meaning of DIVINE MERCY. New members
always welcome.
2. Divine Mercy Chaplet: No report.
3. Prison Visits: No report
4. Scouts:
Troop 163: - Troop did local Guadalupe river cleanup located upriver from
Faust St bridge.
- Troop cleaned up and camped out at Rancho Benito in
Wimberley. The older boys were able to operate a $45,000
portable saw mill. They cut lumber out of fallen cypress and
pecan trees that will be kiln dried and turned into crosses for
summer camp fund raiser.
- Planning to have a pancake fundraiser on Scout Sunday @ KC
hall since parish hall is booked.
- In the process of recruiting new Scout Master. Jeff Lightsey is
thinking/considering, so please PRAY that he accepts and we can
help him make this an Army strong Troop!!!!
H. Juanita Lopez
1. Archives: Getting ready for SPP school Alumni Day.
2. CYO: More updates on the working with Wounded Warriors Project
to come.
a. Basketball: Our basketball registration is complete with 220
kids signed up to play in our church and community! We have
23 teams, 15 boy teams and 8 girl teams. We are looking to
kickoff our season this weekend on Dec 5.
b. Volleyball: No report
c. Baseball: No Report
3. Youth Ministry:
- Had a very successful Wurstfest Parking fundraiser, which will
allow us to take charter buses on two high school mission trips
this summer.
a. 50 youth, young adults and adults will travel to Denver in June
and 36 youth, young adults and adults will travel to Cocoa
Beach, FL in July.
- Middle school mission trip will be in July to Laredo, TX.
- During the Thanksgiving holiday, Sts. Peter and Paul School
collected cans for our TG project. The youth ministry donated
flour, sugar, rice, beans, stuffing, cake mix, etc. Then the youth
and volunteers from Catholic Life Insurance put together grocery
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bags for 35 families. Our hands and feet ministry donated $25
HEB cards to go with the groceries. Parish volunteers helped to
load cars as the families picked up their groceries.
Middle school students attended their make-up retreat on
November 21-22 at Deer Creek (rescheduled from October 2425).
First Confirmation retreat will be this weekend, Dec. 5-6, at
Slumber Falls Camp.
Teen ACTS team is meeting for our Spring retreat at T bar M
February 4-7. So, we have two teams meeting simultaneously on
Wednesday evenings.
Annual Christmas Mission Trip is scheduled for December 19 to
St. John Vianney Mission Church in LaCoste. We will provide
gifts, stockings, crafts, and lots of fun for about 150 needy
children.
The middle school students attending the mission trip this
summer will be selling poinsettias after all of the Masses this
weekend. Please support them in their efforts.
Young Adult Married Ministry - This fall Chachi Diaz and Toni
Miller with the help of some of our Life Teen Core members
started a young adult married seminar. They meet once a month
with a guest couple who shares about their marriage. There is time
for socializing, small group discussions and prayer. Babysitting is
provided. Most of the couples have been married between 1 year
and 10. Over 30 couples have participated and the number is
growing.
The Single young adult group is going to move to a format in the
spring where they will meet once a month as a big group with a
planned program and will also offer weekly Bible studies led by a
volunteer young adult male and female. (These will be separate
Bible studies for young men and young women.)
I. Curt Hand
1. Catholic Alliance: No report.
2. Pro Life Coordinator: No report.
3. Eucharistic Adoration: No report.
4. Thrift Store: Always looking for volunteers. Special talents needed
in evaluating baseball cards, stamps, etc.
J. Mary Kay Wilson
1. Bible Study: No report.
2. Parish Choirs: No report
3. CCD – No report
4. RCIA – No report
K. Jill Peterek
1. Gabriel Project:
- Received 17 new families into their program in November.
- Hotline answered 38 phone calls
- 11 families received new cribs during the month
- Had 2 referrals from area agencies.
- Helped 175 families with diapers
- Gave clothes to 56 families during our 8 diaper days in November.
- Diaper Day Volunteers looked forward to the Holiday Closing on
November 22. We will not have Diaper Days again until Jan. 6,
2016. The Supply Room Volunteers will continue to meet on
Wednesdays at Noon to process donations that come in and of
course the hotline is available 24/7.
- Catherine drove to San Antonio on November 5 and met the
Director of the St. Mary Magdalene Parish Gabriel Project to talk
about how our Gabriel Projects are doing. Catherine took notes to
share with Marsha and our leaders of Gabriel here. Catherine liked
how Fr. Will, Pastor of St. Mary Magdalene Parish, refers to the
people involved in helping their Gabriel Project as Servants, not
Volunteers. He had a special mass with commissioning the
servants of the Gabriel Project. Years ago, Catherine talked about
doing this with Fr. Tony but we never got it done. That is on our to
-do list for 2016! St. Mary Magdalene Gabriel Project operates out
of Allied Women’s Center, the Catholic Crisis Pregnancy in San
Antonio.
- We had a sad time in Gabriel in November also. One of our
Gabriel Moms lost her twin boys at birth. Catherine ordered 2
medallions “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” with the boy’s names
engraved on them. Marsha had a mother’s book and two little
miraculous medals for the boys. These gifts were given to the mom
at the Holy Spirit House. Marsha ordered 2 blankets to be
embroidered with the boy’s names, the date of their passing along
with the phrase “Safe in the Arms of Jesus”. Her friend in San
Antonio did this. Marsha called the mom to tell her the blankets
were ready for her to pick up in Maria’s office. She is so thankful
and filled with deep gratitude for all The Gabriel Project has done
for her and her family. She wanted Marsha to spread the word to
all the volunteers that she loves them all.
- We had many blessings come to The Gabriel Project in November.
The Baptist Health Foundation granted us a Community Impact
Grant of $7,500.00 for purchasing new cribs for our Gabriel
families. St. Paul Lutheran Church is including The Gabriel Project
as a recipient of proceeds from their Annual Wild Game Dinner on
February 20, 2016. St. John’s Episcopal Church donated $1,000.00
to The Gabriel Project on November 29. We are blessed to a part
of the ecumenical fellowship of Christian churches in our area!
- Sts. Peter and Paul Life Teen held a Diaper Drive for The Gabriel
Project in November. We are so blessed to a part of such a caring
and generous parish community!
- Mark Your Door for Mary Campaign 2016 Planning Committee is
very busy planning the Annual Gabriel Project and Rachel’s
Journey Fundraiser. The 2016 Campaign will be held at all three
Catholic Churches in New Braunfels on Jan. 23, 24, 2016. Our
next planning meeting will be held on December 9 at 1:00pm in
the Holy Spirit House.
- Thanks to all the generous parishioners who support The Gabriel
Project with prayers and donations. We thank the staff for all their
support and work they give to The Gabriel Project, and, a special
Thank you to Father Tony for his spiritual help that he has given.
2. Rosary Guild: – No report
3. Couple Prayer Series: No report until 2016.
4. Sick and Homebound – No report
VII. Father Tony’s Comments 1. Father offered “thanks” and “well wishes” to the outgoing council
members as this was the last meeting for this year. Regarding new
member candidates for the council, Father noted that he likes to
involve diverse people who will bring different experiences to help
broaden his understanding of the parish.
2. Father commented on the ongoing “Open Door” celebration. The
door will be re-opened before the 11:15 Mass on Sunday, 12/13.
3. Father had additional positive words for the Thrift Shop volunteers
and all they do for the parish.
4. Father Tony provided a brief update on Father Don’s healing
progress.
5. Father commented that the second collection on the second Sunday of
December (12/13) will be for non-diocesan retired priests and sisters.
He has invited a sister to provide the homily at all the Masses.
6. Farther invited questions from the group. One person asked about the
capacity of the SPP school and the response was roughly 400 as
currently configured. Of course, actual enrollment limitations would
depend on how students are distributed by grade and physical plant
considerations. Mike Senneway offered that the School council is
working on this question currently.
VIII. Other Business: Nothing offered.
IX.
Next meeting will be January 7th,
X.
Mike Senneway adjourned the meeting at 6:44 PM after the closing
prayer.