February 7, 2011
Dear Friends - Parishioners and Families of Saint Ann Parish:
As Church, each year we are reminded of our need to be renewed and restored in Christ. This year I am particularly excited about the new venture that we are taking as a local church in the Archdiocese of Boston, Catholics Come Home®. Cardinal Sean explains, “Following Christ in the Catholic Church is a beautiful life. Jesus is counting on us to share this life with others.” Catholics Come Home will challenge us to find new ways to invite our sisters and brothers to come home to Church. Each parish welcomes us home, especially as we gather at the Sunday Eucharist. We are reminded that our Church is our home on earth, where we are nourished and fed by the Eucharist and where the Sacraments make us strong in our faith, they restore and renew us. I know we are all proud of our parish and our beautiful church, convent, and school. We have been given a great treasure to care for and to safeguard for future generations.
Whenever we host a special family celebration, in our homes, we make every attempt to ensure that everything is in it’s place and that our home is both inviting and well prepared. As a parish and Church, we need to take the same care so that our Liturgy and Sacraments are celebrated with the honor that is due to them. We need to make sure that our efforts in our weekly celebrations of the Sacraments are well prepared to glorify God and be inviting to our brothers and sisters.
As your pastor, I must always remind myself that my first priority is the spiritual welfare and well being of the parish. Additionally, as you know, I am also responsible to care for the temporal goods of the Church, even with snowfall, leaky roofs, daily maintenance and repairs. I am very happy with the work we do each day, keeping our property clean and well maintained. I am proud of and grateful for the many staff, volunteers and each of you for all that you do to support, maintain and restore the beauty of this parish which has been entrusted to us. As you know, our beautiful church property has many needs and much deferred maintenance and that it remains costly to keep our parish safely operational. With a beautiful property like ours, there is much work that we have to do to maintain our mission. We continue to work hard and have retooled our operations so as to keep our church clean, beautiful and appropriately prepared for our worship. I know that we are all proud members of Saint Ann parish, and once again ask you for your support.
We are blessed to have a long tradition of taking up an annual Capital collection to re-invest in our infrastructure, focusing on the need for, and importance of, maintenance and restoration. This year’s campaign will begin on February 20th and I ask you in your generosity to help us continue to invest in our parish. As you know this is my third year writing to you and asking for your financial assistance. As I have done in the past, I will continue to work with our Parish Finance Council and Parish Pastoral Council to evaluate our current state of finances and pastoral plan, and although we remain financially strained we will continue efforts to get necessary work done with the funds we receive.
In the last year, many projects inside and outside the church and parish property were completed thanks to your generosity and the assistance of the Insurance Department of the Archdiocese (e.g. major masonry work to the chimneys, flashing of church chimney, re-sealing of rose window, restoration of deteriorating cement work to the front landing of the Church and rectory and repair of the water damage in the sanctuary and restoration of church sacristy and bathroom). This spring we will continue to work on our drainage project and begin the final phase of restoration of our lower Church, but we need your support to make this happen.
As I did last year, I would kindly ask that each family consider making an offering of $250.00, to help us reach our 2011 Capital Fund goal of $25,000. For those of you who don’t receive offertory envelopes in the mail, blank Capital Fund envelopes can be found on the ushers’ table or if you prefer to make your donation electronically, please click on the link below.
As in the past there are always families who have been able to make significant donations in addition to the suggested offering. I thank you for this. I also understand that some families remain overburdened with the fiscal recession. If you are unable to make a monetary donation at this time, please consider serving volunteer hours in lieu of making a monetary pledge. As with all your generosity of time, talent and treasure, please know that it is most helpful and that I remain very grateful.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Rev. Sean M. Connor, Pastor
P.S. Last year, a friend of mine offered to match individual gifts of $1,000 (up to a maximum of five) and I’d like to personally thank the families who helped us take advantage of this special offer.
I am pleased to advise that this special matching gift is once again being generously offered, so if you have the means, please consider helping us take advantage of this opportunity.