St. Mark's Annual Pastoral Appeal

Special thanks to Sabrina Burton-Shultz, Director of Life Ministries at the Diocese of St. Petersburg, for her timely comments regarding the services provided by your contributions to the Annual Pastoral Appeal. So many of our fellow Catholics benefit from the Appeal, seminarians, families in crisis, Catholic school students and many others, including some of our own parishioners.

It is for these people, that I ask you to support the Appeal. Just over 3200 families belong to our Parish. In simplest terms, if every family contributed a one time gift of $73.50 we would achieve both our goals: 100% participation and the fulfillment of our $235,162 Parish commitment. Some of you may not be able to give this amount and some of you may be able to give much more. With everyone’s participation we can reach our goal! Please keep in mind, if we do not meet our goal of $235,162, the money to make up the difference will be taken from our general collection funds. This means that less money is available for programs and activities offered here at St. Mark.

I am truly committed to meeting both of our goals. If you have already made your gift or pledge to this year’s Annual Pastoral Appeal- THANK YOU. If you have not done so yet, your help is very much needed. You can find Annual Pastoral Appeal envelopes in the narthex, or you can donate online at www.diostpete.com/apa. Several different payment options are available.

Please participate in the Appeal to the best of your ability. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Fr. David

St. Mark's News & Events for February 24, 2008

Greetings to all!

As we begin this third Sunday in Lent, the “Elect” who have been selected by Bishop Lynch to be baptized at the Easter Vigil will come forward in the next three Sundays to experience what is called the “Scrutinies”. In these simple Rites, the Elect will examine their lives and promise to renounce those things that keep them away from being united totally to Christ. It is a very moving experience that helps them and us to examine ourselves spiritually and ask for God’s help to avoid whatever leads us to sin.

As the Lenten Season is progressing, we have also experienced another wonderful Church activity. The Knights of Columbus Fish Fry has been a major success with record sales of dinners to people all around the community. We even had people from Ohio who heard about us and “spied” on us to see how we do it so they can take it back to their parish! I am so proud of our Knights who sacrifice so much to make this such a success and I would hope more of you would join this great organization of Fraternity and help make the Gospel come alive! I have been put in charge of “quality control” and I can assure you that I taste everything that comes out of the kitchen even to the point of making sure that the fish is crunchy and the French fries crisp. Sometimes it takes more than a few samples to make sure it’s all good. I know it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it!

Well, as you read this I will be in Argentina witnessing a renewal of vows for a couple who are great friends of mine. I have never been to South America before but I hear the Fish Fries aren’t as good as ours. However, I will try to suffer in silence.

Well, that is all for now. Continue to enjoy the gift that God has given us in each other.

Peace,
Fr. David

St. Mark's News & Events for February 17, 2008

Greetings as we begin another week!

As you can see from our new seating arrangement in Church, we are experimenting with the various seating designs for our new Church and I wanted you to experience some first hand. So the question can be asked, “Why this arrangement?” Well back at the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960’s, the Council Fathers came out with a document on the Liturgy and one of the sentences in that document called for what they called “full, conscious, and active participation of the faithful at Mass.” As you may realize, that statement can take on many meanings, but the Council wanted to emphasize to the people of God that they needed to be more connected and be more a part of what this sacred mystery was all about at Mass. In that way, the faithful may experience and understand the connection of just what Jesus did for us by including us in this significant event. That is why the altars were turned around with the Priest facing the people, some of the music and hymns were changed, (unfortunately some of it was replaced by awful sounds), and of course the Mass was said in the language of the people. The Mass now had two equal parts to it: The Liturgy of the Word, and The Liturgy of the Eucharist. Emphasis is now not only on the Eucharist, but also on the Word (Scripture). Of course, many people were not real thrilled with all this and many left the Church, including some priests and sisters. However, the “New Mass” has changed the way the faithful experience God and I have to say for the better! Now we are trying to see how we can get people even more involved in the Mass and continue to perfect what Vatican II had started. Now you can see with the naked eye the separation of the Word and Eucharist as they both are held in high esteem. The Ambo is now near the Baptismal Font, the Altar now closer to the congregation. Now of course, our Church was not made with this seating arrangement in mind so there will be some challenges. However, I simply want you to experience this and AFTER Easter, let me know what you think. I do realize some will not like the arrangement since change can be difficult, but I simply ask to open your mind and heart and see how the experience changes you. If it doesn’t, that’s
ok too!

Thank you for your patience in this experiment and I pray that this Lent will be a memorable one for you!

Peace, Fr. David

St. Mark's Annual Pastoral Appeal

The Annual Pastoral Appeal supports the many ministries that address the needs of our sisters and brothers. A pledge in any amount will be gratefully received and sincerely appreciated.

There are several ways to make your pledge contributions. You may use the white envelope you either received in the mail from the Diocese or one you may have picked up here at St. Mark. Some of you may have fulfilled your total pledge and others may have chosen to pay the pledge on a monthly basis. Those of you making monthly contributions will be sent a reminder each month from the diocese and I encourage you to use this method since they will get the contribution directly.

For those of you who are not using the diocesan envelope,
I have asked that a “One Body in Christ” annual pastoral appeal envelope be included in your regular envelopes. There will be one envelope per month included until the campaign ends in December of this year.

Remember our goal is have every family participate in fulfilling our goal of $235,162. I am encouraged so far with the number of pledges we have gotten. I hope within the next two weeks to be able to report results. Until then I will continue to ask you for your help and thank all those who have participated thus far.

Sincerely, Fr. David DeJulio, Pastor

St. Mark's News & Events for February 10, 2008

Greetings as we begin another week!

As we begin the season of Lent, I always find it difficult to
think about what I need to sacrifice this year and many times
it’s something innocuous that really doesn’t change my
behavior in the long run or make me think more about what
this season really means to my faith. Giving up coffee, peanut
butter cups, or other similar things is fine for the short run,
but does it really matter much when my faith is tested by
a negative experience? Thus, this year I’ve decided to do
something a little different that would not only benefit my
own faith experience, but for others too. I’ll let you know
how I’m doing as we progress through this great season.
Last weekend 21 women experienced the Christ Renews His
Parish (CHRP) retreat right here at St.Mark parish. Like the
men before them, they heard stories of other women’s walk
of faith and how they have deepened their own relationship
with Jesus Christ. The men seem like they are on fire already
and the women will be on fire as well when they come off the
weekend. I can’t wait to see how much this parish will grow
in faith in the coming years due to this wonderful experience!
If you haven’t been to a CHRP retreat or it has been many
years since you’ve been to one, I hope you will sign up for the
next weekend coming this summer. You will not only meet
some great people, but your faith will grow exponentially.
By now you have also experienced your first Mass with the
schedule change and the new seating arrangement. Again, we
are testing this seating style through Lent and Easter to see if
this is something we would like to think about in the new
Church. Please let me know what you think after the Easter
season so we can get a good idea about how our future
Church will look.

Lastly, we will be having our Lenten Parish Retreat on
Monday, February 11th and Wednesday, February 13 from
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The mission is for adults and children
of all ages so bring the kids and grow as a family in faith
during this Lenten season.

Well, that is all for now. Continue to enjoy the gift that God
has given us in each other

Peace, Fr. David

St. Mark's News & Events for February 3, 2008

The Trip Con’t ...

After our great trip to Tuscany, we were finally off to Cannes, France!
I never know which way to pronounce it, whether its with a short “ah” sound or a long “ay” sound. But however you say it, the city was very pretty and picturesque. It’s hard to believe it could hold all those movie stars visiting for the festival, but sure enough it does every year. The restaurants are very nice, the people are friendly, and they have a wonderful section where only foot traffic is allowed for the shops abound. I visited the movie studio and dropped off my new film on the “Spirituality of the Golf Swing” which will prove to be a real thriller when people get to view it. I just know it may make it for the final cut and will be viewed by millions. All proceeds will go to the “St. Mark Capital Campaign” to help us build our new Church! However, I haven’t heard from them as of this writing. I wonder what they’re waiting for? After Cannes, we made our final voyage to Barcelona and I’ll save that for next week! I’m sure you can’t wait!

As you know, this week begins the Holy season of Lent and I hope many of you will take advantage of this great season to reflect on your life and try to deepen your relationship with the God who loves all of us so dearly. I just would like to remind you of the changes in the Mass schedule beginning this Thursday, Feb. 7th. See the bulletin for details. Also, we will be changing the seating arrangement for Lent and Easter to give us an idea of the variety of ways to worship in the Mass. Remember, this is only a test so we can get a better idea of how we wish to arrange our new church when the time comes. I ask that you give it time to sink in before making any judgments so we are able to make an objective decision later on. I pray that this season of Lent will be a memorable one for all of us!

Last weekend some of the women of St. Mark experienced Christ Renews His Parish (CHRP) which was a huge success a few weeks ago with some of the men from our parish. I did notice a lighter spirit among them this week as they walked into Church and I hope the women will also experience this spiritual high. Please pray for them. Our next CHRP weekend will be sometime in the late summer in case you missed this one. Again, keep your eye out for details in later bulletins.

Well, that is all for now. Continue to enjoy the gift that God has given us in each other. P.S. Goooooo Giants!

Peace, Fr. David