ST. GABRIEL THE ARCHANGEL NEwSLETTER From The Pastor

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Fr. Jim was as excited as a child on Christmas morning when he was told we would be celebrating the 50 th anniversary of his Ordination here at St. Gabriel. So, the planning and preparation began! We (the planning committee) didn’t let Fr. Jim in on the planning, but he knew, whatever happened, it was going to be one of the biggest celebrations of his life. And I think that he was not disappointed. I wasn’t surprised in the least that there was such an outpouring of love and gratitude from parishioners, family and friends as they turned out to congratulate Fr. Jim for saying YES all those years ago. Fr. Jim helped get some pictures together for the video that was played at the reception. He explained the journey that got him to his 50 th anniversary. I could see, and feel how important being a priest is to him. His love of God and serving others is unwavering. I was in total amazement of his memory of all the parishes he had served before coming to St. Gabriel. He recalled lots of good memories and even had a few stories to tell. I loved every minute of it! It was an honor to be a part of this celebration for a priest who I consider to be one of the greatest. Youth Ministry Fr. Jim Mudd Celebrates 50 Years!! -Rhonda Becker I would like to thank all those who were so generous to me on my 50th anniversary. A big thanks, too, to Fr. John and to Tim McGinty, Barbara Harbsmeier, Mary Lou Gardner and the Stewardship Committee who worked so hard to make the anniversary party so successful. Thanks to Pat Lynch who emceed and to everyone who had any part in the celebration. Everything was perfect ˗ the anniversary Mass, the food, the photos, etc. Another big thanks to Rhonda Becker (with some help from Margaret Reinert) who put together the photo session. I was totally overwhelmed by the party and all the generosity. I am so happy in my vocation to the priesthood, and you added greatly to that happiness. The priesthood is such a great gift. Please pray for vocations to the priesthood. Sincerely, Fr. Jim Whiz Bang The daughter of a preacher asked her father, “Dad, why do you bow your head in silence for ten to fifteen seconds before you begin your sermon?” The preacher was very excited that she even noticed this and he was very proud of his daughter. He responded, “Honey, I bow my head and say a silent prayer that God will help me give a good sermon.” The daughter replied, “Why doesn’t it work?” “High School Youth Ministry at St. Gabriel the Archangel is a process, not a program, by which our high school youth are led to a deeper relationship with Christ, each other and the world around them.” This very simple sentence is how we introduce Youth Ministry at St. Gabriel. These are very nice words, but what do they really mean. For nearly twelve years, I have had the privilege to see these words come to life through the experience and hard work of our youth. But, I have always struggled with how to really describe what that looks like in practical terms. This past summer, one of our young adults offered an astounding image of his Youth Ministry experience. During our annual Senior High Retreat, Tanner Thieneman gave a talk about Stability. During his talk, he said, “When I was writing this, I got tired of using words, so I started using numbers. I calculated my mileage during my four years in St. Gabriel Youth Ministry.” He included the drive to and from our weekly meetings, service trips - four trips to Appalachia, two trips to the National Catholic Youth Conference, and our weekly trips to St. Vincent de Paul in the summer. It was astounding to me that in his four years, he traveled over 5000 miles while he was a participant. Now that is something to celebrate on its own, but when you look at our group as a whole, he is one of many who have taken a journey similar to his. Truthfully, the miles traveled are not as important as what happened on the journey. We have, among other things, laughed a lot, cried some, played games with homeless men and adults with disabilities, fixed homes, learned about our faith, befriended people who live on the margins, and, through all of this, strengthened our relationship with God and each other. We have much to be proud of in our youth. Henry David Thoreau once said, “Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.” Our youth are showing us just how that works. -Patrick Lynch Page 2 S T. GABR IE L THE A R CH A NGEL NEWS LE TT ER
“A Celebration to Remember!” 2014 Each year, the summer picnic brings together the entire neighborhood community as well as the Archdiocese of Louisville to visit, gather, feast, and act like kids for two nights a year. The picnic is not only a fundraising opportunity for the church and school, but it represents a homecoming celebration. You will always run into somebody that you know or recognize. With each smile, handshake or hug, the greetings all around represent genuine joy and excitement. We volunteered at the Large Plush Animal booth on Saturday, August 2, this year. The game allowed you to guess which number would be drawn by placing a dime on 100 separate numbers. There were three sides to the booth and we were busy all night long. We saw folks try to win their favorite prizes of colorful dogs, bears, cows, birds and monkeys. There are also different strategies witnessed. Some only wagered their favorite number, while others have their kids pick each time. Other potential players would glance at the wheel from afar and try to determine trends. This game of chance crowned many adults and children as top prize winners. That excitement was so much fun to watch. We would hoot and holler along with each winner as they were choosing their reward. Each smile was contagious! Each winner shared their celebration with us. I had a chance to meet some folks during the night. Pat from Colorado was brought by her sister-in-law to play games all evening. She won a cake and a giant fruit basket. Olivia Boles (pictured) won a purple bear. Upon guessing the right number, she exclaimed “I felt like a winner and jumped up and down!” At the end of the night, there were no losers to be had because St. Gabriel Parish will give back to the community with their stewardship and gifts from the festivities. Congratulations to everybody who came out to the 2014 summer picnic! -Natalie Abram Johnson Laura Kline, Director of Music St. Gabriel Music Ministry is spearheading a fun new project this fall that we hope will involve and energize everyone in the parish! We will be organizing St. Gabriel’s first parishwide lip dub video! So what exactly is a lip dub? A lip dub is a type of video that combines lip synching and audio dubbing to make a music video. This pop culture phenomenon has become widely popular, and you could most certainly find hundreds of examples on YouTube. Locally, Assumption High School created such a video in 2011. So far as we could find, no other local churches have tackled a project like this. So why would St. Gabriel want to do a lip dub? There are several benefits to this project. One of these is to visually show off all of our ministries that we have available in which to become involved, and to do it in an appealing and fresh manner. Hopefully, we can let parishioners and others in the faith community see that St. Gabriel is an evolving church with opportuni˗ What is Lip Dub? ties for everyone. But the number one reason is FUN! What an exciting and enjoyable way to come together as a community and give praise for all that we have and do here at St. Gabriel! Who will be involved in the lip dub? A committee is still forming to manage all aspects of planning the video, co-chaired by myself and Clint Otis. We hope to have representation from a wide variety of parish ministries, including the Youth Ministry, Boy Scouts, Athletics, Men’s Club, and (obviously!) music. Even more ministries will be involved in the actual filming, which we hope will happen this fall. But there is still plenty of time to become involved! If you are as excited about this video as we are, we would love to join your enthusiasm to ours in planning and executing the lip dub video. Also, if you or someone you know has expertise in video production and editing, we would like to talk with you. Simply contact me at lkline@stgabriel.net. Stay tuned for this and other exciting and fun projects coming out of Music Ministry in the months to come! OCTOBER 20 14 Page 3
Page 1: PRAISING GOD ~ PROCLAIMING THE GOOD
Page 5 and 6: I give thanks and praise to God for
Page 7 and 8: TOTAL OPERATING EXPENSE: $6,086,238

ST. GABRIEL THE ARCHANGEL NEwSLETTER From The Pastor

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