In every other parish I've been at, the time from the end of the Christmas season until the start of Lent is down time...time to coast (somewhat) before the really busy season of Lent, followed by Easter, followed by end of the school year stuff. Many priests and pastors take extended vacations in the winter to recharge their batteries (physically, emotionally and spiritually). This February will be different. This February there will be no coasting, no extended vacations, no lull. Here is some of what is planned for this month. After completing the contract review process of the Archdiocese, our computer projectors and screens will be installed in the church in February. The screens will initially be used just at our 5pm Mass to project the announcements before and after Mass, as well as the responses at Mass and words to songs. As we get used to them, we plan to expand their use to our other Masses. Our resident tech guy, Pat Skerpon,photoshopped an image of what the screens will look like in our sanctuary and this is displayed in our church entrance. So screens....finally. Our cafe, Cafe Pius, will open February 1 & 2. We are so excited about this part of our Restore! plan. We've purchased some new tables to create different areas for folks to gather. We're partnering with Baltimore Tea & Coffee for all our hot beverages. Pizza will be available for purchase after the 5pm and 11:30am Masses. Our cafe teams are signed up and we can't wait to open. In February we also launch our Small Groups. This is a key part of our Restore! plan. Small groups of 10-12 adults will meet weekly for sharing and support. Our kickoff event will be GroupLink, on Friday Feb. 21 at 7pm in our hall. This is where groups will be formed. So these three new initiatives will keep our February busy....but also truly exciting and life-giving. A timeline on our Restore! bulletin board in the entrance way shows where we've come from over the past ten months and where we are headed in 2014. It promises to be an amazing year. |