Dear Parishioners:
On Monday I had the great privilege of handing out report cards at our parish school. The students at OLM School seem to be doing very well academically but as always there is room for improvement. The excellent teachers do a fine job educating the children in all areas including Religion on a daily basis. Our parish school is a tremendous asset to our parish community and in fact to the entire
community! Many of our Catholic Schools struggle to keep open and operating but OLM School is blessed with a great administration, terrific faculty, wonderful students and families. This doesn’t mean we are free from struggles or problems. This year we saw a drop in the number of students enrolled from a high of over 400 to just 375 students this year. This drop in enrollment has taken place at nearly every Catholic School across the Diocese.
One reason for it is the decreasing population of children in our state. Families are getting smaller not larger and even the public schools are facing declining enrollments as a result the lower number of children. Also the cost of a Catholic Education can keep Catholic families away from our great schools. At OLM School I am happy to report that we provide tuition assistance to those families that need a helping hand in affording a Catholic Education. We also have some scholarships available for those families that have multiple children in the school and are struggling to afford tuition. So spread the word, OLM School is a great place to get a great Catholic education!
While passing out the report cards to the students this week, I also learned of their great efforts in helping the less fortunate. They have raised over $1,000 for the Philippine Typhoon Effort. This week they are bringing dozens of delicious cookies to McAuley House as they participate in the Annual Christmas Gathering there. This generous spirit of helping those in need is not just limited to the children of our parish school but most certainly evident across the board at OLM.
Last week we raised over $5,000 for the Philippine Typhoon Effort in the special second collection. Also thanks to your generosity to the Outreach Collection we have been able to send $1,000 to McAuley House, $500 to Whitmarsh House and $500 to the Diocesan Immigration Office to help with their good works at Christmas. Additionally through our Outreach Office we have helped many local families with paying their rent, utilities and affording costly prescriptions. We were asked to adopt 14 refugee families for Christmas and thankfully 5 were adopted by parishioners and another 5 by the children of our Religious Education Program. We are still in need of people to adopt 4 families. If you are interested, please contact Doug Green at our Outreach Office.
The children of the RE Program are also assembling Christmas Gift Bags for Emmanuel House. These bags are filled with items purchased by our Outreach Office. They include warm sweatshirts, thermal tops, hand and foot warmers, thermal socks, along with some candy and a religious gift. Over 50 homeless are to receive them at Emmanuel House this Christmas. This too was made possible by your support of the Outreach Collection. With Christmas around the corner, there is still time to help the poor and needy. If you are interested in helping please contact the Outreach Office. If you are interested in supporting these good works simply drop a donation in the collection basket and mark it “Outreach.”
Christ is coming at Christmas so take lets a moment and reflect upon Pope Francis words for Advent. “Life is an encounter with Jesus: in prayer, when we go to Mass, when we do good works, when we visit the sick, when we help the poor, when we think of others, when we're not self-centred, when we are amiable. We always encounter Christ in these things and the journey of life is exactly this: walking to encounter Jesus." Let us continue to walk together to encounter Jesus in prayer, at Mass, while visiting the sick and in serving the poor! God Bless.