The reason of our success is our togetherness.

Transcription

1 SPRING 2017 The King s Courier Christ the King Catholic Church A Wonderful Journey Dear Christ the King, Greetings and prayerful wishes from your pastor Fr. Babu. Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did it for me. Matt. 25:40. The holy season of Lent is a time of thinking about others and I can proudly say that Christ the King gets an A+ for its charitable works. By March 2017, The reason of our success is our togetherness. I completed three and half years here at CTK. As I leave you in June, I just wanted to share a few thoughts. It has been a wonderful journey and a great experience to work for you. I will carry with me a lot of good memories to India. You have been very generous to me and to my diocese. My Bishop and I are very grateful to you. In December 2016, when I had to suddenly leave for India to be with my mother in her last days, the spiritual support you gave me was great. It really helped my mother to go very peacefully. I thought I received a lot more from you than I gave you as your pastor. You have a very special place in my heart. In fact there are lots of people who made my stay here a memorable one. I need to be grateful for all of them. My associate pastors, especially Fr. Norman, Deacon Name Society, Altar Society, Guadalupe Guild are some of them. I am thankful for all the volunteers in all the ministries, I strongly believe that the reason of our success is our togetherness. The success of our increased offertory program Together for the Greater Glory of God is another example to show that you love your parish and you want offered to all my decisions. My sincere apologies for the times I didn t reach your expectations. As I always say if you want a better pastor, pray for the one you have ha..ha..ha. Please continue to pray for me and be assured of my humble prayers. I hope you have a wonderful I ll miss you. Fr. Babu From Our Pastor For the Least Brothers As you may know Christ the King parish joined the St. Ann Society in August The St. Ann Society is a collaborative effort by the Catholic parishes in Sebastian County to help the poor and homeless. Deacon Greg Pair from Immaculate Conception parish is the head of the society assisted by volunteers from Fort Smith Catholic churches. Jim Moore, Celia Martinez, and Bob and Betty Geurtz from Christ the King are on the board of the society. The society receives donations from all three parishes, with CTK giving $667 each month. They also receive donations to poor boxes in each church. Our Poor Box is in the back of the church by the prayer candles. The society also receives proceeds from Bingo games conducted on Monday evenings at 7 pm at the Immaculate Conception parish center. Anyone is welcome to attend these games for fellowship and winning money. Refreshments are available and a good time is had by all in supporting a worthy cause. If you enjoy Bingo, check it out and enjoy smoke-free games and a family friendly no alcohol environment. The money raised by the donations and Bingo games is used to help individuals in Sebastian County with rent, utilities and prescriptions. Continued on Page 4: St. Ann Society

2 CHURCH SCHOOL FAMILY 2 A Feast Day! of Christ the King Church celebrates the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This celebration commemorates the appearance of Mary to the Mexican peasant Juan Diego in This feast day is an important holiday in Mexico. It has also become an important day for Mexican Americans to celebrate their religious and cultural identity here in the United States. to make it all possible. This past December, many parishioners attended the celebration. We had over 500 faithful parishioners who came. Pastor Fr. Babu celebrated our Mass. We brought a Mexican band to sing Las Mañanitas to Our Lady of Guadalupe during and music in the church s parish center where the Mexican band came to sing more songs. We had Aztec dancers who performed traditional dances to Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is important to note that their dances are done with love, respect, and faith, to honor our Lady of Guadalupe. All in all, these performances and celebrations are ways of remembering the prehistoric traditions that started when she appeared to St. Juan Diego many years ago. Prayerful Change Ms. Ann Cannon, Principal of Christ the King Catholic School, through prayerful discernment has chosen to leave her position to pursue new professional opportunities in her aspired career areas of reading therapy and literacy education. It is with great sadness that our school and parish must say goodbye to her, but we want to thank her for her work at the school and offer prayers for her future success. She has worked tirelessly to position our school as a prominent faith based educational institution and instill a strong foundation and Catholic identity in our students. Ms. Cannon served as our principal for three years, but has worked in Catholic education for 20 years. Before coming to Christ the King Catholic School, Principal at Immaculate Conception. She earned her education undergraduate degree at University of Mississippi before receiving a Master s degree in She has shared her many talents with our school, parish, and Fort Smith community and we are more blessed to have had her here serving us. We are thankful for her dedication and will send her off with our prayers and gratitude. Please pray for the school s that will maintain the great position of Christ the King Catholic School in our Fort Smith community and that will lead our passionate faculty and be an example of the living Christ to our students. OPEN ENROLLMENT: Christ the King the school year and for Summer Care during the month of March. Contact the school as soon as possible to secure your spot in our school s summer program. Limited spaces available for fall registration too! SENIORS SAVE THE DATE! Our Annual SENIOR S DAY will be Sunday July 30, Christ the King Church invites you to enjoy a day dedicated to you. Join us for 11:30a.m. Mass followed by Anointing of the Sick. Then come Lunch Buffet and Bingo. If you would like to have a would, contact Sandi Reiss: familylife@christ-king.org or

3 FUN You Say? Are you ready for a weekend of fun, food, and fellowship? It s coming! May 19th and 20th! Your Carnival Committee is hard at work planning our best carnival yet. We have all your favorites like the Country be mouth-watering hamburgers, egg rolls, street tacos, and pizza. Dessert anyone? We have those too. Funnel cakes, Cake Booth, and Deep-fried Oreos. Don t forget about our thirst quenching lemonade, wine slushies, and beer oh my! And then it s off to the games. Get your face painted, jump in our bounce-arounds, and try your luck at plinko and putt-putt. Christ the King has the area s best Silent Auction with hundreds of unique and desirable items from around the world. Our auctioneers will hold a Preview look at our amazing selection. Now, you may be thinking... Why do we do this? on the generosity of individuals like you. The funds raised by our carnival support our school, further our ministries, and serve our community. Again, are you ready for Christ the King s Annual Spring Carnival? So are we! Mark your calendars. Our Carnival is scheduled for May 19th and 20th. We can t wait to see you there! Live Music Friends Games Food Auction Money Drinks FUN! OUR ANNUAL WEEKEND OF FUN Parish Religious Education: NEWS First Reconciliation took place on February 11, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. at Christ the King Catholic Church. students from the Christ the King School made their After their confessions, each child lit a candle in front of the church representing the promise to extinguish the darkness of sin, dedicate themselves to live in Jesus' light, and offer thanks for their blessings. At the end of the service, all the students sang This Little Light of Mine. The First Communion Retreat took place on April 1st beginning at 3:00 p.m. and ended at the close of Mass. First Communion Services are as follows: April 22nd at 4:00 p.m. RCIA: UPDATE Nineteen individuals are preparing to receive sacraments. Ten will receive the sacraments of will receive the sacraments of First Communion and spiritual experience. Please continue to pray for these candidates and catechumens. From Darkness to Light A Lenten Retreat, From Darkness to Light, has been going on during the Sundays of Lent. Deacon Tom Jakobs is leading this Gospel Resurrection stories. Seventy-eight people were in of the study. If you haven t attended one of our Advent or Lenten retreats, be sure to watch for the start of the next one! 3

4 LENDING A HELPING HAND 4 Saint Ann Society Continued from Page 1 interviewed on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon by Dc. Greg and his volunteers. After the interviews, the volunteers discuss the merits of each case and make a decision. Awards do not exceed $100 and are paid to the landlord, utility company or pharmacy, not to the client. People are only eligible for assistance once a year and records are kept of each application. Awards are made each month until the money runs out. The society spends around $2,000 a month helping people, but there are always people who cannot be helped because the money ran out. The society can always use more volunteers to help with these interviews. The St. Ann Society will Campus that is being renovated near the Poteau River campus should open between next August and October. The campus will have temporary housing for homeless people and their pets. There will be a clinic staffed Parish Council NEWS homeless. The society will move its assistance operation to the campus and may also take on a clothing operation where they receive donated clothing, sort it and give it to people needing clothing. The society will have space for storing these clothing items and will need more volunteers to staff this operation. Another mission the St. Ann Society may take on would be running the feeding operation for the campus. This mission would include receiving donated food, supervising the preparation of three meals a day using homeless people staying at the campus to doing most of the work, clean-up of the kitchen and eating areas. This kind of operation would need resources from the entire Fort Smith community, not just the Catholic churches. organizations will be needed to help and cook. St. Ann Society says just $1 from each person at each Mass will go a long way to help our brothers and sisters in need. The members of the board of the St. Ann Society are excited about the upcoming opportunities and challenges and hope the parishioners of all three parishes will support the society with their time, talent, and treasure. If interested contact Dc. Greg: Congratulations to the following men and women on being elected to the Parish Council: Scott Martin, Mick Franklin, Carole Hargrave, Cathy Hutchinson They will serve on the Parish Council for the next three years. We want to thank them for the service they will render to the parish in the next several years and for saying yes to participating in Parish Council elections. We would also like to thank the other men and women who also ran for Parish Council. A special Thank You to the outgoing members of the Parish Council for their service over the past three years: If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in happiness. Job 36:11 the church. If they don t see us helping, how can we expect them to share their time and talent as they mature? Our church family is like every other family, when everyone pitches in and share responsibilities things run smoothly. Please consider serving your parish in a way that is comfortable for you or step out of your shell and try

5 MINISTRIES OF CHRIST THE KING Presentation Circle The Circle is a group of women, 21 and older, who get together socially on the fourth Monday of every month, September through May. Our meetings focus on fellowship, activities, refreshments, special events, assisting with church activities and fun!! Parish Life Parish Life is a group of people that plan and or work on all the FUN stuff at CTK. We only meet when there is an upcoming event that we need to plan and no one is obligated to work on every event. Parish Life is a great group to be involved in as we have as much fun planning & working as the people that come to the events. The list of events we do is very long so if you are interested in being full of life... look in the bulletin Thursday of the month at 7 pm in the Spirituality Center. Social Concerns Social Concerns is a group that deals with issues that are meant to help make our community a better place. We try any way we can to help those in our community who are less fortunate than most of us. Some of the places we help out are the Juvenile Detention Center, occasion, birthday, get well and sympathy cards to our every month, September ~ May at 6 PM. During the summer, we correspond over . Supper Club Supper Club is a group of CTK members (couples & in our homes or restaurants. We break up into groups of eight and change the group every rotation. We don t worry about the meal as much as we enjoy the fun and fellowship. We have a kick off Pot Luck dinner in the Social Concerns Just $1.00 Look for the Poor Box in the rear of the church to the right of the prayer candles. A box similar to ours has been placed in each Catholic Church in Sebastian County by the St. Ann Society who asks that everyone place just $1 in the box each weekend you attend Mass. The dollars will be used to directly help the poor and homeless through the St. Ann Society. Welcome Father Juan Guido! Fr. Juan Guido will begin serving our Parish Community on June 13, Fr. Juan is currently the Associate Pastor at St. Raphael Church in Springdale. who was ordained in Let s give him a warm Christ the King welcome! 5

6 CHURCH SCHOOL FAMILY 6 Together for the Greater Glory of God World As you may recall last fall we conducted the For the Greater Glory God increased offertory program. This program consisted of a brochure, homily, lay witness presentation, commitment cards, follow- good response rate in terms of commitment cards received back from our parishioners. We had about 200 families pledge to increase their annual donation to the Sunday Collection and another 500 families pledge to keep giving what they had been giving. If these families donate what they pledged to donate over the course of a year, we should increase our Sunday Collection by $180,000. Since October 1, 2016, Commitment Sunday, we have seen an increase of over $76,000 over what was donated during the same period in 2015 and early Thank you so, much for such an overwhelming response. We use these funds to keep our various missions going such as the subsidies to our parish school tuition assistance for selected families at both schools, our religious education programs for children, teens, and adults, the various charitable organizations we support in our community, maintaining our parish campus and paying our staff. With increased funding, we will be able to expand some of our programs and make some badly needed repairs and upgrades to our aging facilities. Thank you for your generosity! CTK School Ministry: During Catholic Schools Week our Parish School supported the Annual Appeal Fund by holding a talent show fundraiser. The CTK Amazing Talent Show 2017 featured 23 students displaying talent ranging from singing, dancing to musical performances and even a mime performance. The event helped to raise funds that supports the school s operational budget. The week s festivities also included our annual PTO Pancake Breakfast and children s Mass and a myriad of activities that the students vocation visitors, ice cream sundaes, community military and civil service presentations, and crazy dress days. And of course, our teachers were treated to an appreciation lunch by the PTO while parent volunteers substituted during that lunch. SIMPLE BUT CHALLENGING Marriage Day was held on the weekend of February 11th-12th, honoring all married couples. At each Mass, we had all couples stand, hold hands, face each other and Fr. Norman had them renew their vows. We then presented the most recently married couple with a gift basket & dinner gift card. A Champagne Luncheon was held on the 12th at 12:30pm in the Parish Center. 33 couples attended ranging from married 10 months up to married for 59 years. Join us next year on February 11, 2018 for World Marriage Day The theme for WMD is Love One Another. This phrase is the commandment given us by Jesus in John 15:12. It speaks to us in a simple but challenging way of how our Father wishes us to live. Loving one another is a daily decision, simple but challenging. In December, our Parish School completed its fall service projects. The school collected Baby Jesus Center. We also helped people in North Carolina by box care packages to send to the Catholic Charities of and other families in need. The entire school collected many toys, nonperishable items, and necessities to with our two kindergarten classes stuffed all the boxes and wrapped the presents.

7 What Is Your S.H.A.P.E.? They played games together, prayed together in front of the Christ and the Church. One of these talks stuck out to me. It morning all we see is gray ash; however, if you stoke it, you will see that there are embers still there, and if we add more Christ Jesus. We start with the letter S., our Spiritual Gifts. As in Romans: Chapter 12, For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them. These gifts are given freely have a voice, sing in the choir; eyes, read the word of God; Spiritual Gift that has been given to us to use. to? We have many different ministries to get involved in; community service, visiting the juvenile detention center, working with teenagers or small children, ministering to the homebound, helping with the Mass long. There s probably a ministry already tugging at your heart. a different Ability. We may not all be able to sing a solo, dunk a basketball, cook a casserole, or speak in front of a group. But can we sing with a group, teach a child to dribble, buy a meal or encourage a speaker with our presence? We are all parts of the one Body in Christ and even though we may not be perfect, we are being perfected in God s eyes. We all have an ability that contributes, no matter how small we may think it is. Next we have P., our Personality. Whether we are outgoing, organized, team player, serving, deep thinking, spiritual, athletic, academic, we are all individuals with a unique Personality. This difference is a blessing to our community and families. Since we are all different we have an opportunity to grow deeper and closer with each other. If we all thought the same way and behaved in similar matters, we would not grow. Our different Personalities are what helps drive our hearts to discover our Abilities and Gifts. experiences shape us for the good and bad. We all have gone through something hard in our lives, so when we come together as a community, we can help each other. One of us may have experienced something, and if we share it, it may help another heal and grow closer to Christ. This may come from showing the love that was given to you, the perseverance of hard work or helping your family pay bills, or being a better someone? 1 Corinthians: 12 tells us, Now the body is not a single part, but many. If a foot should say, Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body, it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. Or if an ear should say, Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body, it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body. Well, it is up to each of us to stoke it and add more wood when it is getting low to continue growing in Christ and to know body we have here at Christ the King. Whatever your time, talent, or treasure now is the time to search that together we can become an even stronger Parish Community here at Christ the King. 7

8 The King s Courier Christ the King Catholic Church 2112 South Greenwood Avenue Fort Smith, AR NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID FORT SMITH, AR PERMIT NO. 69 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED EASTER EGG HUNT! Save Sunday, April 16, :10 am (after 9:00 am Mass) Toddlers through 4th Grade Administration Building Grounds Bring your Easter basket. Have your picture taken with the Easter Bunny! The Date CTK Carnival May