Author: Janet Smekar

St Maria Goretti, Ora Pro Nobis (Pray for us!)

“Our sincere gratitude and thanks to the volunteers & Families who attended the 4th of July celebration at Holy Family! The evening started with Father Christopher Coman leading the volunteers through prayer and reciting the Angelus as the bells tolled at 6:00 pm and ended with a close up view of a fantastic fireworks display. More than 90 carloads of families joined the celebration and enjoyed the variety of food & snacks from our concession stand. A special thank you to the Rosary Altar Society & the Ushers Club for all the planning and work before/after the event! We hope to see all of you next year!

The Vocation Bible School was a big success. The children in attendance learned about the vocations of married life, religious life, and the priesthood from various guest speakers throughout the week. They also got to participate in various activities such as: skits, music, arts/crafts, prayer, and recreation. Wednesday night, the children & volunteers (and some parents & others) all had the opportunity to attend the Wednesday 6:30pm Holy Mass (with some of our young men serving Father Adam Maher at the altar) plus attending adoration after Holy Mass for about 5 minutes of silent time in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam – All To The Greater Glory Of God!

Deo Gratias – Thanks Be To God!

A huge THANK YOU to ALL our wonderful volunteers the week of Vocations Bible School! We couldn’t have made the week happen without everyone’s help! We had over 90 kids attend VBS , and we had over 40 adults & teenagers volunteer as helpers! A very special thank you to some volunteers who went above and beyond for months preparing for VBS, Jacque Molitor – leader in games, Michelle Hadd – leader in art, Lisa Briggs-leader in decorating, Gerard LaFramboise- leader in skits. A huge shout out to Pierce Tyndall for being our music leader and leading our amazing VBS band! Thank you to Maggie & Andrew Budd and their family business: “Main Street Gifts” in their generous donation of VBS T-shirts to every child and volunteer! Mea Wesley for being our Artist and hand drawing the altar of Holy Family for our T-shirt design! Father Adam Maher for giving our Priest talk on Wednesday and for Holy Mass. We had amazing speakers each night: Karina Israel, Sophie and Brett Burke, Father Christopher Coman, Father Adam Maher, The Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Emma Geis, and Father Andrew LaFramboise. The week was a tremendous success! Jesus was our main focus and all hearts became closer to His. All glory and honor to you, Jesus! We can’t wait for VBS in the summer of 2025!

*Webmistress’ note: I also thank Stephanie LaFramboise for all she did to organize and keep stuff in order from start to finish. God Bless You for your amazing work! More pictures from the various days and notes to posted.

Using your time and talent (no skill required), we’ll save the parish’s treasure for other expenditures by making our own Altar Candles from past Easter Candles and liturgical candles that are too small to be used during Mass. Let’s be good stewards to the gifts God gave us and the resources already available for reuse.
Limit of six participants per session, participants under 18 must be chaperoned.
Sign up is required, please email Susan Doepker at sedoepker@gmail.com

The dinner & celebration had nearly 150 attendees with many that were from outside the Parish that had personal history with Holy Family. They all seemed to enjoy being back at Holy Family.
All but 30 of the Holy Family wine glasses to commemorate the Centennial were sold raising nearly $400 to our building fund! (we could have sold them all, but we held back 30 glasses for our Shut in Parishioners).
We served roughly 125 pounds of chicken, 25 pounds of ham, 40+ crock pots of food and countless desserts on Wednesday night. Nothing went to waste!
We celebrated two special anniversary milestones at our dinner event: The 35th wedding anniversary of Gil & Rose Urban and the 9th wedding anniversary of Deone & Marissa DeLaCruze. Their shared anniversaries actually were the same day as our dinner celebration!
5 committees with over 60 people volunteered to make this event successful. Thank you to all volunteers who served in any way during the 3 days of events.
We had 3 Holy Family priests in attendance at our dinner event (Fr. Ronald Wagner, Fr. Adam Maher, and Fr. Christopher Coman).

Mass & Adoration with Confession available had nearly 90 attendees with a beautiful reverent mass with divine choral & instrumental music before Mass, during Mass, and during adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Thank you to all who volunteered their time and talents that evening including 14 altar servers who served at the Holy Mass.

The history night had nearly 100 attendees of various ages. The tours & stations were very informative & fun too. Thank you to the organizers, volunteers, and to Tom Trombley of the Castle Museum for his presentation.