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A Letter from Father Frederick

Dear Our Lady of Lourdes parish family,

Saint John Paul II said that a parish doesn’t have a mission.  It is a mission.  Ours is growing!   New people are moving in from around the country and the world.  Our Sunday Masses bring God’s people together, offering their lives to the Father through Christ’s sacrifice.   Our Mass attendance is.  Moreover, we now have 1,244 registered households (2,645 heads), up from about 900 households in 2021. 

HELP US HERE:  https://membership.faithdirect.net/enroll/VA327 

We’re building community among parishioners, friends, and neighbors.   Throughtout the year,  you are invited to our many events, such as the Parish Picnic (September 14), the Our Lady Guadalupe celebration, Forty Hours Devotion, Our Lady of Lourdes feast day dinner, St. Joseph Day spaghetti dinner, Lenten Fish Fry, and our monthly Sunday brunch by the Knights of Columbus, which starts again on October 5.   Stay tuned for the dates of these events!

Keeping out parish in "fiscal heath" requires that regular Offertory giving (First Collection) should cover operating expenses.  While restricted gifts, like the “Maintenance and Improvement Fund” are helpful (we always have maintenance expenses!), a parish’s ordinary operations should be funded by the regular Sunday gifts of its parishioners.   Special one-time, unrestricted gifts are also very helpful.  However, consistent gifts on Sundays and Holy Days are the key.

I ask each of you – all parishioners – to increase your offertory giving in order to align offertory income with budgeted expenses.  All forms of giving are welcome and important.  But online giving through Faith Direct has the lowest transaction cost (lower that envelopes) and have proven to be the most consistent.  

Let’s support our mission with our time, talent, and treasure!   “God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7)  

Thanks for your continued generosity and for making Our Lady of Lourdes a spiritual home to so many people!

In Christ and his Mother,  

Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

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