26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear Parishioners,
We are moving forward on several parish projects. The environmental testing is complete on the First American State Bank property. The company that ran the tests has found that the gas contamination is restricted to a small part of the property and that the contamination is within acceptable levels. The next step is to get a letter from the State of Illinois that declares the property safe. If we have that letter, we can take possession of the property. There will be no building restrictions and we could sell the property if we would like to someday. The bank will procure the letter I just described. There is a cost involved and they are willing to absorb that cost. It will probably take some time for all the bureaucrats to do their work. The message is that the bank still wants to gift us the property and we still want it.
We continue to move forward with our capital campaign (The Today Tomorrow Together Campaign). We have leaders in place and we are looking for other volunteers to help with raising the funds so that we can continue to do tuckpointing to our church, renew its stained glass windows and make it handicapped accessible. We are looking for other volunteers who will assist with this fund drive. This is an important moment in our parish history. Do we want to care for our beautiful church building? I think we all do. Our church approaches the anniversary of its 100th year of construction. Do we want to keep it fresh or do we want to see it fall into decline? I am sure we all want to see it remain the beautiful edifice that it is. But this will take sacrifices. Hopefully, we will make them.
Please pray for our parish as these initiatives move forward. Let us ask God to provide for our needs like God provided for our ancestors here in Moline.
Blessings,
Fr. Mark
This week we will be having the blessing of the animals to celebrate the feast of St. Francis. The blessing will take place on October 4th at 2:45 p.m. in the courtyard outside Culemans Hall. And we will have another blessing after the 9:00 a.m. Mass next Sunday, October 7, also in the courtyard of Culemans Hall.