News - January 2022 RSS Feed

The students helped to furnish an empty apartment on Friday night for an immigrant family from Nicaragua!

Over the course of a few months, St. Joseph leadership will work with St. Mary of Vernon to consider how we can collaborate through the Renew My Church initiative.

Love. A word used so often. Sometimes when we overuse a word it loses its potency. Thankfully we have Saint Paul’s poetic words in his First Letter to the Corinthians to remind us about the power and meaning of this word. Many of you have probably heard this reading proclaimed at weddings, maybe even your own.

Brother Ayub Mwenda shares his story about choosing to live a consecrated life as we celebrate

God delights in you. Have you ever thought about that? Too often we can be terrible critics of ourselves. How often, when talking to yourself in your head, do you start your sentences like this:  “I should have…”, “I’m not (fill in the blank) enough,” “I need to be more (fill in the blank)…” I think we often tend to put ourselves down more easily than we build ourselves up.

This year's Annual Catholic Appeal theme renews and reinvigorates us. We hear Jesus say to us, "Come, Follow Me...and bring hope to the world." Your support of the appeal means bringing hope to the world.

The generosity of our parishioners, even through the pandemic, has been truly remarkable. Through January 13, 2022, the Christmas Collection totals $229,063.20!

As a teenager, Lewis fled his West African homeland for the U.S. after being beaten and jailed for protesting against his government. His family helped him fly to South America, where he began a dangerous journey by foot, bus and boat to the U.S./Mexico border. There, as a 17-year-old so far from home, he asked for asylum.

We wanted to share the exciting news that we have reopened our Rotating Shelter Sites. This reopening means that PADS is once again in need of volunteers to help support our rotating shelter sites.  We have openings seven days a week with the highest need on Wednesdays.

In July 2021, the Social Justice Commission and the International Sharing Ministry at St. Joseph Catholic Church contributed $7,500 to the renovations of the chapel in the village where I was born in Colombia.

Do you like helping people? Catholic Charities of Lake County has is looking for reception volunteers to assist in greeting clients, answering the phones, handling the mail, and generally helping direct people to our services.

Lenten Almsgiving Tags will be available in the church beginning March 5th. The tags will display items that are needed from 11 agencies and ministries to serve those in need and the marginalized. https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/life-and-dignity-of-the-human-person

In the age of Netflix, many of us have become fans of various series. Each season of our favorite shows (or book series) brings new characters, development of characters, things coming full circle, and often surprises and twists. I see the readings for this Sunday as being like episodes from a few different “seasons” of the Bible that show a connection in the plot.

The application deadline for St. Joseph's teen mission trip has been extended to February 13, 2022.

We plan ahead for those in need and parishioners answer the call. Take a look at how the community comes together at the end to make Christmas wishes come true!

Adults ages 21 through 39 are invited to join a faith-sharing small group.

On Sunday, January 9, youth from Children's Faith Formation, St. Joseph School, and high school students helped at the monthly Teen Mass.

WE DID IT! In five weeks, we closed the budget gap deficit from ($116,175) down to ($7,809). We asked for your support and you responded with immense generosity.

Ah, a new year! There are endless possibilities! And, chances are, many of us have a great deal of energy and enthusiasm around resolutions and making a fresh start of things. Many of us look at the new year as an opportunity to make those changes in our lives we know need to happen, and to set our course with greater focus.

Catholic Charities in Lake County continues to provide food and rental assistance to those in need. Catholic Charities has three food pantries, weekly suppers, and home  delivered meals to senio