A Continued Welcome to Our Visitors!

Jul 14

Letter from the Pastor
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 16, 2023

Fr. Andrew shared with the friars that after one of the Mass this past weekend, a summer visitor approached him and said, “I am so amazed and edified to see so many people coming to Mass here at St Francis.” Yes, they do. As I said this past weekend at the Masses in Beach Haven, it really is wonderful to see the churches full again!! To all of our summer visitors, be it for the summer, a month, a week, or even just the day, Welcome to St. Francis of Assisi Parish. We are one parish celebrating in four churches: St. Thomas Aquinas, Beach Haven, St. Francis of Assisi, Brant Beach, St. Thomas of Villanova, Surf City, and St. Clare, Loveladies.

As you can see, our parish bulletin is filled with a variety of events that engage our Sacramental life, where we are fed spiritually, as well as those events that fill some of our basic needs, like our Food Pantry, where the parish community helps to feed, physically, those who are hungry.

One upcoming event I would like to point out is "Dinner with Friends" for widows and widowers. This is an opportunity for those who have lost a spouse to come together and enjoy an evening out. This is not meant to address the traumatic and profound grief one experiences at the death of a loved one. Our Counseling Center offers “Journey Through Grief” to help us walk through that painful time in our lives. Dinner with Friends is intended to be a social occasion where you can catch up with old friends or meet friends you didn’t know you had yet. The next dinner is on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, at 5:15 pm in the Brant Beach Church Hall. Please check the bulletin for more details.

The St. Francis Center, located behind the main parish church in Brant Beach, also has a variety of offerings for our community. If you missed “Swimming under the Stars” this past week, there is another evening scheduled for August. I would encourage you to look up the St. Francis Center online and find out the wide variety of programs offered to the entire LBI community. www.stfranciscenterlbi.org

Finally, as a parish community, we are celebrating our stewardship program, “The Joy of Sharing the Gospel.” Stewardship is about careful and responsible management of that which is entrusted to our care. In our case, it is the stewardship of our parish.

I appeal to our summer residents, our summer guests, and our online participants to consider becoming a steward of St. Francis Parish so we can continue to have a strong and vital Catholic presence on Long Beach Island. There are stewardship commitment cards in the pews, at the doors of the churches, or on our webpage: I ask that you prayerfully consider becoming a steward of St. Francis of Assisi Parish and consider a weekly, monthly, or one-time contribution to support your church away from home.

May God continue to bless you and your families, and may this summer continue to be a blessing to all of us.

Peace and All Good!