The parish and friends of Holy Family wish former pastor, Fr. Mike Gabriel, a speedy recovery after surgery earlier this week. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.
We had a very productive meeting earlier in the month to discuss the future of the Food Pantry Ministry at Holy Family-Notre Dame Parish. As we look to the future, and the ways that Holy Family-Notre Dame is committed to the Corporal Works of Mercy, it is clear that feeding our brothers and sisters in need continues to be a priority. The Food Pantry will move to the Notre Dame de Chicago site. Collaboration will happen with the Franciscan Outreach Ministry and we will continue to look for ways to grow in our service to the community. We need your help in order to make this happen! If you are interested in volunteering with the Food Pantry ministry, please contact Victoria (vdbusiness@gmail.com) or Chef Dan (dkopanke@hotmail.com).
Where are we at in the Renew My Church process right now? Right now, we are in the Operations Transition phase of RMC (and we will be through June). We are creating a foundation, both with resources and a long-term vision, to support vitality in our newly united parish. We are analyzing how our financial structures are set up, what our facilities are being used for, and how our staff and volunteer time is focused. Our goal is to ensure that all our resources are working towards evangelization, to bringing people to Jesus. The way that the communities from both the Holy Family site and the Notre Dame site came together to pray during Advent and Christmas reveals the hospitality and evangelization that we want all our resources to continue to work towards. Do you have Renew My Church or operational questions? Feel free to send me an email! spelrine@archchicago.org.
Children of Peace, our parish school, is having an Open House on Sunday, January 26, 2020, from Noon to 2:00 p.m. to kick off Catholic Schools Week. We are a diverse community of learners with students representing five continents and living within 40 zip codes throughout Chicago and the suburbs. We provide a challenging curriculum in an environment that is culturally sensitive and emotionally supportive. In addition to our traditional educational program for students from Pre-K to 8th grade, we have a Montessori class for students ages 3-6, and we are the only Catholic school in the state of Illinois to provide an education to students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Thank you to all who made the Children's Christmas Party on Saturday, December 21st a great success. Special gratitude goes to Jerrilyn Young and Virginia Clayton for organizing the event, to the dedicated team of volunteers who kept the event running smoothly, and to Santa and Mrs. Claus for traveling all the way from the North Pole to visit with the children. Thank you to everyone from the parish who generously donated toys for the party. Your donations ensured that children at the party and in other areas of the city were able to receive gifts at Christmas.Finally, tremendous thanks to St. Raymond School in Mount Prospect. St. Raymond School has generously donated toys for the party for years, but outdid themselves this year with a donation of nearly 600 toys! We were truly blessed by their kindness and care, and our gratitude is immeasurable.