CrescentParishes.org

Thanks to Parishioners who have toured our new Crescent Parishes Website “crescentparishes.org!” I completed the scavenger hunt because it was fun and also because I have watched only part of the first episode of “The Chosen” and would like to be able to do so with a DVD. For some reason, my tablet will not let me watch it full screen. I need a sixth grader to help me with my device! Thanks to Ginny Hans, our Director of Communications, who coordinated with staff member Meg Anderson, who is building the website. Before Meg came on full -time, and took on Stewardship and Outreach, her title was “project manager.” The website is a huge project that Meg led! I appreciate and am impressed by several things on the website. The first is that the information found on the site is extraordinary. For example, the “Faith Formation” option on the top banner offers excellent lifelong faith formation resources such as links to wonderful Catholic websites and podcasts. In addition, Crescent Parishioners can access the data from the Discipleship Maker Index survey as well as our own music survey. Also, even though the site is not yet finished, there is a link to a feedback form on the website. It can be found by clicking on the “About Us” option in the top banner and then clicking on “Contact Us.” At the bottom of the ”Contact Us” page is an invitation to click on the feedback form. Thanks to those who offer feedback, a sure way for us to be even better!

Lifelong Faith Formation Opportunities
That Man Is You As long as I’m alive and kicking, I will always promote lifelong faith formation for adults. In that regard, I am very thankful and excited that Crescent Parishes is launching a That Man Is You (TMIY) ministry. As the name conveys, TMIY is a men’s ministry that is excellent and inspiring. As the bulletin notice on page 7 relates, participants gather for breakfast, then there is about a thirtyminute, excellently-prepared catechetical video. Finally, the morning ends with thirty minutes of discussion, sharing and prayer in small groups. Wives, mothers and friends of men in our parishes, please encourage a man or two you know and love to participate, at least giving it a try for the first couple of sessions. I guarantee Jesus’ grace and the power of the Spirit will inhabit the hearts of participating men such that their wives, children and parish family will notice,,,and be inspired!! TMIY is a powerful way to renew our parishes and family life.

The Genesis of Gender
Over the summer, I was blessed to be able to participate in a lifelong faith formation conference at the Mount St. Mary’s Seminary entitled “Gender Dysphoria and Ideology: Moral, Pastoral and Legal Perspectives.” One of the speakers at the conference was Abigail Favale a Catholic, college professor. Her story is authentic and inspiring in itself and in her recent book, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory, she tells of her journey from an Evangelical Protestant Christian college student into the academic world as a feminist, postmodern professor. That journey involves great women saints such as Hildegard of Bingen and leads to conversions on many fronts, including becoming fully Catholic. She is a gifted thinker and a wonderful writer. The book reads quite well, even as there are portions of the text that tackle complex philosophical topics of feminist and postmodern theory. Wonderfully, she has a way of using personal stories and down-to-earth images to help the reader understand, or at least get through, the academic portions of the book. Her text will strengthen us in our Catholic approach related to postmodern thought helping us to be confident about our cosmology (world view), based on Holy Scripture, tradition, science, medicine and common sense. As a lifelong faith formation offering for autumn with Crescent Parishioners, I would like to enter into a book study of her book. It is likely the study will be six to eight weeks with the option to attend on Tuesday evenings or Wednesday mornings. Details will be in next week’s bulletin. I also highly recommend the text to parents and grandparents whose children or grandchildren are collegeage or in their twenties and thirties. That text would also make a great gift to those children/grandchildren, who likely can’t say much of how their Catholic Faith speaks to so many contemporary issues related to gender and medical science.

Thanks to Esther Price
Thanks to the Esther Price Chocolate Company and the management of our local Silverton store on Montgomery Road. They offered us a wonderful discount on enough “oops” packets of candy to give to teachers at Nativity and Linden Grove Schools. I was blessed to be with them to welcome them back on their teacher in-service days. I also gave teachers the first quiz of the year, a quiz on Crescent Parishes which Ginny Hans put together. It gave me the opportunity to bring new and old faculty members up to speed with our parish family.

St. Crescent Feast Day
Those who participated in our website’s scavenger hunt will know that St. Crescent’s Feast Day is on August 27. We will be asking for his intercession at Masses this weekend! St. Crescent, pray for us…, for our unity and for a wonderful renewal of spiritual life in Crescent Parishes!!

Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Pat