HAVE A BLESSED ADVENT Happy New Liturgical Year! The season of Advent starts our church calendar anew; sorry I missed greeting you in last week’s bulletin. One reason I look forward to Advent each year is that we have the opportunity to sing special hymns of the season: Advent season, that is—with its hymns of […]

SIGNS OF THE TIMES In a recent homily, Fr. Steve talked about the signs of the times. As he said, it is wise to pay attention to them. It is prudent to act on them. He went on to compare the early 1960s with today. In response to the signs of the times in the […]

ON SYNODS AND SYNODALITY Perhaps you’ve heard of the worldwide synod process initiated by Pope Francis? Or not? After all, most media don’t pay much attention to synods, admittedly a somewhat obscure topic. So, let’s review. In Roman Catholicism, a synod is basically a type of meeting, or a series of meetings. Our local Archdiocese […]

WAIT, WHAT, WHICH COLLECTION? I occasionally imagine Old Testament religious leaders saying something like this: “This week’s special collection of goats supports the poor people living on the north end of Jerusalem. Please be generous.” More to the point, our faith tradition from ancient times has asked for support through prayer, time, and treasure—whether our […]

THE BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE It’s November. Traditionally, this is the month when we Catholics collectively remember our deceased family and friends. How do we do that here at St. Matt’s? One of our traditions is to write their names in our Book of Remembrance. Look for that book near the front entrance of the church, […]

DATA, DATA, DATA Have you ever heard the saying, that to a person with a hammer, everything looks like a nail? I sometimes feel that way with regard to requests for data. That is, to a person with a computer, everything looks like data. Such is our modern world. For example, we fill out a […]

VATICAN II, 1962-1965 The Second Vatican Council opened its first session in October of 1962. If you’re old enough to remember it, what comes to mind? (If you’re not old enough for personal memories, I’m still interested in what comes to mind. How has the Council affected your faith journey?) The first thing that comes […]

LOCAL SUPPORT (1)  . . . comes in several forms, such as prayer, volunteering, and financial. As I mentioned last week, we’re not sending out a general stewardship letter this fall. Rather, we simply ask you to continue supporting our faith community as best you can.  Start with prayer. If you can volunteer and/or contribute […]

A CREATIVE CHURCH? A few weekends ago (September 18), Fr. Steve explained the story of the so-called “bad steward.” (If you missed it or want to review, visit our website, www.st-matts.org, where you can find recordings of our online masses. The homily begins at about 18 minutes into the recording.) I was struck by Fr. […]

CAPITAL NEEDS Many thanks to all who attended last Saturday’s Fix-It Dinner! Together, we raised $2,000 towards installing safety equipment such as cameras. It was also a great social event for our community. Special thanks to chefs Greg, Steve and Greg for the delicious food! Speaking of safety equipment and other capital needs, you might […]

UP ON THE ROOFTOP Last week, Englund Roofing began needed maintenance on the roofs of our Parish Center (PC). During the bidding process, their inspectors praised whoever installed the PC roof years ago. That was nice to hear. Because of that past work of good quality, Englund recommended only maintenance work, e.g., caulking and scupper […]

STORIES AND FOOD I don’t think there’s any coincidence that stories and food are at the core of our Catholic faith life. What do I mean by that? I’m referring to several connected realities. One of them happens at Mass, which always features Scripture stories, followed by a ritual meal. More formally, we speak of […]

QSA Update I’m pleased to report that Quantum STEAM Academy (QSA), the charter public school leasing our school building, has increased its enrollment yet again. Classes began August 29, and I recently visited the school to talk with its director and teachers. Now heading into its third year, QSA expects over one hundred students for […]

GRATITUDE I’ve heard it said that we should express gratitude every day. With that in mind, I want to thank everyone who helped out with last Saturday’s Mass in the Park. I know it’s a lot of extra work for musicians, sacristans, food preparers, and others. That extra work contributed to our special tradition in […]

FINANCE COUNCIL, BUDGET Our Finance Council meets 11 times a year, always seeking to manage our parish finances as well as possible. At our most recent meeting on July 28, for example, we reviewed the status of our million-dollar mortgage loan with Catholic Finance Corporation (CFC). A little history: In May of 2016, St. Matt’s […]

AIR CONDITIONING AND ELECTRIC WORK Well! I’m sure glad to have the air conditioning working again. That’s a good thing for all of us. Because of supply chain issues, it took several weeks to get all the AC parts needed. Both inside and outside components needed work. Soon, we’ll get a bill for the AC […]

Welcome Dinner Have you recently joined or rejoined St. Matt’s? I ask because we’re having our first post-pandemic Welcome Dinner on Tuesday, July 26. We’ve mailed out invitations to new and returning members, based on available information in our parish database. It’s possible we missed people. If you’re new or have returned to St. Matt’s […]

CAMP, COOPERATION, AND COMMUNITY Last week, I wrote a bit about one of my favorite weeks of the year: Danebod Family Camp. I’ve attended since 1981, enjoying my hobbies of singing, dancing, crafts, conversation, and more. As I mentioned, one of our camp discussions drew on Oliver Burkeman’s 2021 book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management […]

ON VACATION AND MORTALITY “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” At least that’s what George Gershwin et al wrote back in the 1930s, in the opera Porgy and Bess. Friends and I sang that song a couple of weeks ago. I was on vacation at a place called Danebod Family Camp, in Tyler, Minnesota. We […]

SUPPORT YOUR PARISH – EFTs Some parishes need to ask their members for extra contributions to finish their fiscal year in the black. (Our fiscal year ends June 30, along with all other Catholic churches and schools in the Archdiocese.) Fortunately, we don’t have to do that at St. Matt’s this year. That’s because of […]

SUPPORT YOUR PARISH I’m continually impressed at everyone’s generous support of St. Matt’s mission, whether it be through gifts of time, treasure or talent—or some combination of the three. Mary Leibl’s column regularly addresses time and talent, so I won’t go into those here. Rather, I want to continue talking about money. Last week, I […]

PARISH FINANCES I’ve been promising to provide more financial reporting for a few months. Here’s a start, based on our monthly financial reports from our accountant at PASC (Parish Accounting Service Center). Total April contributions were $40,646.56. That’s well over our monthly budget projection of $20,133.33, largely because of Easter season contributions. Compare those results* […]

SYNOD AND SYNODALITY Synod is a word derived from synodus, a Greek word meaning assembly. In our Catholic tradition, it’s used to refer to special assemblies—such as the consultative series of gatherings currently underway in our Archdiocese. You might recall kickoff meetings about three years ago, dialed back during the start of the pandemic, and […]

APBA, etc. There are several ways St. Matt’s stays connected to the larger church of which we’re a part, i.e., the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. For example, we’ve been participating as a parish in the current synod process—the next step being next weekend, June 3-5. More on that in next week’s bulletin. For […]

COUNCILS This is a “Listening Weekend”. That means that members of our Parish Council stay after both Masses and, well, listen to parishioners. Feel free to say hello to the members, share your perspective on the parish, and ask any questions on your mind. I think these listening sessions are a great way to stay […]

More Council Reports Our Finance and Parish councils last met on Thursday, April 28. (Councils meet almost every month, normally on the 4th Thursday of each month.) Last week, I wrote a bit about the Finance Council, noting that our finances are generally in good shape. We are paying our bills. Thank you for your […]

The Community of St. Matthew includes more than parishioners. Loaves and Fishes, St. Mary’s Clinic, Casa Guadalupana, People of Praise and Quantum STEAM Academy all benefit from St. Matthew’s presence on the West Side. And these programs serve many people, well beyond the parish membership. We need strong parish leadership to continue to be the […]

The Church of Saint Matthew has a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter channel.  In the future, the church may have a presence on other social media platforms. It is important that any and all things posted on the Church’s website or other social media platforms adhere to the policies and practices of both […]