Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

This weekend we find ourselves between 8th Grade graduation and those final days of school before we gather for Mass on the last day, June 14. It has been quite a year!

We thank Beth Monroe, our interim principal for the past year, for stepping in and being the glue that kept a lot of strands from unraveling. Although I’ve been involved in Catholic education for many years, I have never experienced so closely the daily challenges that Beth faced. We have expressed many thanks already, and there are surely more to come this week.

We have experienced a smooth transition with the arrival of our new principal, seasoned educator, Barbara Dalmut. In the two months that she has been here, I have been impressed with her sharp focus on keeping quality education as a priority and her deep concern for our students, as well as our teachers and their professional and spiritual needs. Our school has turned the corner, thank God, and I believe, with Barbara’s vision, that our students will flourish and grow, once again, both in excellence and number.

It is my hope that many of the families who left our school in the past couple of years for various valid reasons will consider us again: please, come home to Saint Bernadette School. Know you are welcome.

The end of the school year seems like a fitting time to give thanks to all of you who gave so generously of your time and talents. You are a composite of so many rich and varied gifts. We will bid farewell to a number of our teachers and staff, as well. To all our faculty and staff, administration and support, our thanks and wishes for some much-deserved rest this summer.

For those of us on a 12-month salary schedule, we’ll get right to work with summer projects. First, we will begin the milling and paving for a new parking lot. We will announce a proposed schedule and when different areas of the parking lots will be affected. We ask your patience and thank you for working around these areas when they are closed.

In mid-June we will also see a transition of leadership in our Youth Ministry for the parish. We thank Jim and Jonna Schuster for their years of service to our youth at St. Bernadette. Jim accepted a job at another parish back around Easter, and Jonna will finish out the year with us next weekend. We wish them well.

And the Holy Spirit still doesn’t disappoint! Almost immediately, it seemed, we were being guided to a new partnership for our youth program with our own Youth Apostles here in the diocese. Our old friend, Fr. Jack Petersen, and Youth Apostles leadership have proposed a very exciting program with a full-time director and assistant director under his guidance, with two part-time assistants in mission and administration. We will formally introduce our new staff members once they are here and you will be able to meet them.

I will get my chance to weave our new Confirmation formation program into the newly-formed team adding this to the role of the administrative assistant, making a full-time position. Actually, I’m looking to fill this position soon. It will be a unique position in that it will be a visible link building strong lines of communication and ministry sharing between the School, Religious Education and the Youth Program. Obviously, this is an important role and will require just the right person, a person of creativity and energy, and a deep desire for unity, someone who thrives serving with a team of dedicated people. If you think you might be right for the job, you are welcome to call me and we can talk about it.

Next weekend try to join us for our traditional procession and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament after the 5pm Mass on Sunday, 18 June. I know it’s Fathers’ Day... the procession and benediction will last 30 minutes. I was present at the cathedral in Puebla, Mexico as a seminarian on Corpus Christi 25 years ago. It was the first time in 80 years that the government of Mexico permitted a Church rite to take place outside (of course, they had to stay on cathedral property). We will process to a temporary altar in front of the school, sing Eucharistic hymns, pray the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, and return to the church for solemn benediction. Please plan to say with us a bit longer next weekend.

May God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

In the next few weeks I have lined up a few subjects to write about—about summer renovations and improvements; about our new youth program at St. Bernadette; about the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and Martin Luther; about the necessity of ecumenical prayer as the Body of Christ. But this week, since we have speakers coming to all Masses to give a brief invitation to you this next weekend, I would like to provide an encouragement to you to consider signing up for the Called and Gifted Workshop which will be held here in August. You will find details and a registration form on page 9.

It is important to register now, because the Workshop is being offered nationally and we are hearing from people all over who are registering. The Workshop is for you, first and foremost, and I see it as a great opportunity for us to make personal and communal goals for the coming year based on how God is calling you. In October, we will hold our first (at least, in a while) Ministry Fair and we will be asked to make commitments to how much of ourselves we are willing to share. St. Bernadette is like a great, sleeping giant, filled with possibilities of how to grow deeply in spirituality, knowledge and service to a local community in great need.

How are we to address these needs? How would we begin to know the best way to get involved? The days of “Father asked me...” are over, because if you aren’t doing a work of ministry that brings you to life, you will surely burn out. There is a certain freedom to being able to say, “This is how God calls me, because these are the gifts he has given me to use.”

This weekend we celebrate the event of the birthday of the Church, Pentecost. It was the day that the Apostles, who were hiding and praying, not knowing what to do next, received the Holy Spirit and his gifts and suddenly opened the doors and went out into the streets proclaiming the Gospel. It was like the Holy Spirit flipped a switch within them, and they came alive.

The same gifts which you received in Confirmation: knowledge, understanding, wisdom, counsel, fortitude, piety and holy fear, are gifts intended to form you as a member of the Body of Christ. According to the teaching of the Called and Gifted Workshop, these gifts are the foundation upon which you go about the process of discovering who God made you to be. There is a maturity, a power, to these gifts.

Once fully a member of the Church, you can begin to look at your life and see clearly what works and what doesn’t work. What are the activities that bring you to life? What are the ways you seem only to face frustration and burnout? Surely God calls us to spiritual life: we grow in trusting that God has made us in a particular way, unlike any other person (well, we knew that) in the combination of gifts he has given you. But these gifts have been with you all your life, though you may not be aware of them—they were received at Baptism.

When I first heard about this program, I was skeptical. I think most people who are honest would admit this. We wonder—do I have any special gifts? If you are baptized, you do.

Please consider signing up before summer starts. Mark your calendar, it is a Friday evening and a Saturday, August 18-19. Following the initial weekend, we have individual consultations with people who have attended previously and have received training to help new people interpret their experiences in the Workshop and everyday life. Then there is a small group process where we will meet in affinity groups (people with similar gifts) for six weeks following as we learn to grow into the knowledge of our gifts. People who have attended the Workshop have said that their lives were changed forever. Mine was.

And at this time in the life of our parish, we are planning to start a Parish Council with ministry leaders and programs which, in the fall, will provide hundreds of opportunities for you to get involved in the life of the parish... if that is what you seek. On a most basic level, all of us know that we are never more fulfilled personally than when we get involved in a caring, loving way with others in need, when we are able to make a difference.

We probably won’t host this Workshop again for at least a year, and it is open to our whole diocese and beyond. Please secure your spot and help us know how many people to expect.

May God bless you.

 By previous generations, Memorial Day was known also as “Decoration Day, the day we would always go to the cemetery, place flowers and pray for family and friends who have gone before us. Remember our beloved dead this weekend, especially those who gave their lives or our freedom.

 Parish offices are closed Monday for the holiday.

 We continue to pray together the Holy Spirit Novena in preparation for Pentecost!  The prayers for the last five days are printed in this bulletin, pp. 8-9. We will pray the Novena each weekday morning at 8:40am (prior to the start of the 9am Mass) and 7:40am (prior to the start of the Saturday and Sunday 8am Masses).

 St. Bernadette Parish will be conducting a Summer Hungry Children food collection drive for the St. Lucy Project, a Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington program on June 3-4. See page 12 for a list of requested items.

 Marriage Renewal Mass and Reception: A Mass of thanksgiving for the gift of Marriage and the renewal of vows will be held on Thursday, 8 June at 7pm. Please RSVP to the parish office by Friday, June 2.

 St. Bernadette welcomes back CUB SCOUT PACK 856. Please join the pack leaders on Sunday, 11 June for a meeting and an opportunity to signup. A Fun Water Activity is planned - 6:30-8pm at the St. Bernadette school playground. See page 6 for contact information.
 
 Estimados feligreses: Nuestro calendario de misas en español ha cambiado. Efectivo Inmediato - Las misas de los Miércoles y Viernes a las 6:30am y la Misa de los Jueves a las 6pm, se descontinuará. La Misa en español de la 1pm del Domingo permanecerá en el horario como de costumbre.