What is a Sacrament? “ A Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.”
Intuitively, we all recognize what a sacrament is and hopefully we value them as indispensible aides as we walk our lifetime faith journey. A couple of the sacraments: Eucharist, Reconciliation, we can and should receive frequently, after just a brief period of reflection and preparation. Other Sacraments, namely Baptism and Matrimony and, of course, Confirmation, are received only once and require extended preparation of their participants or sponsors.
A fact that you might not be aware of is that many people here at St. Alphonsus Parish are involved in preparing their brothers and sisters for these key moments in their Faith life. During this past calendar year of 2009 there have been 47 weddings and 56 Baptisms (as of 11/29/09). In particular, the parish Priests rely on the very generous support of many volunteers in preparing couples for their wedding day. Over nearly the past 25 years, St. Alphonsus parish has been blessed by a very active and dedicated “Sponsor Couple Program.” Currently there are about 22 married couples that agree to meet with an assigned engaged couple. Drawing on their experience and following set guidelines of topics to cover, an engaged couple will usually meet three or four times with their assigned sponsor couple. A summary is then forwarded to the Priest working with the engaged couple and together they go over any final details. The overall program is designed to help the engaged couple recognize both their areas of strengths and weaknesses. We are very grateful to Tim & Mia Nowak who have facilitated this program, as well as met with engaged couples, for many years now. It is very understandable that after these many years they would like to “pass the torch” of being facilitators to another couple. We are in need of more married couples to assist in this program. If you feel that the Lord is calling you to become more involved in some dimension of the parish and if helping engaged couples to prepare for their wedding is something you would like to try doing, please phone the rectory for more information, no commitment, just information.
PLEASE GIVE THIS PRAYERFUL CONSIDERATION! WE NEED YOUR HELP!
