Festival Creativity! My friends, there is no way I can make this stuff up. I always laugh when people question me if what I write in
TALLer Tales is actually true. Yes, my friends, it’s all true! This story is no different.
One of the rules for minors to enter the grounds on Festival Weekend after 6:00 p.m. is that they have to be accompanied by a parent, guardian or an adult. Young people will try all kinds of things to fool their way past our ever-vigilant police and volunteers after 6:00 p.m. on Festival Weekend. But two stories topped the list this year.
The first occurred on Friday night, the very night we were having our Night Fire prayer event in church. To help us that evening, we asked several priests to be present for adoration and to hear confessions. One priest was Father Dan Jones. Imagine Father Jones working his way through the entrance gate crowds. He was dressed in his clerics with his collar on. He was dressed as a priest. He clearly looked like a priest. He had vestments in his hands. He was going to do priestly things. As he approached the St. Joan Street gates, a group of young people tried to pay him off to pretend he was their dad! They obviously picked the wrong “dad.” He just shook his head and moved on! Like I said, I couldn’t make this stuff up. Obviously this one wasn’t going to fly! These kids don’t even deserve the “Nice Try Award.”
The “Nice Try Award” went to the following ingenious kids. This one involved my sister Jackie who was at the gate collecting admission fees on Saturday night. My brother-in-law Lonnie and a few other parishioners also got to see this whole scenario unfold. As the story goes and was retold countless times throughout festival weekend, a group of kids approached a lady, paid her cash and asked her to pretend she was their mom so they could get into the festival. The lady accepted the money and then went in front of them to pay her admission fee. As my sister collected her money, the lady tipped my sister off that the kids behind her were not her kids, but they paid her to say she was so they could get through the gate. The lady then told my sister she was free to do whatever she wanted with the information. With that news in hand, my sister and the others working the gate took GREAT delight in telling the kids that the lady squealed on them. The kids were shocked and utterly speechless … more so because the lady they paid off disappeared into the crowd with their money and they were left “high and dry” at the gate. We were thankful. The lady was thankful. The kids were speechless. Ingenious? Maybe. Creative? Maybe! Out of money and left at the gate? You bet! As I said, I couldn’t make this stuff up!
CSA 2019: Opening Doors to WITNESS CHRIST: By now, every registered family should have received their CSA letter in the mail. If you are a registered parishioner and you haven’t received your CSA packet yet, please contact the Parish Center (586.777.3670 / info@sjascs.org).
This year’s CSA theme,
Opening Doors to WITNESS CHRIST, is not coincidental given all that Archbishop Vigneron is accomplishing in the Archdiocese of Detroit as a result of
Synod 16 and his pastoral letter,
Unleash the Gospel.
Please take the time to prayerfully consider what you can give to this year’s CSA. While one time gifts are rather popular,
I encourage you to consider a ten-month pledge to the CSA. Speaking from my own experience, I’m able to give a much larger gift to the CSA by making a pledge over ten months. It is important to remember that any excess received above our goal returns to the parish while shortfalls have to be covered by the parish. In our case, any excess will be “converted” to serve as capital campaign revenue. As I mentioned at last weekend’s masses, we are still about $200,000 short of our capital campaign goal; any excess CSA funds will be used to help narrow that gap. With the roof project completed AND paid off, I want to move next to the LED lighting project and then the pew refinishing project. But we can’t start either project until we have the funds. As such, narrowing the gap between our capital campaign goal and the actual capital campaign pledged amount becomes important.
To make a gift to the CSA, please complete the form found at the bottom of your CSA letter. Please return that form, along with your initial pledge payment (checks are to be made out to the Archdiocese of Detroit - CSA) and either mail the envelope to the Parish Center or drop it in the Sunday collection basket.
You can also give your gift online by going to http://sja.aodcsa.org/. With online gifts, you can charge your gift to a credit card or initiate an EFT transfer from your checking or savings account. With the online gift option, you can make a one-time gift or set it up to accommodate your quarterly or monthly pledge payments. If you want to use the online gift option but are a little uneasy about all the “computer stuff” feel free to stop by the Parish Center and someone will help set that up for you.
I encourage you to read through the CSA brochure that you received in the mail. Also, the CSA video that was played at the masses last weekend can be viewed online on the homepage of our parish website (www.sjascs.org). It’s impressive to see the many and varied ways that the CSA helps fund so many important ministries and programs, all of which open doors so we can give witness to the amazing life of Jesus Christ. Yes, to live fully as a disciple is to make disciples! Whether you “fuel the movement” by giving a gift to the CSA and/or by actively participating in one of the many ministries or programs supported by the CSA, you are helping to make disciples and helping to strengthen people’s relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s our calling. That’s the mission Jesus has given to each of us!