From the Pastor’s Corner: – Fr. Justus Alaeto

Parish events for Star of the Sea Brookings and St. Charles Borromeo in Gold Beach, the year 2022/2023, starts September 21, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

Peace of Christ to you!

I hope we all had a good summer time and enjoyed visiting with friends, family, loved ones, and other activities we engage in during the summer. As we prepare for the fall and winter, I wish to joyfully announce that we shall be resuming our parish life and faith formation program next Wednesday, September 21, 2022, with Holy Mass at 5:15pm.

The RCIA, First Communion Class, and Confirmation Class, will resume that day. Please, we encourage all parents to attend first communion and confirmation class with their children. In the past, this method has proven to be very fruitful and successful in spiritual formation for the kids. Parents learned from that as well as their kids. It also provides the opportunity for parents to keep working and teaching their kids at home. Also, the learning builds special spiritual bonds between parents, their kids, and Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ the Savior is at the center of their learning experience. Parents learn from their kids and the kids learn more from their parents and share their faith in Jesus Christ and the Church. Finally, both kids and parents build special relationships and spiritual bonds with their parish.

For the confirmation class, we are now accepting candidates from twelve years (12 years) or thirteen up. Our program is a one-year program unless there is a need for a candidate to learn more about Jesus before receiving Him. Please, parents and sponsors, the essence of this program is not just mere intellectual. The program focuses on spirituality, and we do spiritual assessment as well. We are imparting the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are not forming them NOT to know Jesus, rather we are forming them to know who Jesus is. If any child is not able to learn and be convinced about who Jesus is, or not convinced about what he/she is receiving, it is our spiritual duty to give the child more time and help the child to learn. If your child misses too many classes and is not able to make them up and is not passing assessments, the child may be asked to repeat the class and learn more about faith and Jesus Christ. This is for their good and for the good of the church and families.

For the RCIA candidates, we are pleased to announce that if all who registered showed up, we shall have up to eight to ten candidates for the RCIA program this year. For this year's RCIA program, we have modified the curriculum in a way that would give each candidate an opportunity to share their faith’s journey and stories that are drawing them to Christ. This will be an ongoing journey for them and ongoing sharing as they prepare themselves through their faith formation to encounter the Holy Spirit. Their journey is a journey of conversion with faith. The goal is for them to encounter Christ at the end of their learning through the Holy Spirit. It is our prayer, and the expectation of the Church that all of them will be renewed through this RCIA program. All of us constantly need to be renewed as well. Jesus Himself, instructed His disciples not to engage in any ministry until they receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and get renewed (Acts 1:4). This presence of the Holy Spirit is acquired through personal encounter with Jesus Christ in prayer and good works. Baptism is the first step of this renewal, a unique encounter with Jesus Christ that will always renew us and change us to better. The personal encounter with Christ on the other hand, equipped one with the “Power from high.” Our mission/ministry cannot be fruitful without this necessary Power from on high, otherwise, life and mission may be successful, but not fruitful. There is a need therefore, for us to be clothed with the holiness of this Power from on high, in order to be spiritually renewed and fruitful. Finally, the RCIA class is also open to parishioners who want to deepen their faith in Jesus Christ.

Please mark your calendar. On Sunday, September 25, 2022, after the 8:30 am Mass, the Star of the Sea parish Knight of Columbus, through Randy Hall, will be hosting a huge breakfast for the start of the year. This breakfast will be hosted to welcome everyone, especially for all candidates in our faith formation program. Please, on that day, immediately after the 8:30am Mass, all are invited to the hall for breakfast. The breakfast will start at exactly 9:50am.

For St. Charles in Gold Beach, there will be a parish picnic on Sunday, October 2, 2022, immediately after 11:am Mass. All are invited to attend. We shall also use that to welcome everyone, especially candidates for the faith formation.

October 3rd-6^th, all priests in the archdiocese will be on annual convocation with the Archbishop. There will be no daily Mass that week. Please, keep all the priests and our bishops in your prayers.

Another archdiocesan event coming up will be pastoral assembly. The pastor will be traveling with two members of the pastoral council to Portland. The date is November 18^th through 19^th, 2022. On November 19th (Saturday) there will be no confession at 3:30pm. Our 4:30pm Vigil Mass will be adjusted to 6:00pm, only for that day. Please, thank you for your understanding!

Finally, on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, we shall have our parish council meeting at Star of the Sea parish hall, starting with the Holy Mass at 5:15pm, then followed by the Pastoral council meeting at 6:00pm in the parish hall. All members of the parish pastoral council are to attend the Mass and the meeting.