This weekend is truly a time to rejoice as we kick off the celebration of the 100th anniversary of our parish family! Thank you for all that you do and are to help make this parish what it is. I want, in a special way, to thank Bishop Malesic for being with us this week- end to help us begin our anniversary celebration. The celebration may start here, but the celebration doesn’t end here. I look forward to celebrating this great event in many ways over the course of the year ahead.

   As we begin to celebrate our 100th anniversary, I’d like to issue, to all of us, a challenge. I’ll introduce this challenge in my remarks at the conclusion of Sunday’s 9:30 am Mass, but to celebrate our 100th anniversary, I’d invite you to consider making a “100 pledge.”

   You may ask, “What is a ‘100 pledge’? A 100 pledge is this, I’d invite all of us to commit ourselves in the upcoming year to 100 of something as a way of thanking God for all that He’s done through this parish family and celebrating God’s blessings. That could be 100 Rosaries, 100 daily Masses attended, 100 hours of service to a good cause, 100 dollars donation to a charity such as our St. Vincent de Paul Society, or any other act of prayer or service. What you choose to do for your “100 pledge” is your choice, but I’d invite you, if possible, to consider choosing something new, something that isn’t al- ready a part of your routine.

   This challenge isn’t going to be something that you’re going to have to report back to me about what you did, there is no report to turn in. But, we are working on some ideas of how, over the course of the year, as different “100 pledges” are completed, that we might be able to indicate our completion and so that we can, together, see the great work that God is doing in our midst.

  As you think about what you might pledge to do, remember that this is something for over the course of this entire year, so you don’t have to go home and pray the Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet all night or anything like that. We hope that this is a wonderful way for us as a parish family, to give thanks to God for all the blessings that He has poured into our lives and the lives of so many others over these past 100 years.