Registration forms were mailed out on August 7, 2010. If you have not received a Family Faith Formation Registration Form in the mail and plan on having your child/ren enrolled, please contact Sr. Marie as soon as possible so that we can order adequate supplies and materials.

Please click here to download the registration form.

Tuition: For enrolling one child in the program, the cost is $60. For 2 or more children, the cost of enrollment is $80. This tuition may be paid in installments.

If you have not received a registration form, please contact Sr. Marie.

Opening Session: The opening session for parents and children will be Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. in the Church. This will include the celebration of the Eucharist. Sharing group sessions for children in public school (grades K-12) take place on most Wednesdays through May 11, 2011.

The day will feature 26 for all those who minister. All those interested in attending, please contact Sr. Marie in the parish office.

For more information, please download the DFFD’s brochure and registration form.

“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)

In the Gospel, Jesus teaches us the form and substance of prayer. Prayer is a dialogue that deepens our personal and intimate relationship with God. Prayer and reflection are the foundation of a well formed faith life and help us in the discernment of gifts and from whom all gifts come.

“Formation”

Recognition of the need for life long faith formation is an important component for effective ministry in the parish community. By sharing unique charisms of ministry and gifts of individuals a new collaborative model is possible. Several diocesan ministries will discuss formation and discipleship within a panel forum.

“Our Catholic Faith: Mission, Formation and Ministry” is scheduled for August 27/28 at Holy Family Catholic Church (5125 S. Apopka-Vineland Rd. Orlando, FL 32819). It costs only $25 per person (spouse an additional $10). This conference will be presented in English and in Spanish and will offer a deeper invitation to fully engage our call to discipleship.

For more information contact: eclayton@orlandodiocese.org or see: www.orlandodiocese.org/collaborative_ministry/index.php, where registration information is available.

For more information please download the following:

• English flyer
• Spanish flyer

As I write this, in mid-June and while I am still at Saint Charles, I’ve been putting together some plans for a mini-pilgrimage from July 13 through 17. One of the features of life in Europe in recent years has been the number of small airlines providing cheap flights around the continent (something like JetBlue and Spirit here). My plan is to fly from Bristol to Limoges, in the middle of France (return fare less than $100), accompanied by one of the Downside monks who is an old friend and speaks better French than I do. We will spend the first night at Paray le Monial. It was here, in the Convent of the Visitation Sisters, that Saint Margaret Mary received several revelations of the Sacred Heart, the first on 27 December 1673, and the final one 18 months later. The visions revealed to her the form of the devotion, the chief features being reception of Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month, adoration of the Host during a Holy Hour, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. I’ve never been there before, but then we will go on for two days at a pilgrimage place which I visited about forty years ago: Ars-sur-Formans, the little village where Saint John Vianney was parish priest for over forty years until his death in 1859. There is a special residence there where priests can stay. The last day will be spent driving back to Limoges (itself a beautiful town with some fine churches) in time to catch a morning flight on Saturday.

My desire to visit these places was awakened by the Year for Priests which has just been concluded. You will remember that Pope Benedict declared that the Year would run from the Feast of the Sacred Heart in 2009 until the same Feast this year; at the same time he named Saint John Vianney as the patron of the Year, which was the 150th anniversary of his death. You could say I am just too late – the Year is over. However, I feel sure that both Paray le Monial and Ars have been places of intense prayer in this last year and perhaps some of that holiness will rub off on me. They remain great places of pilgrimage for all time and I feel privileged to be making this visit to pray for my parish – and, in charity, I should pray too for our neighboring parishes in Winter Park and on OBT which bear the names of Saint Margaret Mary and Saint John Vianney.

Fr. Augustine

If you are interested in having your child or children participate, please fill out a registration form. Forms are available in the baptistry in Church.

If you are interested in volunteering to help out at the camp, please contact Carrie. She can be reached by phone at 407-290-2733 or by email at carriebusbee@bellsouth.net. All volunteers must be at least 13 years of age. They also must meet the following requirements:

• Fingerprinting completed
• Background check completed
• Safe Environment Training completed online

Father comes from Pereira, a city of about 600,000 people within an urban area of nearly a million (very similar in size to Orlando). The Spanish first settled the area in 1540, twenty-five years before the founding of Saint Augustine (which is, of course, the oldest continuously-occupied, European-founded, city in the continental United Sates). Pereira is in the western part of Colombia. It lies in a fertile valley in the Andes with a mild climate and is the centre of the coffee trade. In recent years it has become an important industrial hub because it is equidistant from the major cities of Bogota, Medellin and Cali. The people are devout Catholics, with so many vocations that they actually export priests. Father Alvaro has been a priest for twenty-five years and was a Pastor in his own Diocese. After a chance meeting he was recruited by the new Bishop of Tyler, Texas, and served there for four years. The Bishop realized that Father Alvaro’s gifts were rather wasted in such a rural area so agreed to his transfer to the Diocese of Orlando when Bishop Wenski invited him.

He was appointed to Deltona in February 2005, only about six months after I arrived permanently in Florida, and we have often been together in meetings for newly recruited clergy. I also know his previous Pastor, Father Joseph Roberts, very well and he has spoken to me of Father Alvaro’s dedication to his priesthood. After nearly ten years in America Father Alvaro is also a U.S. citizen. I believe he was known in Deltona as Father Al and we will have to see if he is happy to have the same abbreviation here (although I’m still too English to become Father Gus!). I am delighted to be joined by a priest with so much pastoral experience, and I am sure that you will welcome him warmly.

Father Al’s arrival means that I will probably take a vacation at the end of June to see my family back in Britain. I know it’s best for me to go while St. Charles school is on vacation and things in the parish are relatively quiet.

Fr. Augustine

On Tuesday, April 20th, Pope Benedict XVI announced my appointment as archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Miami succeeding Archbishop John Clement Favalora. Jesus once bid Peter “Duc in altum” (Put out into the deep). Now Peter’s successor has asked me to do the same in entrusting to me this new responsibility. I am being called back to that local Church where I was ordained a priest and where I served as a parish priest and auxiliary bishop. Humbled by the Holy Father’s confidence in me and aware of my own limitations and shortcomings, I once again ask the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, that I may worthily fulfill my new duties as the fourth Archbishop of Miami upon my installation on June 1, 2010.

I am deeply grateful to the clergy, religious and faithful of the Diocese of Orlando who almost seven years ago welcomed me as coadjutor bishop on August 22, 2003. As your bishop since November 13, 2004, I have enjoyed your support and affection. Together, we have tended many talents in the Lord’s vineyard. Our Diocesan Synod, “Starting Afresh from Christ” helped set the priorities of a renewed vision for this growing, dynamic and still young local Church called to be “Alive in Christ and Witness to Hope”. Our 40th anniversary observances in 2008 of which our Festival of Faith was the highlight underscored the vitality of the Catholic Church in these nine counties of Central Florida.

The faithful of Orlando are members of a Church truly “Alive in Christ”. This is seen in the increased number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life (the number of seminarians has doubled in the past five years); in the eight new parishes or missions established since 2004 and, despite a challenging economic environment, in the generous response to the Alive in Christ capital campaign that has already reached $100 million in pledges and gifts. I am confident that in coming months the parishes yet to conduct the campaign will successfully bring this first ever diocesan wide campaign to a successful conclusion. In October of this year, the majority of our 90 parishes or missions will also participate in Why Catholic?, a faith formation program that will help our parishes to better be “schools of prayer” and “schools of communion” (cf. Novo Milenio Ineunte)

In these short years of service as your bishop, we have tried to respond to the challenges of the growth and the diversity of this diocese. More of our parishes minister to multi-ethnic, multi-cultural communities, including for example growing numbers of Hispanics, Filipinos, Haitians and Vietnamese. El Clarin and Radio Buena Nueva evangelize in the Hispanic community through the media.

Even as we continue to promote the growth of priestly and religious vocations from the youth of our diocese, we have been blessed, as in years past, with priests who have arrived to minister here from other dioceses or religious communities and, more often than not, from other countries. Their presence has strengthened and enriched our presbyterate.

Of course, while I continue to be the Bishop of Orlando until June 1st, I know that new responsibilities and challenges await me in Miami. In due time, the Holy Father will appoint another bishop to lead this diocese which I have come to love dearly. In the interim, a diocesan administrator from among our clergy will be chosen. I ask your prayers for him and for me and for your new bishop whoever he might be.

In past years, I have often quoted from Pope Benedict’s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est. His words seem to me particularly fitting today:

“In all humility we will do what we can, and with all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord. It is God who governs the world, not we. We offer him our service only to the extent that we can, and for as long as he grants us the strength. To do all we can with what strength we have, however, is the task which keeps the good servant of Jesus Christ always at work: ‘The love of Christ urges us on’.”

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Thomas Wenski
Archbishop-Designate
Archdiocese of Miami

Please click here for a video presentation by Bishop Wenski.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated on Thursday, May 6th at St. Charles. The Mass will begin at 11am; the main celebrant will be Archbishop-Designate Wenski. Please join us in praying for the repose of the soul of Archbishop Borders. May he rest in peace.

Mark your calendars!! On Sunday, May 16th at 7:00 p.m. in the Church, St. Charles Catholic Church will host a meeting for parents of this year’s confirmation candidates (the candidates must also attend).

The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated with the Bishop on November 4, 2010.