January 4, 2023

Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. John’s,

As we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany this weekend, we recall the coming of the Magi to Bethlehem where they encountered the Christ child. Christ gave of Himself to them in love, and they gave gifts out of love back to Him.

Matching Gift Announcement

I’m tremendously grateful as I have witnessed Christ’s generous gift of self to our community in so many ways, and we are responding to that love by making gifts of love back to Him. I have witnessed this, particularly in the pledges we have received to date with our Restore to Gather Capital Campaign. We have also had a few parishioners come forward to help us reach our goal and provide up to $200,000 in matching funds on any new or increased pledges for the remainder of the month of January. You can learn more about this opportunity below.

New Statues in the Chapel!

The Statues of St. Michael and St. Raphael have arrived and will be blessed on Saturday, January 6th at the special 8:30 am Mass that day. They were hand-carved out of Linden wood by Albl Oberammergau Studio in Germany. They received a painted finish with 23.75 ct gold gilded details.

They were carved to match the canvas print that is behind the tabernacle which is a replica of the Annunciation of Mary by Fra Angelico. The original was created between 1440 and 1450 in the Convent San Marco in Florence Italy. The statue of St. Michael was paid for by Harold Henfling, my 1st cousin twice removed, who is also my oldest male relative at 97 years old. The statue of St. Raphael was generously donated by Don Karpinski, a longtime parishioner here at SJB. We are grateful for their support to beautify our Chapel of the Angels.