Moving On With Grace: A Spiritual Journey for Men and Women Grieving the Death of a Spouse

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This is the first LIVE pilgrimage at the Shrine in 14 months and not available virtually due to the sensitivity of content. Please join us, share with friends. 

Moving On With Grace:

A Spiritual Journey for Men and Women Grieving the Death of a Spouse 

Saturday, June 12, 2021

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.  *  8:30 a.m. Check-in, Coffee

After the unthinkable has happened, how do you go on?

Finding peace and healing after the death of a spouse can seem impossible.

Come learn what this kind of grief looks like, explore where to find God in the midst of it, and gain tips and skills for coping, healing, and embracing new life. It is possible to once again know happiness and live with a full heart.  A morning of spiritual comfort, engaging community and hope through prayer, presentation and discussion.

Speaker: Amy Florian is a nationally recognized speaker, teacher, and retreat director who uses her personal experience, advanced education, and knowledge from over 30 years of parish liturgy and bereavement ministries for her engaging and dynamic presentations. Amy holds a Masters Degree in Pastoral Studies and she is a Fellow in Thanatology (the highest level of certification in the field of death and grief studies). She taught in the graduate ministry department of Loyola University in Chicago for almost 10 years. She founded Corgenius (a company that teaches professionals how to serve people in times of transition and loss). The winner of multiple awards for her work, she published over two hundred articles and four books, including “A Friend Indeed: Help Those You Love When They Grieve.” Amy has a passion for helping people heal, explore their faith, and live fully.

Program Includes: 

Liturgy of Lamentation, Presentation & Discussion with Amy Florian, Quiet Time Reflection, Liturgy of Hope. 

$20 Paid Registration Due by Wednesday, June 9 

* Online: https://www.givecentral.org/location/78/event/30335   * Call: 312.421.3757 
* Mail payment to The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, Attn: MOWG, 1224 W. Lexington St., Chicago, IL 60607

 

* During the pilgrimage we will be adhering to the COVID-19 guidelines for the Archdiocese of Chicago, including wearing of masks, sanitizing of hands and social distancing. *

Trash Pick-Up Student Service Project

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For their service project undertaken as part of the 5th/6th Grade Student Leadership Day at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, SFS Students decided to focus on the environment. In order to beautify our community, students will be picking up trash on the school and church grounds. If you would like to support their efforts, please consider making a donation below. The money raised will be used to purchase plants and shrubs to beautify the property. The cohort group that raises the most money will be awarded an Ice Cream Social. All donations are due by Tuesday, May 18th. To make a donation, please

click here or use the QR code. Thank you.

SBA PPP Loan Approval

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From the Finance Committee:

St. Francis de Sales qualified and applied for two federally funded SBA Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) Loans to help our parish navigate the impact from Covid-19.  Bishop Robert Casey, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago, provided information on the PPP funds which we would like to share with our parishioners.  Excerpts from his memorandum are included herein.

Parishes that received PPP funds did so because they met the criteria for the loans as outlined in the CARES Act.  The Act required that the loans be used only for payroll and essential expenses such as utility bills.  The funds helped to keep our staff in the Ministry Center and the teachers in our school employed during the pandemic and enabled the Church to provide much needed aid and services during this difficult time.

The loan submission process was handled by Cornerstone Bank which resulted in timely processing, approval and quick receipt of loans proceeds which we were grateful for.  

  1st PPP Loan received:  Apr. 15, 2020 for $513,600.00

  2nd PPP Loan received:  Feb. 25, 2021 for $513,607.00

In short, our parish used the funds for which they qualified for the purposes the Act intended – payroll and essential expenses such as utilities.

In a year that has seen a sharp decline in parish revenues when our church building closed, the CARES Act PPP loans allowed our church and school to retain our staff, protected those employees from needing to seek unemployment and other benefits, ensuring that we could continue educating children and providing services and pastoral care to our congregation in this time of extraordinary need.

We are grateful for the support this program provided and also for the help from Cornerstone Bank in the processing of our loan applications.

A Heartfelt Thank You from the Lenten Fish Fry Drive Thru!

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THANK YOU! to everyone that took part in our annual Fish Fry & Bake this past Lenten Season 2021. It was a great success! We thank all of our sponsors (below), we thank everyone that helped out in one way or another, and most of all THANK YOU! everyone that placed orders.

Our profits from all 6 nights totaled $11,723.87!


All of the profits have been distributed to the below local organizations that support individuals with intellectual disabilities. 

Mount St. Joseph.......…….........$7,043.32 

Center for Independence.…………$3,517.16

SPRED @ SFdS.....…….................$1,172.39

We could not have done that without you!

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Please join us for the 2021 Jubilee Garden Season!

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NO GARDENING EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!
Farming season has begun and will continue on Saturdays through October, with the exception of Memorial Day weekend. We meet from 8 to 11am on Saturday mornings. Your help is needed, even if only for an hour! For more details, please call Sharon Fredrickson at (847)643-6633. The Jubilee Garden is located on the north side of Route 22, just east of Quentin. For more information, check out our website at www.sfdsjubileegarden.net/ !

Kristin Bird Speaker at St Francis - Celebrating Easter

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On  April 26, 27 & 28 we were blessed to have Kristin Bird speak to our parish community at 10:00am and 7:00pm.

Many people attended the in-person sessions as well as joined us through the St Francis de Sales Youtube and Facebook streams.  You can still log in and watch these.

Kristin shared her own personal stories and humor as she told us about the importance of sharing our own authentic stories with others, since in today’s world, the experience of others is highly regarded and valued.  People listen to our stories.  Kristin also shared God’s story from creation, the fall, and how Jesus came to reconcile us all to the Father and of course, how it’s up to us to choose to follow.   On her last day she shared how she experienced the love of God through the good council of a friend and a growing relationship with her husband and children.   She reminded us that we all have a story and how God is woven into our story.   We then had a chance to share some of our story in a discussion before we left the church.

A survey is being sent out to accumulate feedback. CLICK HERE

You can watch the 3 presentations through our Youtube and Facebook accounts. Links below.

Feel free to send any thoughts or comments to growdisciples12@gmail.com

Did you know SFdS has a Parking Lot Mass??

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Did you know that St Francis de Sales offers an outdoor Mass in our west parking lot?? 

Gather with us every Sunday at 11:15am in the church parking lot.  From the comfort of your car you can participate in our Mass, viewing our priest, deacon and lector and listening to Mass  broadcast on 89.9 FM on your car radio.  Holy Communion will be brought to each car.

We would love to have you worship the Lord with us on Sunday!

Hand-Carved Olive Wood Gifts from the Holy Land 

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Proceeds benefit Catholic communities in the Holy Land. 

The group that sells the olive wood from the Holy Land is not going to be in the parish to sell the beautiful figurines to help the Christian community in the Bethlehem area. The Christian carvers in the Holy Land are suffering greatly as the local government refused to assist them with any kind of funds. Therefore, the consequences are threatening to their existence. They are building hope on the Catholic churches to make a purchase from their group to put food on the table. 

Please visit their website: www.starofbethlehemart.com and try to purchase anything that would help substantially. 

Thank you and God bless you all.

Issam

Did you know that 600 Christian families are living in Bethlehem and are completely dependent on carving olive wood figurines for their livelihood? The recent clashes in the Middle East have stopped the tourism industry in Bethlehem, causing most of those families serious harm in earning their living and forcing many of them to leave their homeland. Christians having to leave the land of Christ has tragic consequences on the holy sites. Issam from “Star of Bethlehem Group” came to the United States with a mission to help those families by selling their beautiful religious hand crafts. The cost of goods goes to benefit the Christian carvers to keep them working in the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, the profit from sales goes directly to the needy Catholic schools and clinics in the Holy Land. Star of Bethlehem has been approved by many bishops and the diocese of Jerusalem. 

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Help Catholic Charities this Mother's Day!

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Give to be the Face of Hope

Today, our second collection will support mothers and children who reach out to Catholic Charities and lift-up our most vulnerable neighbors across Chicagoland who are facing extraordinary challenges right now.   Please offer your most generous donation to the second collection to help ease the burden of poverty, hunger, homelessness, unemployment, abuse, addiction or aging.

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Learn more or make a gift at www.catholiccharities.net text HOPE to 878787 or scan the QR code with your phone.