Dear SJV kids, we hope you all are well settled in your schools and performing well in your studies. Your schoolwork is to prepare you for when you become an adult and take on a job, to support your own family.
Do you know what jobs Jesus had? Jesus learned to be a carpenter from His father Joseph but later He became an extraordinary Teacher.
There are many references in the Bible to Jesus as “teacher”. In fact, He started teaching at the age of 12. The 5^th Joyful Mystery of the rosary is, “Finding Jesus in the Temple.” His parents first thought Jesus was lost, but later found Him teaching and debating the Scriptures with priests and learned people of the Temple. The twelve disciples also called Him teacher for He was constantly showing them how to shepherd His people and lead a holy life.
We all have many teachers in our lives: our parents, teachers at school, our elders at home, and Priests and Religious Education teachers at Church. We should always try to see Jesus in our teachers and show our attitude of gratitude by listening to them and respecting them every day.

  In Genesis Chapter 2, God places man into the Garden of Eden to cultivate and care for the garden.  Man became the steward of God’s creation, to care for the blessings that God has given us.
   For the past several years much of the maintenance of the parish had declined.  Some was due to finances some was due to insufficient volunteerism.  However, the parish has recently retired some debt and reduced our cost structure and volunteerism within the parish is on an upswing.
   Over the last few weeks, there have been a lot of physical changes made.  The office has been rearranged and refurbished, the rectory has had a facelift, the pavilion has been cleaned, sidewalks have been re-laid and there has been lots of painting, cleaning, rearranging and planting.
   Almost all of this work has been done by volunteers.  We have a number of ministries in the parish that maintain the grounds, clean the church, plan the events, and the Knights of Columbus seem to be everywhere!
   There is still more work to be done, and not near enough volunteers to get it all done.   You are the stewards of SJV, so show your attitude of gratitude by physically, financially and spiritually helping the parish to flourish.  

Throughout the Gospels, the one disciple that is most prominent is Peter. Peter was the first to acknowledge Christ as the Son of God, Peter is the one that speaks for the others, he is also the one that Christ entrusts the Church to.

Was Peter perfect? No way. In fact, it takes a long time for Peter to "get it", Peter doesn't always know which way to go, Christ rebukes Peter, Peter denies Christ but Peter al­ways loves Christ and Christ always loves and forgives Pe­ter. Throughout the Gospels Peter demonstrates leader­ship.

To love Christ one must be able to show leadership. Some are called to serve in leadership positions either on the Parish staff or on one of the parish Finance, Steward­ship or Pastoral advisory councils. Others are called to lead a particular ministry. All are called to lead by the example of our lives.

Peter wasn't always right but he was never afraid to step up in service to His Lord. He knew that leadership means being active and participating. We are all being called to lead, in our prayer, in service and in giving. Show your atti­tude of gratitude by generously answering your call to lead.

For the three years of Jesus public ministry, he and his disciples traveled together throughout Judea. We have nu­merous stories of healing, exorcism, miracles and sermons.

Have you ever considered that the stories from the Bi­ble, don't really make up three years of time? For three years, the disciples followed Jesus, listening to him, praying with Him and learning from Him. Jesus spent the last 3 years of his life teaching the Apostles how to follow Him.

For 2000 years our faith has been taught in much the same way. Each of us teach our family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances by the way we live our lives.

Some of us are further called to share the faith through formal education programs. At SJV we have Religious Edu­cation, Vacation Bible School and Youth Formation for our young people. We also have Adult Bible study, Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and Landings for returning Catholics. All of these programs pass on the faith to future generations.

We each have the responsibility of sharing our faith with those around us, please consider showing your attitude of gratitude by joining or helping in one of our teaching minis­tries.

Stewardship Corner

Dear SJV kids, we hope you all enjoyed your summer vacation and have had a pleasant start to the new school year! Please remind your parents that Religious Education classes will begin Sep 11 (Sunday) and Sep 14 (Wednesday).

This time of year there is often a lot of change – new schools, classes, friends, teachers, neighborhoods, even a new pastor for SJV! Sometimes people have a hard time dealing with change. Sometimes we think that change is a result of our actions. Sometimes we think we can control change.

In reality, we don’t really control change. God permits change to occur, all we control is how we respond to the change. This is evident in Proverbs (3: 5-6), “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.”

We don’t always know why God lets change occur, but we have to trust that God has more wisdom than we do. Most often, God allows change to happen so that we grow from the experience, and as we grow our faith grows as well.

If you are struggling with change, ask God to help you learn to deal with the change in a way that is pleasing to Him, and show your attitude of gratitude by thanking God for the change that takes place in your life!