Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, April 13, 2025

You may have noticed that the stained glass window broken by the burglar who took Mary’s golden crown has been repaired. I am still in regular contact with the police who are still working on solving the theft of the crown. Recovery of the crown is not hopeless, but every day that passes makes it less likely. But the police still assure me that there is hope.

In the meantime, the stained glass is repaired. I am amazed that it looks just like it did before it was broken.

As you will read below, our capital campaign is flourishing. We will raise the money we need to do the repairs that are necessary to keep our amazing church open.

The crown was beautiful and it had an amazing history, but we can still do God’s work without it. The crown was evidence of our ancestors’ love for God and Mary. We need to show our love for God by loving our neighbor, welcoming everyone and continuing to tell the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.

There will be a powerful and practical training on the habits and skills of missionary discipleship. The three session course will help you to deepen your relationship with Jesus and learn how to accompany others into Christ’s love. The course will be held at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center, 222 N 17th Street from 8:45-11:45 on these three Saturdays: April 26, May 3 and May 31. It is free for Saint John’s parishioners with this discount code SJE2025.

Detail info about this event at phillyevang.org/EVENTS/

Earth Day, 2025

I was in high school when I first heard of Earth Day, an annual commemoration about caring for the environment, for the earth which is our common home. It is held each year on April 22. We are blessed at Saint John’s to have an active Laudato Si Circle, named after Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical on the duty of Catholics to care for the environment.

Our Laudato Si Circle will give away potted flowers on the steps of our church on April 22 from 11am-1pm. This is a reminder to passersby that it is Earth Day and that we Catholic love and cherish Mother Earth. All are welcome to be present for our parish Earth Day outreach. Just showing up and offering moral support will be appreciated. Our Laudato Si Circle is also planning an activity for students at Holy Redeemer School.

Archbishop’s Pastoral Letter

At Saint John’s, we have been busy with our capital campaign and have not yet begun in earnest to study and implement Archbishop’s Pastoral Letter on evangelization and renewal. However, this is a major initiative for this Archdiocese and we should support it. Evangelization is the most important thing we do as the Catholic Church. I urge you to do the following for now:

Read the Archbishop’s pastoral letter. It can be found at trustandhope.org
Take an online survey at https://portal.catholicleaders.org/dmi/survey/xpy126
Attend the Go Make Disciples workshop that is described in this bulletin column.

I can’t urge you strongly enough to get involved. We at Saint John’s are a little late to this important initiative, but in the coming weeks, we will be fully engaged. For now, read and then respond to the survey.

Capital Campaign Report

Our capital campaign is ongoing. We ask everyone to make a sacrificial donation to do essential repairs to our electrical system, upper church air conditioning and deteriorating patio which houses our mechanical systems. Saint John’s can’t function without these systems. Please see our website for more information: stjohnsphilly.org

So far we have received $170,531 in donations and an additional $31,000 in pledges. We have nearly $203,000 total. As we said in our campaign brochure, we need $400,000 because we expect about $600,000 from other sources. Of that $600,000 we now have $575,000 collected and on hand. The rest of the anticipated early pledges are coming; in fact, they are likely to exceed my early predictions.

Counting only money already received (excluding pledges) we now have $745,531.

More than half of our donations come from Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church parishioners. Holy Redeemer parishioners are being extraordinarily generous to their mother church.

Our capital campaign is doing well, but we still need everyone to participate with a sacrificial offering. Our project is going to cost more than $1,000,000.

stjohnsphilly.org