SMART GOALS
Coming in the Fall of 2024 – Children’s Liturgy of the Word at Notre Dame Church
We are very pleased to announce that Our Lady of Peace Parish is now planning to re-instate our Children’s Liturgy of the Word at our Notre Dame worship site during the 9:30 AM Mass.
The Children’s Liturgy of the Word is a Liturgical Celebration for children ages 4-9. It provides the children with a celebration of the Liturgy of the Word during Mass that is geared especially for them. It consists of hearing the three Sunday readings proclaimed using a special Children’s Lectionary, discussion, and sharing. Everything in the liturgy is adapted to their level of understanding so that the Living Word of God may be made real and present for them.
Children gather for Sunday Mass with their families as usual. After the opening prayer, the celebrant calls the children forward along with an adult leader and several adult helpers. The leader is presented with the Children’s Lectionary and the children receive a little blessing before processing to the designated room for their own Liturgy of the Word. The children then rejoin their families in Church prior to the Presentation of the Gifts during the Offertory. There they remain with their families for the Liturgy of the Eucharist and the remainder of Mass.
We are inserting a survey link below to inquire on your interest in this ministry and entertain volunteer opportunities. The success of this ministry will depend on the support and participation of parishioners and volunteers. Please complete this Our Lady of Peace brief survey by clicking on the link below to determine your interest in sending your children or grandchildren to our “Children’s Ministry Program” in the future.
Coming in September 2024 – Creating an Our Lady of Peace Youth Mass
For the past year, our Next Generation Parish team has been planning on starting a Youth Mass to begin during the fall of 2024. The goal of this new ministry is to strive to bring our middle school and high school population closer to Jesus. The designated “Youth Mass” will have middle and highschoolers act as ushers, Offertory gift bearers and readers of the Word and the Prayer of the Faithful. The Youth Mass will alternate between Our Lady of Peace and Notre Dame de Lourdes worship sites. We believe by integrating our youth community into Mass, it will lead to strong involvement in Mass celebrations and other parish activities. If you have any interest in supporting this ministry in any way, please contact Andrew Knob at his e-mail address of aknob731@gmail.com
Coming in the Fall of 2024 – Our Lady of Peace is Building a Professional Usher’s Team
During the last six months, our Next Generation Parish team has been planning to recruit a dedicated and professional Usher’s Team for the fall of 2024. This important and visible ministry is seeking men, women and teenagers to assist at one of our four parish Masses each weekend.
Ushers will participate during the Mass by:
1. Greeting parishioners before Mass,
2. Standing ready to assist parishioners, especially with medical emergencies 3. Collect the in-pew offertories among other tasks.
Parishioners who exhibit the spiritual qualities of joy, patience, kindness, goodness and especially faithfulness are encouraged to inquire about this up-coming ministry. If anyone has any interest in supporting this ministry in any way, please contact Bob Thorp at his e-mail address of thorprf@yahoo.com
On-Going Enhancement of Our Lady of Peace Music Ministry and Adult + Children’s Choirs
Under the professional leadership of our music ministry Director, Kathryn McDermott, our parish continues to strive to enhance our various liturgies with beautiful sacred music. During the latter half of 2023, our parish reinstituted our Adult Choir now directed now by Gladys Luciano, an accomplished and talented musician. Gladys has been brought on to assist our Music Director. Our adult choir sings at three Masses per month and rotates between our two worship sites. Kathryn has been engaging professional instrumentalists that enriches the worship experience monthly with trumpet, harp, and tympani at various high masses during the year. We are seeking to recruit more children for our Children’s Choir. Anyone interested in joining our Adult Choir or your children joining our Children’s Choir, please contact: Gladys Luciano at e-mail address bggbib4@aol.com
Parish Coffee Socials to be Held Each Month at our Notre Dame de Lourdes Church Site
For the past year and now in 2024, Coffee Socials have been a very successfully ministry held each month at our Notre Dame de Lourdes Church site. These socials provide an opportunity to build a welcoming fellowship opportunity amongst parishioners. Our parish coffee social is held immediately following the 9:30 AM Mass in the St Joseph’s room at the Notre Dame de Lourdes School site that adjoins the church building. What’s been very promising is that there have been over 50 + parishioners attending these socials and the numbers continue to increase. Our plan is to try and grow this ministry even during the summer months when feasible and which will be announced ahead of time. Due to the lack of available appropriate space at the OLP Church campus, there has been no coffee social planned at this time. (but we’re working on it!) Anyone interested in volunteering their time and talents for this important ministry should contact Deacon Bill Koniers at e-mail address dnkoniers@olpparish.org
Growing Our Lady of Peace Parish Discipleship by Building our Parish Ministries
Our Lady of Peace parish community has a special role in promoting the participation in the life, mission, and work of our parish community “To Know Jesus, to Love Jesus and to Serve Jesus”. In addition to our Liturgical / Pastoral ministries, OLP has over a 100-year tradition of offering a vast array of active ministries that encourage parishioners to commit their time and talent to many activities to support our parish mission. These ministries provide an on-going opportunity for evangelization within our parish and to the local community overall.
During the Covid-19 outbreak, many ministries were suspended out of extreme caution to minimize the spread of this virus, we are now again preparing to rebuild our historically important ministries in three steps:
1. Below is a 4-question survey polling our parishioners to determine interest in OLP’s past, present and future ministries
2. Establish a “Ministry Leader” for each ministry based on the results of our survey 3. Host a Ministry fair next year. (2025)
If you have any immediate questions, please contact me (Jackie Basquill) at my e-mail address jbasquill@comcast.com
Growing Holiness in Our Parish
Our Lady of Peace clergy and volunteer community are always striving to connect with our parishioners both spiritually and pastorally. We are always striving to foster holiness in the future by implementing four specific goals. We are very pleased to inform our parishioners of our planning goals:
#1 Our clergy will strive to increase their visibility and relationships with parishioners thru announcing outside “Fire Pit” discussions. Last Fall’s gatherings were very successful. Tuesday evening Masses at OLP at 7:00 PM (September thru June) have been instituted immediately following our Benediction liturgy beginning at 6:30 PM. We are especially excited to soon introduce A website portal named “Ask the Clergy” will be created for our parishioners so that they can send questions of any sort about our Catholic Faith or any other questions pertaining to our parish or the archdiocese can be answered in a timely basis.
#2 Pre-Baptism classes are now in place with parents of 1st time, newly born infants. Our RCIA Program will be entirely re-vamped during the late summer of 2024. A team will be created along with a clergyman who will oversee the program. Start date could be September/October 2024. Finally, a Pre-Cana Team to prepare couples seeking marriage in our parish will be created during the Fall of 2024.
#3 A study of a future parish census will provide statistics that will give us data to initiate parish-based programs for those who consider themselves on the fringe of parish life such as separated/divorced Catholics by the fall of 2025.
#4 Our parish under the leadership of Mary Totino, a Social Worker for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is creating a Parish Care Team to reach out to parishioners to offer a caring and compassion to parishioners who have been impacted by all difficult circumstances of life.