Dear Brothers,

Summer Notes Schedule.

Our next scheduled Notes from the Provincial Council will be on August 13. This will also begin the regular publication schedule.

Personnel

Assignment(s) are effective with the publishing of the new personnel book.

Preparing for the Personnel

We are in the FINAL proofing stages of preparing the new Personnel book. Please check your personal and community listing from the current personnel book. If there are any errors in the listing (including phone numbers and email addresses), please email Ann Mueller by the end of business on Friday, July 31.

Province Donor Thank You Gatherings

Recognizing that our world is still in a dire situation, the Province will postpone the fall donor events (San Antonio and St. Louis.)  We will decide at a later time whether we offer these in the spring/summer or wait until next fall. There are too many unknowns to try and decide now. Please remember to give thanks for our donors and the many different ways that they support our mission.

Marianist Lay Assembly

I was very happy to see the number of brothers from around the Province that participated in the Marianist Lay Assembly. I found the topics to be varied in nature and the speakers to be engaging. Remember we are all part of the great Marianist Family.

Provincial Council Planning Days

The Provincial Council thanks you for your kind words, emails and, most importantly, for your prayers. This has been a time of prayer, reflection and recreation.

Surviving in the COVID-19 Era

Please click here for helpful resources on surviving in this time of COVID.

This Coming Week

Dear Brothers,

Prayer Requests

Invitation

I invite you, if you would like, to write down in one sentence advice that you would pass on to our seminarians preparing for ordination. Please send this directly to my email (since Terry Eversole is on vacation) by Sunday, August 2. I will use these sentences in one of my conferences for our seminarians for reflections.

Upcoming Calendar

Dear Brothers,

To Listen, to Learn and to Act

Members of the Lalanne Community in Los Angeles, in collaboration with the Lalanne Young Adult Group, have prepared discussions over the past weeks on racism. Each evening more than 40 participants on Zoom (some Black, some Asian, some Hispanic and about half Caucasian), sequenced the topics for each week as follows: (1) expressing, uncensored and not judged, what we were feeling; (2) what we needed to learn; and (3) what practical steps could each of us take to begin or continue to address the issue of racism. Let us pray that these important conversations on racism continue around the Province. Thanks to Bro. Dave Murphy, Fr. Ken Templin and Fr. Jim Heft for their leadership in assisting in the animation of these important engagements.

Summer Stories of God in Our Midst

This week’s reflection is submitted by Christine Spinner , Campus Minister and Service Coordinator at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. Christine responded to the question, "how have you seen God in your midst as you have worked with your students during this pandemic?”

These last 12 weeks have certainly been an "adventure". With my family, together at home, I have continued to go back to "my mission".... spreading love to everyone around me. These expressions of love have been found in baking/cooking together, playing board games, praying as a family and calling to check in on family and friends. I call it getting back to basics.

Like all teachers and campus ministers, I have had to be more creative than ever before. The thing I miss most about being at school in person is the day-to-day connections we make...smiling and saying hello in the hallways...students and staff members stopping to talk in my office. I realized quickly that I needed to see the faces of "my STVM family." I started a daily Instagram LIVE "show” called THREE O'CLOCK LIVE. It's a 10-minute talk show where I interview students, alumni and staff members to catch up on how they are doing. After the interview, we pray the "Three O’clock Prayer" together. The show has a nice following of people of all ages and it has given me hope for the future! So many of our viewers have told me that it's just nice to "see" members of our community. It's the smiles and faces that we miss the most! Praying the "Three O’clock Prayer" together is a little piece of "our normal" that we all miss so much and the show allows us to do just that!

Please pray for our Brothers who are celebrating their birthdays

July 30: Paul Metzger, Robert Politi

July 31: James Facette

August 2: Brandon Paluch

August 3: Joseph Markel, José Ramirez

August 5: J. Donald Cahill

August 6: Frank O’Donnell

August 7: Norbert Burns, Jerome Matz, Justin Quiroz

August 9: Robert Flaherty

August 11: Edward Brink

August 12: Raymond Fitz

July 29-31: Provincial Council Planning Days, MRCC, Eureka, MO

This publication is for members of the Society of Mary. Please do not forward it. Also, please provide a printed copy for brothers who do not use email.

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