Ministry Galore!!!

Faithful can subscribe to the notes by contacting the parish office and providing their e-mail address. Thanks for your support of our border town parishes!!!

Please remember - Fr. Pete does not send out text messages, e-mails or social media posts to solicit

funds for himself or any organizations outside of the parishes he serves. Fr. Pete's emergency phone

number is (815) 685-1359 and his e-mail addresses

are either pjankowski@yahoo.com or pjankowski@stfrancis.edu.

Please do not trust any correspondences that

utilize any other phone number or e-mail address.

THE TERM FOR THIS SCAM IS "PHISHING,"

IN BOTH ENGLISH AND SPANISH

Feel free to contact Fr. Pete at email pjankowski@yahoo.com. If you have an emergency, please contact Fr. Pete at (815) 685-1359

As we reach the end of August, we just celebrated the last of our FIVE quinceañeras and TEN baptisms for the month at our parishes. There are so many good souls with so many needs… and just one priest! We minister to ALL of you and WE LOVE ALL OF YOU in God’s name, no matter who you are! Please do not forget this…

I would like to thank everyone who benefited from our Amazon Food Extravaganza on Friday. Periodically, our friends at Amazon are able to provide a whole slew of food for the needy. In this particular case, we received over FOUR HUNDRED meals that were given to the good souls of this area, many of whom are in great need.

St. Patrick’s Parishioner Paul Bukowski was kind enough to drive up to Manhattan, IL to pick up the motherload of lunch packs, carnitas,  corn & beans and salad for our parishioners. After delivering all the food to the St. Pat’s basement (thank you Artemio Ojeda for helping us get the food to our basement!), our food journey began with feeding the Momence Police Department prior to one of their meetings today. Later on, the Momence football team (thanks to Diane Marcotte for helping us out!) who was going down south for a couple of games stopped by for some food and drink. We made sure that our food pantries in the area were stocked up and then Diane Rumback from the Momence Food Pantry stayed to help us distribute the rest of the food.

The first good souls that came through the door were from St. Anne. Within half an hour, the rest of the food had been distributed. FOUR HUNDRED meals in half an hour! Go figure.

God bless Amazon! God bless Nick Skokna! God bless all the good souls in East Kankakee County!

Thanks to Grand Knight Jim Meyer and the Knights of Columbus Council #7984 and their GREAT WORK in serving the faithful of our community, especially at our parish, in the city of Momence and specifically at Good Shepherd Manor, where the Knights serve those most in need of God's mercy in the best way possible. If you are interested in joining the Knights, contact Jim Meyer at kcgk7894@gmail.com.

The Knights of Columbus decided to serve all ministries at the 10:30 a.m. Mass on August 30 and serve coffee and donuts following the Mass. We are so blessed with their service and dedication to the Momence Community and all they do!

We started a campaign to re-do the parking lot and set a goal of $60,000. Presently, we have about $11,500 towards that goal but we think that good news is forthcoming.

Tom & Crystal Klonowski took the parking lot project one step further and asked if they could hold two special breakfasts to support the cause on September 6 and 20. Through their hard work, Tom & Crystal found a way to get all the food donated towards this cause. There is no formal charge for the breakfasts – all they ask is that our good souls consider donating to the parking lot as a way of supporting the parish.

Much thanks to the anonymous donor who gave us $1,500 Donation of Electric Vigil Lamps that can be used each year at the St. Anne Novena and Feast Day. The cost of candles has TRIPLED in the last five years and the use of electic candles will allow us to honor those with loved ones who we need to remember while protecting our beloved Church at the same time. We must be doing something right...



BOTH PARISH CAMPUS RECEIVED A 100% SAFETY RATING BY THE INSURANCE OFFICE OF THE JOLIET DIOCESE!!!

Over the last year, Artemio Ojeda and a good number of souls have helped us with upgrading a few areas on our St. Anne Campus and addressing building issues that had serious need of care. Over at our office, the major storms this year took its toll on the roof of the house. Wally Martin, Bill Powers and a group of their workers were giving us an estimate towards replacing windows at the house (to the tune of $33,000… YIKES!).

We also noticed that major damage over the years took its toll on our church building. When I asked roofer Rafael Hernandez to inspect the gutters of the church last Spring (where we found even more gunk!), he noticed that there was major damage on the back wall of our church. It took a while to find a licensed Masonry Specialist to handle a project like this. After a bit of a search, Licensed Masonry Expert Eric Dudeck was kind enough to pay a visit to us. He told us that this problem most likely existed for years, as water crept under the gutters into the back of the outer bricks of the church, causing major structural damage. We caught the problem in time (we think!) but That project will run us just under $7,500 to repair (Eric donated $2,500 of his services to the parish - THANK YOU ERIC!!!).

If there is any way our good souls from the Border Town Communities can help finance any of these projects, we would appreciate it. Thanks to Debby, our Finance Committee and certainly the diocese, we think we have a handle on the issues we are addressing

Finally… in the Notes last week, we asked for help in donating grocery bags so that the ladies of our St. Pat’s Council of Catholic Women could make further blankets and mats for the needy (we have distributed hundreds of these blankets to needy causes over the years, including the Centro Vilaseca Daycare Center in Joliet, pictured). Upon hearing about our need, Business Manager Debby Absher visited one of the local Meijer Grocery Stores, who donated over 1,600 bags to the cause. Thank you Debby and thank you Meijer Grocery Stores! (We included the picture of the boxes of grocery bags with the GIF from last week).

Coming up next is Religious Education and our Border Town Picnic on September 13! God bless all of you who have supported what we have been trying to do!

As my birthday gift to you, I spent $1,800 out of pocket to purchase what is called the “Formed” Adult Education Program for your consideration. As summarized by AI, FORMED is an online digital platform created by the Augustine Institute that provides Catholic movies, video courses, audio talks, study programs, and e-books. Often called a "Catholic Netflix," it is designed to help individuals learn about and practice their Catholic faith. THIS SERVICE PROVIDES ONLINE CATECHESIS IN BOTH ENGLISH & SPANISH!

Key Features of FORMED

• Content Library: Features thousands of hours of content on Scripture, the sacraments, the lives of the saints, and church history.
• Trusted Partners: Includes resources produced by the Augustine Institute alongside materials from Ignatius Press, the St. Paul Center, Word on Fire, and Lighthouse Catholic Media.
• Access Options: Available via individual subscriptions or through local parish accounts that often provide free access to parishioners.
• Compatibility: Streamed through web browsers, mobile phones, tablets, and TV devices like Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire Stick.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THEIR WEBSITE

CLICK HERE TO SIGN-UP FOR FREE

(WE ALREADY HAVE PAID FOR THE SUBSCRIPTION)

As referenced at the beginning of these notes, our local Council of Catholic Women are looking for grocery bags so that they can continue their ministry of knitting mats for the poor and needy in our area. I included pictures of the Centro Vilaseca and Sr. Araceli Perez, who runs a daycare center for low-income families of Joliet. Over the years, we have donated hundreds of knitted plastic blankets for the needy in both our area (donated to the Food Pantries) and in Joliet. We also have donated thousands of cases of food, clothing and such to the needy of Kankakee and Will Counties. In this particular case, if you can help us by bringing your plastic grocery bags to the parish offices, we would much appreciate it.

As the good souls of St. Anne’s have told me they the “core group” that ran our local Fish Fry dinners and our annual Rummage Sale no longer can run these events, we are in the process of working with our “next generation” of parishioners to help us out. We were a little too late to start a Rummage Sale at Anne’s this year but over at St. Pat’s, Leigh Ann Sokoloff is getting ready for St. Pat’s Rummage Sale in September. More information is forthcoming on the sale.

I have been a little negligent in working on this project – the parking lot project is going so well (we completed a church parking lot bid at $100,000 in 2019 for less than $57,000 and completed stage one of a 2019 bid of $330,000 for $25,000 – for which our good souls paid; the second part of the project would be a $65,000 asphalt purchase – feel free to donate anything or everything to help us out with this!) and St. Anne’s parking lot is coming along nicely as well (we raised over $10,000 towards our $60,000 goal). Now we have to work on the Raffle. If you can help us with this, we would appreciate it.

You may have noticed this year that I have not been running a “full court press” on our 50/50 Border Town Picnic Raffle on September 13, which is up to $1,500 for the First Prize, $500 for the Second Prize and $250 for our Third Prize. To be honest, things have been going so well at both parishes that we have been focusing on parking lots and other repairs (we recently had to repair the rectory roof which had been damaged with years of water leakage and about $10,000 to repair a church wall for the same reason). So many good souls have been very generous of their resources to help us out at both parishes – we are so grateful for all the help we are getting!

Now that the picnic is about three weeks away, perhaps we should try to focus on what we are doing. The picnic begins with a 10:30 a.m. bilingual Mass at St. Patrick’s Grotto (weather permitting), followed by Polka and Easy Listening Music by the Ray Koncar trio and Old Time Rock ‘n Roll by the Fender Benders. Leigh Ann Sokoloff if working on the Rummage Sale (there will be no Rummage Sale at St. Anne’s this year). We also will have our games for the kids, caterer and parishioner Kyle Volek on the grill (along with the Taqueria el Country Food Truck), and so much more! The more tickets we sell for the 50/50 Raffle, the higher the prize; tickets are located in the entranceways of our churches and at the parish offices.

Among the raffle prizes in store are a 50” Samsung Class M70H AI Companion Smart TV (I purchase this each year to broadcast our previous Picnic Online Masses) and an Apple 11-inch A16 chip, 11-inch Model iPad, courtesy of Law Rae Farms. We will be selling tickets for these Raffle Prizes in upcoming weeks.

As I finish writing these notes, Sonia Fonseca (our secretary ESPECTACULAR) and Debby Absher (our Finance Director – she’s pretty good, too!) wrote me about them helping Nick Skokna unload yet another hundred cases or so of Cheetos and Lays Potato Chips in preparation for our Border Town Picnic on September 13. Nick Skokna (who helps us get all this food) tells us that we will be the recipients of TWO HUNDRED POUNDS of pulled-pork ready to serve meals at the end of the month. We have no idea how blessed God is being to us in our little periphery Churches of no great esteem… but God sure loves us!!!

I also would ask you prayerfully to consider helping us with whatever donations that you can. Maintaining our buildings and property has been quite a task lately. Your contributions are essential for the well-being of our parishes. St. Anne’s needs to maintain a $2,000 weekly collection to maintain her well-being; St. Patrick’s needs $3,000 weekly. We would be doing a service to future generations by considering a will or estate planning gift for each parish as well.

That said... because of everything that took place at St. Anne's this weekend, for the first time in my seven years leading that parish (outside of Easter and Christmas), the Sunday Collection this weekend at St. Anne's netted the parish over $2,000! For this parish, THAT IS SPECTACULAR! (NOTE: we need $2,000 a week at St. Anne's and $3,000 a week at St. Patrick's to stay afloat - St. Pat's had to "loan" St. Anne's $20,000 last year to pay for salaries - thanks to the good folks at the golf outing, we were able to pay St. Pat's back!).

As you also know, as we plow forward with our parking lot projects at both parishes, we are blessed at St. Anne’s that we have reached past our $10,000 mark towards our $60,000 goal. St. Anne’s once had a large parking lot because it was not maintained, weeds and such destroyed it over the years. In addition, we also had to deal with a crumbling outside wall from years of water damage at the St. Anne’s Church building, as well as major damage with the house and office roof – we had a major water leak in our kitchen, a victim of severe damage from the storms. I give thanks to God and Wally Martin for having his good folks addressed the issue on Monday so that the rectory house was protected from the storms that took place later in the week.

The first phase of the gym parking lot has been completed. Thanks to the good folks in the city, took the grindings from Second Ave parallel to our church and laid them in the back lot; a company took away the excess dirt away at no cost! The cost for Phase #1 was $25,000 which miraculously we covered this month!

Concerning Phase #2 of the project, the bid for putting asphalt down on the back of the gym parking lot would be $65,000 but we first need to allow what we laid down as a foundation to settle, most likely for a year. We are in no rush in moving towards Phase #2 of the project – we did not think that we would get past Phase #1!!!

Pictured below are Kyle Volek, Edward Counts and our "Birm Brigade" who seeded and netted our new "Birm Garden" that we formed by our parking lot, placing "car stops" along the way to protect the birm. Next week, the company that installed our church parking lot will return to create an entryway for cars to come and go on Market Street, as well as cleaning up the sidewalk down Market Street.

There was no way we were even thinking where we were going to get one parking lot, let alone two. I just remind myself that the original price for the parking lots from six years ago was $100,000 for the one behind the St. Patrick‘s church building and $330,000 for the one behind the gym. The one by the church got cut down to $57,000 and the one behind the gymnasium got cut down by a factor of 2/3. The one for the church got paid with donations. The first $25,000 for the second lot was paid as well. Not bad for a small “periphery” church of no great esteem, so to speak.

Second, Campus Projects and the Capital Improvement Accounts

This week at St. Patrick’s, our air conditioning system went out… again! One of my predecesors went on the cheap with the last system – when it is working, few can hear the lectors or priest at mass because the system is so loud and many of the units are leaking or have stopped working altogether. We spent $40,000 last winter on replacing the church boiler that broke down; generous donors came forward to install generators on our property (hopefully this will get done by the end of the summer) and creating two parking lots that I personally thought would never get addressed.

Over at St. Anne’s water damage has corroded one wall in the church from what I was told had been at least ten years in the making. The repairs to the outer wall will run just under $10,000. We used to have a parking lot across the hall which, due to neglect and lack of funds, caused the lot to become corroded. We might have a way to address a portion of the lot at little to no cost but we probably will need $60,000 to re-do one portion of the lot to make it nice.

Regardless, the Capital Improvement accounts at both parishes have taken a hit and we will need to replenish them if we wish to continue functioning as parishes. If you can help us with any or all of these projects, please contact the office.

Proximo Travel asked me to lead a one-week Pilgrimage to Mexico and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On behalf of those I serve, I was honored to take on this role for our parishioners.

If you are interested in joining us on this One-Week Pilgrimage to Mexico, please CLICK BELOW!

https://www.proximotravel.com/trip-store/?action=trip_registration&tripid=17667

As we have had to navigate a few major storms this Spring, a couple parishioners suggested that we check the roofs of our buildings to see if the storms had caused any damage to what we have. I thank Mr. Rafael Hernandez for coming down to St. Patrick’s and St. Anne’s to clean out our gutters, install “leaf guards” on our gutters and to trim a few trees that were hanging over our buildings.



In the course of these inspections, we came to find out that at St. Anne’s, a corner of our building has endured a bit of damage from what I have been told resulted from “leaky drains” that got under the outside bricks of the church over the last decade or so and is in desperate need of repair. So far, the estimates coming in for the damage are just under $10,000; this work needs to be done to preserve our church. If anyone can help us offset the cost of the repairs, please contact the parish office.

Earlier this month, we encountered pretty bad damage in our kitchen at St. Patrick’s Rectory. I guess a “P-Drain” in one of the upstairs bathrooms had corroded after years of use, causing sewage to drip into our kitchen ceiling. John Cousin and the nice folks at Cousins Plumbing repaired and replaced the P-Drain at minimal cost. Then, Robert Piquet and his son from Vista Painting came to repair the ceiling. Just FYI, Vista Painting repaired TWO of the inside church stucco walls for the price of only materials, painted accent walls in both rectories, painted the St. Anne House Chapel and so much more! Robert was so kind as to offer his services that I felt it right to include his contact information for anyone is the area would might want to utilize his painting services.

To contact Vista Painting, e-mail rob.vistapainting@gmail.com or call them at phone (815) 272-3455.

Because of THREE SNOWSTORMS which swept through our area this winter, this has wreaked havoc on our finances, since we did not make up the finances in our collections needed to keep up afloat. Thanks to a couple of my "friends from the outside" who donated $3,000 total to help St. Anne's Church.

Please remember… the budgets that our Finance Committees established last June only work if St. Anne’s collects $2,000 a week in her collection and $3,000 a week at St. Patrick’s. We have been blessed that a couple major donors have assisted us in keeping the ships afloat but, if you can, please remember that the “Online Giving” Portal is always open Online and we continue to encourage you to remember St. Anne’s & St. Pat’s in your Will and Estate Planning. With a new bishop coming into the area later this year, a new bishop brings new and different ideas – let’s not let the bishop think about St. Patrick’s or St. Anne’s for a long time!

If any of our farmers might consider donating something “when the time comes” as part of an estate gift, if someone who attends our St. Anne Novena helps us maintain that Novena through a foundation gift, we would be well-served to allow the Lord to work through our communities to offer the same grace as has been offered since the 1850s.

Click Here

to Access

the St. Anne Novena Page!!!

MASS FOR THE 23rd SUNDAY

IN ORDINARY TIME (SEP. 6, 2026)

As he was reflecting on the scripture readings for this Online Homily, Fr. Pete was reflecting on the writings of St. Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202) and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), two theologians that believed that we, as a human race, are evolving in our relationship with God yet, based on the empty seats in our worship spaces and the closures of Churches throughout the world, Fr. Pete wonders if our faith society is still experiencing the metaphorical "terrible twos" in our relationshp with God, constantly saying "no" to God when our answer should be "yes." This year, Fr. Pete theorizes that he has preached on this gospel some FORTY times in his priesthood (at least ten times on Sunday and thirty times during the weekday readings). Have we learned the lessons from our gospel readings that our Lord warns us to follow?

At the end of this Online Mass, we offer Fr. Pete's "Tour of the Church" videos (including the Narthex, the Nave and the Sanctuary) as first produced almost a decade ago for the University of Dayton in Ohio. We also provide highlights from our St. Anne's Day Celebrations on July 25-26.

MASSES IN SPANISH

• St. Patrick's CCW is looking for grocery bags to knit Mats for the Homeless. Please contact the offices if you can help donate grocery bags or help knit mats.
• Proximo Travel asked Fr. Pete to advertise a Pilgrimage to Mexico City and Guadalupe from November 14-20; this is in preparation to welcoming Fr. Diego Maximino to the parishes for a Guadalupe Mission from December 9-12.
• This Year’s Border Town Picnic takes place on Sunday – September 13 starting with a 10:30 a.m. bilingual outdoor Mass at St. Patrick’s. The Polka Mass-ters and the Fender Benders will provide music for the event. As the St. Anne’s Rummage Sale will no longer take place (the servers are getting on in years), Leigh Ann Sokoloff will coordinate the Rummage Sale at St. Patrick’s. More information to come in August.
• If you could help us sell our 50/50 Progressive Raffle Tickets (whose first prize will be drawn at the Parish Picnic on September 13th), there are tickets in the entry ways of the church and in the parish office - $10 a ticket or 6 for $50. The Grand Prize at this moment is at $1,750… far beyond last year’s total!
• Jackie Bruhn from St. Anne’s inquired about upgrading our parking lot at St. Anne’s (which, I guess, used to be paved but weeds and such took control of the pavement). We have set a goal of $60,000 to pave one small area of the pavement. Jackie asked that we place envelopes in the St. Anne Novena mailing that will go out shortly and she will discuss the project at the May 30-31 Masses.

For Catholic Daily Reflections (based on the scripture readings of the day),

CLICK HERE!!!

CLICK HERE to Access the Readings for This Sunday's Mass

1973 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1981 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1986 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1993 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2004 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2006 St. Patrick's Academy 100th Anniversary Book

2010 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2016 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

2023 St. Patrick's Church Photo Directory

1960s St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

1970s St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

1989 St. Anne’s Church Photo Directory

1998-2004 St. Anne’s Photo Directory

2023 St. Anne's Church Photo Directory

• The production of Papal Blessings has been suspended for the time being due to the installation of the new pope. Now that the Website is Open for Acquiring Blessings, we have sent the following requests to the Vatican to Honor these Special Unions...

If you would like to receive a papal blessing for a milestone anniversary, please contact the parish office.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR OWN APOSTOLIC BLESSING!!!

Fr. Pete offers the Anointing of the Sick at both parishes at the First Friday Masses every month (St. Patrick’s at 9:15 a.m. and St. Anne’s at 5:00 p.m. (English) and 7:00 p.m. (Spanish).

To View St. Patrick's Bulletin for

SEPT. 6, 2026

CLICK HERE!

To View St. Anne's Bulletin for

SEPT. 6, 2026

CLICK HERE!

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR SICK: Rick Blanchette, William Brown, Mike, Ashley & Jesse Childress, Mike Cronk, Maria DeLeon, Dave Fieramosca, Herve Gomichon, Linda Goodman, Don Hout, Gustavo Lopez, Jesus Ariel Lopez, Bernardo & Linda Miramontes, Evelyn Provost, Art Schmidt, Frank & Louise Shainauskas, Ruth Sparenberg, Cynthia Vickery, Joe Wielgus and all those on our sick list.

At St. Anne's... Eva Bell, Paula Bertrand, Lola Billings, Duane Blanchette, Sue Bonvallet, Cheryl Boswell, June Burns, Cindy Capriotti, Ashley & Jesse Childress, Abraham Daily, Aria Dionne, Carol Futcher, Raelynn Garrett, Val Lagacy, Pam & Bentley Lottinville, Linda Miramontes, Josh Odelson, Ruth Sparenberg and John Wojnowski.

At St. Patrick's... P. Anderson, N. Atkinson, R. Bailey, D. Barth, Beedle Family, D. Brown, M. Cárdenas, P. Caro, B & E. Coffman, S. Conner, M & D Cousin, M. Cruz, A. Delaney, M. Dionne, J. Dobbins, E. Duke, D. Dunlap, G. Field, C. Fritz, A. Fuhrmann, Judy & Ron Gall, Tony & Adrianne Gallinaro, J. Grill, R. Harper, K. Hensa, J. Hibbs, D. Hiller, C. Jones, L. Kane, R. Kazee, A. Kijewski, Joe Kraus, L. Lee, L. Leranth, E. Lopez, B. Love, J. Marcotte, W. Marten, J. McCracken, L. Mercado, R & V Morse, C. Ortman, C. Piec, J. Prather, C. Provost, E. Provost, P. Reising, D. Roberts, M. Saldaña A. Schaff, J. Schopf. D. Schmied, K. Simpson, B. Siwicki, B. Spagnola, M. Tolbert, M. Tolmer, H. Tousignant, M. Velazquez, M. Williams, Gary Witherell, M. Witherspoon, S. Young, J. L. Zagal, A. Zimmerman, M & L Zink and G. Zokal.

CLICK HERE TO READ ALL OF FR. PETE'S HOMILIES

CLICK HERE for the Parish

Registration Forms in English

(CLICK HERE for Spanish)

CLICK HERE for the Religious Education Registration Forms FOR BOTH PARISHES (CLICK HERE for Spanish)

Click Here to Register for the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (CLICK HERE for Spanish)

Click Here for the Time

& Talent Form in English

(CLICK HERE for Spanish)

Click Here for the Link to All the Parish Forms

Help support our parishes buy purchasing copies of Fr. Pete’s Homiletic Books! You can purchase them at the parishes or online at Amazon.com!

Cycle A Homilies - Cycle B Homilies

Cycle C Homilies

Call the Offices at (815) 472-2864 or (815) 427-8265 for more information...

Since 2019, We Have Raised Over $250,000 in Pew Donations!!!