St. Peter's is Debt Free & Plans for New Future

Benjamin Franklin said, “Watch your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves”; while Blessed Mother Theresa said, “I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.” I truly agree and believe as Blessed Mother Theresa. When we put God and faithfulness to Him first, everything works out for our good and God provides. God has certainly provided the last couple of years through the generosity of St. Peter parishioners to accomplish great and mighty deeds.

I am sure when I talked at all the weekend masses less than two years ago about the lofty goal of retiring the parish debt in two years; most thought I was crazy. Here we are, less than two years later and that dream is a now a reality. We have much to be grateful while we realize our not being in debt came at a great cost; we no longer have our beloved school. Although having the parish school would have always been my first choice and where my heart lies, I cannot help but believe God is bringing or will bring joy out of our sorrow by the realization of a new church for St. Peter’s.

I would like to thank and recap all we have accomplished in such a short period of time. Please do not think I attribute any of these accomplishments to myself. I believe they all occurred as a direct response from God to the prayers of all the faithful during 1st Friday Adoration, daily mass communicants, and the Sunday liturgies. God heard our prayers and responded in a most powerful way. Not only have we succeeded in the retirement of the parish debt but we have also accomplished the addition of daily Mass on Thursday mornings and Adoration being extended to 24 hours between 1st Friday and 1st Saturday. We have almost completely remodeled the rectory, painted the interior of the church, replaced all of the light fixtures and have installed a new furnace. The parish grounds are gorgeous and being beautifully maintained. There is new carpeting in rooms of the parish center and a new parish website which over 500 people visited three to four days prior to Christmas.

Parishioners have come together to creatively launch the means to buy down the parish debt by establishing the annual Taste of St. Peter’s, the Knight of Columbus pig roast, mum sale and various fund raisers such as the Bears ticket raffles. The manna program was graciously continued to benefit the parish debt reduction. All of this has been realized by the pouring out of God’s grace and your response to help our parish family. I hope you can look at all of our achievements and see with awe what God has done through you.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Dennis Wojcicki for his service and dedication to the finance committee for over 20 years. Dennis, your contribution to the committee will be missed. I hope you will continue to help the parish as we look to the future.

Thank you all for everything you do for St. Peter’s and in God’s name. With His guidance we will consider and implement our parish’s future plans.

God bless you.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Slawek