Sunday Liturgy: 11:00 a.m., Tuesday Mass: 10:00 a.m.

Rosary: Sunday, 10:00 a.m., Narthex, &
Thursday, 6:00 p.m., Church Nave
Confessions: Sunday, 10:40 a.m., Reconciliation Room

The Church & Parish Office are open
Monday & Tuesday: 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Wednesday: 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Online map and driving directions to Parish 

Parish Bulletin for February 7, 2010
The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
(for a description of Ordinary Time click here) 

Please Pray for Pope Benedict XVI’s General Intention: That young people may learn to use modern means of social communication for their personal growth and to better prepare themselves to serve society.
   —To see all of Pope Benedict’s General Intentions for 2010, go to the Catholic Links page. 

Help for Haiti: Prayer and Special Collection— 
Last Sunday, we attached an envelope to the bulletin to facilitate a collection to financially help the people of Haiti. Please make your checks out to the Diocese of Pueblo – Haiti. Your donation will be forwarded to the Catholic Relief Fund through our diocese.

First Stained-Glass Window Installed—
on the evening of January 20, Doug Bayer and a friend, installed the main altar window that Doug designed and created in his Bayer Glass Works studio.

To see photos of the installation and a description of the design click here.
    

Important Dates: 
     • DMF Sunday: February 7
     • Youth Retreat: Retreat Weekend, February 13–14.
     • Ash Wednesday: Februay 17, a day of fast and abstinence, marks the beginning of Lenten Calendar.
     • Parish Council Meeting: Tuesday, February 23, at 5:00 p.m. in the Parish Center meeting room.
     • Altar and Rosary Society Meeting: Thursday, February 25, at 1:00 p.m.in the Parish Center meeting room.
     • Finance Council Meeting: Tuesday, March 30, at 2:00 p.m.in the Parish Center meeting room.
      • Worship Committee: Tuesday, May 18, at 2:00 p.m.in the Parish Center meeting room.

What is the DMF?— The Diocesan Ministry Fund is the main source of revenue that financially supports, strengthens and nourishes the many ministries and programs provided to all parishes and missions throughout the Diocese of Pueblo.  The DMF provides the much needed funding that serves over 100,000 Catholics covering 29 counties – over 50,000 square miles.
How much should I give?— This is a good time to reflect gratefully on how generous God has been to you and your family.  Your giving should be an honest proportion of your resources, which adequately reflects your gratitude for God’s own generosity to you.
    Please make checks payable to OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION and return your envelope to the Parish. If you choose to pledge, all subsequent checks should be made out to the Diocese of Pueblo and mailed to the Diocese in the envelope provided in your packet.

The OLA Parish Website Reaches a Milestone!— The visitation counter on the OLA homepage is on the verge of turning 10,000 in just 29 months! That's nearly 350 visits per month, which for our small parish, is truly an amazing amount of activity. As the webmaster, this response is very motivating and makes this a fulfilling ministry for me. So I'm offering a small thank you in the form of a contest: if the person who visits the homepage at the time the counter turns exactly 10,000 will send me an email at the address on the bottom of that page, I'll take their photograph after one of the Masses and include it in a brief story in the bulletin.   ––Ed Stewart. (Not fair to use the Refresh or Reload button to advance the counter!)

Altar and Rosary Re-Elects Slate of Officers— Mary Lou Koch, president, will continue to lead the OLA Altar and Rosary Society for 2010. Serving with Mary Lou for another year are Mary Kattnig, vice president; Jean Brook, treasurer; and Barbara Campbell, secretary. Shirley Kolarik is assistant secretary.

Altar and Rosary Accepting Scholarship Applications— The Altar and Rosary Society is now accepting applications for its annual scholarship program.  Graduating seniors in the class of 2010 from Custer County High School who belong to the parish are eligible. After reviewing applications, the scholarship committee of the Altar and Rosary Society will award up to $500 in scholarship assistance. Deadline for application is March 1, 2010.  Applications with further information are available on the table in the narthex.

Please pray for Natalie Wray, Braden Wilson and Patrick Mortenson— who will be receiving the sacrament of Confirmation this year.   Heavenly Father, You sent your Spirit to transform the Apostles into heroes of evangelical strength on the day of Pentecost. Thank You for granting that same Spirit to our children in the Sacrament of Confirmation. Pour down upon them the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit that they may more closely resemble Jesus and be an intrepid witness in the world to You and your Divine Son. Amen.

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Tony Di Dominico who died recently. Tony and his wife Marge were longtime parishioners here at Our Lady of the Assumption and Tony also served on our Parish Council for some time.

Website History Page Features Additions of Jubilee Photo Albums and List of Pastors—
Fr. James Golden Jubilee Mass photo album: from 1980 has been discovered in a box of old photos and each page has been scanned into a digital image. These 17 pages of images have been added to the history section of the parish website. Click here to go to the Parish History page, then read down the History page to the paragraph about Fr. James where you will see a link to his Golden Jubilee Mass. We also need help in identifying the people present so that captions can be created to accurately capture this part of our parish history. Instructions are provided on the Golden Jubilee webpage.
Fr. Louis Kirby’s Jubilee Mass Photo Album: the album was also discovered in a box of old photos. It has been scanned and placed in the History section of the parish website. Click here to go to the Parish History page, then read down the History page to the paragraph about Fr. Louis where you will see a link to his Golden Jubilee Mass.
List of Assumption Pastors: from 1880 to the present. Because there is some confusion of dates and references of assignments, especially during the 1940s to early 1960s that Fr. Louis was unable to clarify, we could use assistance from  parishioners of that period to provide additional information. Click here for a direct link to the list.

If you have photos of these events or other events that would help illustrate the parish history, please contact the parish office.

Helping Hands reports a growing need for funds to support critical financial circumstances among many families and individuals here in Custer County. During this period of a serious economic slowdown, folks are frequently turning to Helping Hands for help to pay bills, including rent and medical expenses. You can help by giving a cash donation, which can be placed, in the Sunday collection, made out to “Helping Hands,” or in the jar on the table in the narthex.
Please place your non-perishable donations to Helping Hands behind the white picket fence in the church narthex.

Please Bring Firewood for our Woodpile for the Needy— Helping Hands needs firewood to build a woodpile for the needy at the rear of the church parking lot. Drop off your donation anytime.

Prayer for Priests:

Dear Lord, we pray that the Blessed Mother wrap her mantle around your priests
and through her intercession strengthen them for their ministry.

We pray that Mary will guide your priests to follow her own words,
“Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).

May your priests have the heart of St. Joseph, Mary’s most chaste spouse.
May the Blessed Mother’s own pierced heart inspire them to embrace
all who suffer at the foot of the cross.

May your priests be holy, filled with the fire of your love
seeking nothing but your greater glory and the salvation of souls.

Saint John Vianney, pray for us.     (see link button “Year for Priests” at bottom of this page)

Icon Paintings: three icon paintings by Father William Hart McNichols have been added to the church nave so far. For their stories click here.
    The Montanos have generously donated for two of the icons, St. Isidore, the patron of ranchers and farmers, and St. Frances Cabrini. They wish to consider their donation a challenge to the parish so that the final two icons, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. Miguel Pro, might be purchased.
    Stained Glass Windows: Our artist in residence, Doug Bayer, has designed a series of stained glass windows which he based on the Book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22. The three windows behind the altar will represent the new Jerusalem where God and the Lamb of God are worshipped in eternity. The main altar window was installed on January 20, 2010. The twelve windows on each side of the church nave will represent the twelve healing trees fed by the river of Life in Revelation 22. We who gather in the church will represent, of course, the servants of the Lamb.
   Our wonderful friends from Texas have donated $32,000 for the three sanctuary windows. Each window in the nave of the church will cost $9,000. The round window, which will have a Eucharistic theme, will cost $11,000. They consider their gift of the three windows to be in the nature of a challenge to other parish members to complete the whole design of the windows.

Past Parish Events: to view photographs of noteworthy occasions from 2009, click here. To see photographs from the Dedication Mass on August 15, 2007, to the Christmas Season, 2008, click here. 

Explanation of the Liturgical Calendar: click here

For a list of Catholic-related links, click here.

To see all the homepage banner graphics used through out the church year, click here.

Announcements for the Church Bulletin need to be written and turned in by noon on Tuesday of each week to the parish office. Thank you for your cooperation!

Traveling? If you need to know where to go to get the Mass times of the local church, checkout www.masstimes.org or call 1-305-598-2867. Hint: much more accurate if you select the ZIP code of the parish or the city in the Lookups by Option box rather than entering the city name in the Enter Here search box. If you don't know the ZIP code, try going to google.com and entering the city & state. Usually in the list of the first 10 results will be a hotel, Chamber of Commerce, or other business site with an address with the ZIP code.