As you visit church, the construction on our church continues. The classroom and pantry addition floor slab has been placed. Windows and the interior work have begun. The main entrance canopy is beginning to take shape. This results in the loss of use of our church social hall until further notice. So as a reminder, our General Meetings are scheduled to be held at the JFK Council Hall located on 33320 Kelly Road. We will not be able to have any Pancake Breakfast or Euchre events until after Easter. We have also canceled our fish fry events for Lent this year. Our Planning Meeting will remain in the conference room at SPOT.
We have had another Brother called home to the Lord. Ben Candela was called home on December 27. Ben first became a Knight in 1963. Ben was active in our council and our parish. Thank you to Phil Mularski for leading the rosary. Thank you also to George Loewen, Jeff Gapczynski, and Hank Leflere leading decades of the Rosary, and all who attended.
Please welcome the newest member to our council, Rob Amsler. Rob is our first Knight to go through the new degree ceremony. At the Winter Diocesan meeting, attended by our worthy DD, Deputy Grand Knight, Financial Secretary, Membership Director, Rob’s Sponsor, Ted Czarny and myself, we saw the new exemplification ceremony. All three degree’s in 30 minutes!
We have just scheduled our first council exemplification ceremony here at St. Paul of Tarsus. The first date is February 8. The exemplification is also open to the public and especially to family members of prospective Knights. The exemplification ceremony is a very solemn and spiritual event and is structured to be held in our church after the 4:00 pm and 11:30 am mass. The ceremony is open to all new candidates, and all current Knights who have not yet attained the third degree. Our second date is scheduled for Saturday, April 18 after the 4:00 pm mass. All new candidates and current Knights who have not yet attained the third degree are encouraged to attend one of these beautiful ceremonies with their family and friends. Thirty minutes with family and friends is a wonderful way to fully participate in this new exemplification into the Knights of Columbus. Please contact Phil Mularski or Mike Hartel to register for one of these exemplification ceremonies. Keep up the good work and continue the effort to ask your Catholic brothers to consider joining the Knights and help us with our charitable works and fraternity while strengthening your faith. We will have information packets available in the gathering space next to the Holy Family Statue binder.
To conduct the new exemplification ceremony we are forming a council degree team. Please see the sign-up sheet at the next meeting or contact the Membership Director or Grand Knight for more information.
As we begin to prepare for Lent, we will also have sign-up sheets for our upcoming MI (tootsie roll) Drive on Palm Sunday weekend. Please plan to help our council help those who cannot help themselves. This is one of the signature activities for the Knights of Columbus!
Due to the ongoing construction at church, we have rescheduled our annual pot luck from March to June. This may actually be a better time to hold our pot luck since June is the last month of our fraternal year and March is typically a very busy time for the council and church due to Lent. It is not too soon to begin planning for our spring officer elections. Please contact Tom or myself to dis-cuss your interests and we can also advise on some of the opportunities for leadership with YOUR council.
Please consider signing up to receive the Holy Family Statue at Mass in support of Vocations. The list is very short. We need some more families to sign up. Most importantly, our prayers are needed to support voca-tions! Please note that this is open to all families of the parish. Mention that to the people you sit next to at church. The binder is located in the church gathering space. Thank you!
Thank you to all of you who have been at the meetings regularly. Please consider calling someone you haven’t seen for a while and ask how they’re doing. See if they’re in need of a ride or friendly reminder when the next meeting takes place.
Vivat Jesus,
Mike Hartel
