​FEB. 28 SPIRITUAL PILLAR MTG. AT BLESSED TRINITY CHURCH


PRESENT:
Sr. Maureen Harris
Marta Rodriguez Perez
Rafael Rondon
Mary Weisenburger
Deacon Paul Weisenburger
Palma Zanghi


ABSENT:
Joyce Davis
Rebekah Mingo
Betty Reiter
Leo Reiter


The meeting opened with a prayer led by Rafael Rondon.
Sr. Maureen Harris led the committee in a ten minute faith sharing.
The committee reviewed the Minutes from the previous meeting.


The committee reviewed an email sent by Betty Reiter suggesting that we move the Getting To Know You Event to the Fall. Sr. Maureen gave some suggested dates: Oct. 12, 19, or 26. She will contact Betty re. the best date for her and then contact Lanette and Pat re. booking space at Sts. Columba-Brigid  - one room plus one or two small rooms.   Sr. Maureen also mentioned the need to compose a registration form.


Re. our Three Year Plan, Rebekah sent word that at the Clergy Meeting, Fr. Bob asked her to submit the committee’s plan to him as well.


We discussed doing research on small faith-sharing groups and how to form them.  Mary said that she would try to find some books on the subject. It was suggested that the topic of faith-sharing groups be put on the agenda for next time so we can develop an understanding of these groups in order to be able to encourage our Family 21 parishes to develop them. 


Sr. Maureen and Marta presented the Family 21 Spirituality Resource List, which will eventually be handed out as a booklet.  The content of the list was discussed.  It was suggested that committee members should do more research and then have a further in depth discussion about the content of the List at the upcoming meeting.


We reviewed the suggested Mission Statement and approved it, especially the idea that our Mission is to support and publicize.  We discussed adding it to the Three Year Plan.  Rafael will share the Mission Statement with Rebekah and ask that it be added to the Plan.


NEXT MEETING:  Wed. April 10 at Sts. Columba-Brigid Church.

MINUTES FOR SPIRITUALITY PILLAR MEETING:  WED. JAN. 24, AT ST. LAWRENCE


PRESENT:
Sr. Maureen Harris, Rebekah Mingo, Marta Perez, Betty Reiter, Leo Reiter, Rafael Rondon
Mary Weisenburger, Palma Zanghi


ABSENT:
Joyce Davis and Paul Weisenburger


The Committee reviewed the Minutes from November 2023.
Rafael suggested we review our goals.
Rebekah stated that since the last meeting, our Three Year Plan has been revised with a new format and is ready to be submitted.  Next, we would be meeting to discuss how to implement our plan. Fr. Bob has stated that the Pillar Committees should continue to meet re. implementing Year 1 of their Plans.


Our Three Year Plan was read out loud and discussed.  The Plan cannot be implemented until it is approved, but we can begin talking about ways to implement it.  The Plan can be a fluid document with the potential for tweaking. 


Question: Whom should the Three Year Plan be submitted to for approval?  Rebekah said she would find out.


Suggested Changes to the Plan:
-      We added the Eucharistic Congress date – July 17-19 in Indianapolis. 
-      The “Getting to Know You” Event date should be changed to May 4th.
-      The “Prayer Partners” Program should be included under Year One Goals. The Committee already exists, led by Sr. Maureen; we will include it since we will be promoting it and encouraging participation.
-      The formation of small faith-sharing groups was suggested as something to promote and encourage to enrich spiritual life. This will be added as a Goal for Year 2.


We discussed the Getting to Know You/ God loves You Event:
-  We decided to invite adults and children/teens– a Family Event.
 - The date will be either Sat. May 4 or Sat. May 18. (Update: It will take place on May 4.)
-  Time: 10 AM – 12 Noon, lunch following (Betty’s decision.)
- It will take place at Sts. Columba-Brigid because of the availability of parking and both large and small rooms.
- THEME: Pentecost/The Holy Spirit
- The Registration Form needs to include space for parents to include the names, ages, and /or grades of participating children and teens.
- Since children and teens will be invited, Betty will ask Paula Hunt to participate, and Mary will ask Debbie Obstarczak.


There was a review of the Family 21 Spiritual Resource List compiled by Sr. Maureen and Marta.  Marta passed out the List as it is formulated so far.  Suggestions were made for additions.  Eventually the List, possibly in brochure form, will be available to everyone in Family 21.  Suggestions were made for its distribution.  It could be passed out at our May 4 Event, or it could be distributed at Masses.  If it is distributed at Masses, the suggestion was made that someone could speak about the List/Brochure at Mass and then it could be personally handed to people by ushers. 


Decisions were made about the Format of future meetings:
-      It was decided that the Opening and Closing Prayers will be led by the Pillar Representatives of the parish where the meeting is held.
-      It was decided that after the Opening Prayer, a 10 minute faith sharing will be led by Betty in Feb. for the first time, using a question such as “How have you been aware of God’s Presence in your life this past month?”


NEXT MEETING: WED. FEB. 28 AT BLESSED TRINITY AT 6:30 PM.


ADDITION: (as requested by Rebekah) Rebekah was advised that the Pillar Plans were to be submitted to the Administrative Pillar Committee, and so she submitted our Spirituality Pillar Three Year Plan to Terry Alford, who is the Pillar Lead of the Administrative Pillar Committee.  

​PRESENT: 
Sr. Maureen Harris
Rebekah Mingo
Rafael Rondon
Marta Rodrigues Perez
Joyce Davis
Palma Zanghi
Betty Reiter
Leo Reiter
Deacon Paul Weisenburger
Mary Weisenburger
 
Rafael handed out an agenda.
Becky handed out a revised Spiritual Life Pillar Family Plan, to discuss during the meeting.
Palma led us in prayer. 


Palma asked that, in the future, rather than mark someone as absent, to say, rather, that the person is excused. All agreed.


Rafael asked what format does our Pillar want to use to inform our parishes about dates for our activities, and to advertise those dates?


Joyce mentioned that we have to submit dates for activities to someone, to reach out to those individuals to clear our dates.
  
Becky mentioned that Pat and Lanette work on the F of P calendar.


Joyce shared that at the F of P LITE organizational meeting, the group decided to hold our F of P LITE retreat events on Thursdays at CB The dates chosen are: Feb. 15, 22, 29, Mar. 7, 14, and 24.  The format will include a Meal, Welcome, Intro, Speaker, Table Discussion, Story, and Closing Prayer.


These dates necessitated a discussion about our plan to hold a “Getting To Know You “ event near Valentine’s Day. We decided that we need to move this event to later in the year so as not to be in conflict or “competition” with the LITE evenings.


The group had a discussion about the future of our Pillar Family Plans when our three - year Goals are completed and we hand our documents in.  Who will “OK” our Plans? Who will implement our Goals’ activities? We decided that we should plan to implement our own Plan.  We all expressed frustration that the Diocese has not provided more guidance.


Becky described her process of updating the Year One Goals. Once those Goals are updated, we will become more specific re. dates for planned events and “how-to’s” and details for implementation.  Refining our Goals is what we are aiming at right now.


Joyce suggested that, once our Year One Goals are in place, we break the Goals into sections and then our committee can break up into Groups, which can each brainstorm details re. their section, flesh each area out. Also, after we hold each event or develop each project, we need to evaluate it.


We then reviewed our Year One Goals to decide if these were indeed the Goals we want, and various members volunteered to plan, coordinate, and implement each section of the Goal.


Betty Reiter already coordinates the annual Women’s Retreat.
Sr. Maureen Harris and Marta Rodriguez Perez will work on Spiritual Life Resources.
Joyce Davis will work on Communications and LITE. 


Palma observed that LITE will promote the Summer National Eucharistic Congress, to be held July 17-19, in Indianapolis.  One of our Goals should be to inform our parishioners sufficiently about this Congress. Respect Life will be included in the Congress.


In the Spring of 2024, we can have our “Getting To Know/God Loves You” event. Betty, if she is willing to do it, can choose a date.  We will need to get it quickly then on our F of P calendar.


We also discussed researching and promoting different forms of prayer and providing this information to our parishes’ leadership to encourage them to begin various types/styles of prayer groups.  We mentioned that we already have Rosary Prayer and Centering Prayer, and BT will have an evening of Taize Prayer in Advent, on Dec. 13 at 7 PM.


Palma voiced our Mission: to explore different ways to get across to our parishioners that our relationship with God is 24/7 rather than one hour a week in Church.  How can we explain the beauty and necessity of retreats to them, of different prayer styles? How can we encourage them to go in small groups to different Churches for special prayer events? And, as Rafael added, implementing this is a Long Game.


NEXT MEETING: Wed. Jan. 24, 6:30 PM, at St. Lawrence

In the last paragraph you wrote "We put our data". Did you mean to write "Rafael concluded the meeting by asking us to reflect on what we accomplished at the mtg, how we want to input our data, what we have done, and what do we want to do?" ​MINUTES FOR SPIRITUALITY PILLAR MTG. ON OCTOBER 25, 2023
Submitted by Mary C. Weisenburger, Secretary


PRESENT: (Sign-In List)
Mary Weisenburger
Dcn. Paul Weisenburger
Rebekah Mingo
Joyce Davis
Sr. Maureen Harris
Leo and Betty Reiter
Marta Rodriguez Perez
Rafael Rondon


ABSENT:
Palma Zhangi


Rebekah reviewed her notes from the Sept. Mtg. 
Rafael reviewed Fr. Bob’s notes from the last Clergy-Pillar Mtg.  He informed us that Pat Dyer is working behind the scenes to develop a common bulletin. One bulletin will eventually cover all our parishes’ events. That way we will know what everyone is doing – all the activities. 


Later in the meeting, we came back to this topic of a common bulletin.  We discovered that Pat does currently send out all of our parishes’ activities info, but currently each parish publicizes this info in a different way: in the bulletin, in a bulletin insert, or in one sheet posted on a Church wall.  The problem is that each bulletin has very little “space” as things stand now.  A common bulletin should solve this problem. We also discussed that currently each parish does have a website with a calendar listing all our FOP info.


Rebekah reviewed our Spiritual Life Pillar Plan, which is in the process of being developed.  We have already gathered info from all the parishes of what we have in place already, and Rebekah has organized this material into our Spiritual Life Pillar Plan with Year 1 Goals, which we need to schedule and communicate. 


RETREATS:
Currently, we have an annual Women’s Retreat in October, developed and led by Betty Reiter. 
NEW: Liturgy Ministries Retreat for youth and adults
           Men’s Retreat (it was suggested that Betty could either give input on this retreat, and/or develop it.)


Communication Plan: Flyers, bulletin, announcements, promoted by Spiritual Life Committee Members




ROSARY:
SMDP: previously every Sunday.  Parish Goal: possibly re-start every Sunday, every other Sunday, or weekly. Currently, it is recited every Mother’s Day.
St CB: Marta would like greater promotion of their multi-ethnic rosary on Zoom on Mondays at 7 PM. 
BT: has a Friday rosary on Fridays after the 11 AM Mass in the chapel.  Parish Goal: does the bulletin need to explain in greater detail where the chapel is?
STL:  has no regular rosary at present.  Parish Goal: Does there need to be a goal to re-start the Rosary at STL, and when?


FOP Rosary Goal: to organize info about every parish’s rosary day and time in one additional separate announcement, either to be sent to Pat or promo’ed by our committee so that anyone wanting to find a rosary devotion can go to this announcement and find it immediately. 


NOVENAS: no parish is currently doing Novenas.


EUCHARISTIC ADORATION:
At present, our FOP has Eucharistic Adoration on Holy Thursday at the conclusion of the Holy Thursday service. Should we make it a Parish Goal to offer Eucharistic Adoration more often?
At Sts CB, the friars have begun a First Friday Holy Hour at 6:30 PM, which includes Eucharistic Adoration, the opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and Night Prayer.  Marta and Betty will find out if there is any more info, which needs to be added to this.
FOP Eucharistic Adoration Goal: once parishes have established additional Eucharistic Adoration days and times, to organize all this info in one additional separate announcement, so that anyone wanting to find a Eucharistic Adoration can go to this announcement and find one immediately.


STATIONS OF THE CROSS: During Lent, every Friday except Good Friday.


PRAYER GROUPS: SMDP is trying to resurrect its Prayer Group.


BIBLE STUDY: 
Sts. CB:  every Sunday at 10 AM before the 11 AM Mass.
BT: Tuesdays at 4 PM Zoom.
SMDP: has a Bible Study Group.
FOP Bible Study Goal: to organize info about every parish’s Bible Study day and time in one additional announcement, either to be sent to Pat or promo’ed by our committee so that anyone wanting to find a Bible Study can go to this announcement and find it immediately.




LIFE IN THE EUCHARIST: 
Joyce Davis has done the Life in the Eucharist training.  She explained that our group should develop a sub-committee to eventually work with the Liturgy and Faith Formation Pillar sub-committees to plan events for our FOP.  Joyce will be meeting with Pat Dyer, Paula Hunt, and Olivia on Nov. 13 10:30 AM (correction) to start LITE planning. They will pull ideas from the LITE Planning Book. 


In order to better familiarize our Pillar members with the LITE Initiative, Rafael will invite Sr. Louise Alff to speak with us at our next meeting.




OPPORTUNITIES TO COMPLEMENT THE SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENT WITHIN FAMILY 21: 


NEW: TO PLAN A “GETTING TO KNOW YOU” EVENT FOR ALL FOUR PARISHES. 
We will choose a date near Valentine’s Day, using the theme ”God Loves You.” The event will begin with a Prayer Service in Church. Betty has agreed to help plan the Prayer Service. Then there will be a “food event” (potluck?).  The venue and further details will be planned at our next meeting, using a laptop or phone with the FOP events calendar.  Pat will be emailed our chosen date. 


SPIRITUAL LIFE PARISH RESOURCES;
Lenten and Advent Books
NEW GOAL: Develop an FOP Brochure/Pamphlet Resource listing books/devotionals/websites for spiritual enrichment. Joyce mentioned that she subscribes to The Word Among Us – she receives a new book each month. Rebekah mentioned the Website for Take Five For Faith


MEMORIAL EVENTS: We could develop a new emphasis on spiritually healing parish events centered on Bereavement, as many hospitals do each month. Parishes  could “celebrate” around All Souls Day by having a ceremony before or during Mass reading the names of parishioners who have died during the year while a family member or friend lights a candle in their memory. (StL did this for years, and SMDP did this in 2021. The Diaconate Community also does this.) We could also plan an FOP Spiritual Event centered on Bereavement. 


Edit: "Rafael concluded the meeting by asking us to reflect on what we accomplished at the mtg, how we want to input our data, what we have done, and what do we want to do?" 


NEXT MEETING: WED. NOV. 29 at STCB at 6:30 PM.

Submitted by a committee member:
​
Present: Marta Perez, Rafael Rondon, Betty and Leo Reiter, Mary and Paul Weisenburger
Absent:  Joyce Davis, Rebecca Mingo, Palma Zanghi

We began by discussing the last two meetings: The group had concentrated on sharing about themselves and their parishes so that the group could better discern what each parish's gifts were that could be shared with the other parishes.

We decided that each of us would share some unique spirituality events/programs that we would like to better publicize/have better publicized so that members of our sister parishes would feel welcome and encouraged to attend:

- Mary Weisenburger mentioned that she would like to better publicize St. Lawrence's devotion to Our Lady of Pescaseroli. St. Lawrence was founded by the Italian community, and one of the parish's popular devotions comes from a town in Italy, Pescaseroli,  where a vision of Mary was experienced. The Congrega Society - for both men and women - was founded to promote devotion to Our Lady of Pescaseroli, whose statue is in the Church. Twice a year they hold a special Mass open to the entire community across the WNY area and offer a lunch afterwards. Mary will ask Mary Pachla to make sure that the Masses are publicized for all our parishes.

- Betty Reiter, a graduate of the Catholic Biblical School and the certificate program in the CKS Pastoral Ministry program, passed out a slinger for the  Women's Retreat she will give: "Theme: Seeing God In All The Stages of our Lives." The retreat will take place on Saturday, October 14, from 8:30 - 2:00 pm at Sts. Columba-Brigid. Lunch will be provided. Cost: $15.00. Betty will get that information out to the parishes.

- We discussed how wonderful it would be if a Men's Retreat would be offered at one of our parishes, so that they would be encouraged to witness and share. Betty volunteered to speak with Deacon Don and Deacon Jerry, who would make excellent retreat masters for a Men's Retreat, as they are both Deacons and family men.

- Rafael Rondon mentioned that an older woman at Blessed Trinity has a Contemplative Prayer Group, and she is interested in having more members. She uses a book on Contemplative Prayer by Fr. Thomas Keating. We discussed how wonderfully unique this is - we are not aware of any other prayer group in our Family which teaches about contemplative prayer and has its participants pray in this manner together. Rafael was asked to ask this lady about her background and to have her write up a description of her group which could be shared with the rest of the Family.

- Rafael mentioned a segment on the Spirituality Pillar on the Diocese of Buffalo app which he says is worth watching. We decided that we would all watch this before we come together again. 

- Our next meeting is scheduled for Wed. Sept. 27 at 6:30 pm at Blessed Trinity.



Present: Marta Perez, Rafael Rondon, Betty and Leo Reiter, Mary and Paul Weisenburger
Absent:  Joyce Davis, Rebecca Mingo, Palma Zanghi

We began by discussing the last two meetings, which Paul and I had missed due to illness. Marta stressed that during the opening meetings, the group had concentrated on sharing about themselves and their parishes so that the group could better discern what each parish's gifts were that could be shared with the other parishes.

We decided that each of us would share some unique spirituality events/programs that we would like to better publicize/have better publicized so that members of our sister parishes would feel welcome and encouraged to attend:

- Mary Weisenburger mentioned that she would like to better publicize St. Lawrence's devotion to Our Lady of Pescaseroli. St. Lawrence was founded by the Italian community, and one of the parish's popular devotions comes from a town in Italy, Pescaseroli,  where a vision of Mary was experienced. The Congrega Society - for both men and women - was founded to promote devotion to Our Lady of Pescaseroli, whose statue is in the Church. Twice a year they hold a special Mass open to the entire community across the WNY area and offer a lunch afterwards. Mary will ask Mary Pachla to make sure that the Masses are publicized for all our parishes.

- Betty Reiter, a graduate of the Catholic Biblical School and the certificate program in the CKS Pastoral Ministry program, passed out a slinger for the  Women's Retreat she will give: "Theme: Seeing God In All The Stages of our Lives." The retreat will take place on Saturday, October 14, from 8:30 - 2:00 pm at Sts. Columba-Brigid. Lunch will be provided. Cost: $15.00. Betty will get that information out to the parishes.

- We discussed how wonderful it would be if a Men's Retreat would be offered at one of our parishes, so that they would be encouraged to witness and share. Betty volunteered to speak with Deacon Don and Deacon Jerry, who would make excellent retreat masters for a Men's Retreat, as they are both Deacons and family men.

- Rafael Rondon mentioned that an older woman at Blessed Trinity has a Contemplative Prayer Group, and she is interested in having more members. She uses a book on Contemplative Prayer by Fr. Thomas Keating. We discussed how wonderfully unique this is - we are not aware of any other prayer group in our Family which teaches about contemplative prayer and has its participants pray in this manner together. Rafael was asked to ask this lady about her background and to have her write up a description of her group which could be shared with the rest of the Family.

- Rafael mentioned a segment on the Spirituality Pillar on the Diocese of Buffalo app which he says is worth watching. We decided that we would all watch this before we come together again. 

- Our next meeting is scheduled for Wed. Sept. 27 at 6:30 pm at Blessed Trinity.



Present: Marta Perez, Rafael Rondon, Betty and Leo Reiter, Mary and Paul Weisenburger
Absent:  Joyce Davis, Rebecca Mingo, Palma Zanghi

We began by discussing the last two meetings, which Paul and I had missed due to illness. Marta stressed that during the opening meetings, the group had concentrated on sharing about themselves and their parishes so that the group could better discern what each parish's gifts were that could be shared with the other parishes.

We decided that each of us would share some unique spirituality events/programs that we would like to better publicize/have better publicized so that members of our sister parishes would feel welcome and encouraged to attend:

- Mary Weisenburger mentioned that she would like to better publicize St. Lawrence's devotion to Our Lady of Pescaseroli. St. Lawrence was founded by the Italian community, and one of the parish's popular devotions comes from a town in Italy, Pescaseroli,  where a vision of Mary was experienced. The Congrega Society - for both men and women - was founded to promote devotion to Our Lady of Pescaseroli, whose statue is in the Church. Twice a year they hold a special Mass open to the entire community across the WNY area and offer a lunch afterwards. Mary will ask Mary Pachla to make sure that the Masses are publicized for all our parishes.

- Betty Reiter, a graduate of the Catholic Biblical School and the certificate program in the CKS Pastoral Ministry program, passed out a slinger for the  Women's Retreat she will give: "Theme: Seeing God In All The Stages of our Lives." The retreat will take place on Saturday, October 14, from 8:30 - 2:00 pm at Sts. Columba-Brigid. Lunch will be provided. Cost: $15.00. Betty will get that information out to the parishes.

- We discussed how wonderful it would be if a Men's Retreat would be offered at one of our parishes, so that they would be encouraged to witness and share. Betty volunteered to speak with Deacon Don and Deacon Jerry, who would make excellent retreat masters for a Men's Retreat, as they are both Deacons and family men.

- Rafael Rondon mentioned that an older woman at Blessed Trinity has a Contemplative Prayer Group, and she is interested in having more members. She uses a book on Contemplative Prayer by Fr. Thomas Keating. We discussed how wonderfully unique this is - we are not aware of any other prayer group in our Family which teaches about contemplative prayer and has its participants pray in this manner together. Rafael was asked to ask this lady about her background and to have her write up a description of her group which could be shared with the rest of the Family.

- Rafael mentioned a segment on the Spirituality Pillar on the Diocese of Buffalo app which he says is worth watching. We decided that we would all watch this before we come together again. 

- Our next meeting is scheduled for Wed. Sept. 27 at 6:30 pm at Blessed Trinity.