Hand Made Crafts!

Posted on April 27, 2022 by Emily Morris

We have exciting news around our parishes. Beautiful hand made crafts are both going on sale, and also coming for free at St. Joseph and St. Mary chruches.

Crystal’s Rosaries!

Crystal Nicklaus is crafting incredible detailed rosaries for us, and she is even offering them for FREE! Work like this takes a lot of talent and dedication, so donations for her work is gratefully accepted too. See the details below;

Elle’s Pottery!

Some of you may remember that the St. Joseph breezeway was home to the sale of beautiful hand-made pottery and jewlery over the holiday season. Elle is proud to continue hosting the store in the breezeway, and will be continually adding new pieces to keep things fresh! She will be stocking up on earrings, which became a crowd favorite, and can’t wait to show off the rest of these items as well.

Her store operates on an honor system. Customers are to place the money in an envelope marked “Elle’s Pottery” and drop it off at the mail slot in the office. Each item is labeled with the asking pricePlease do consider purchasing something, or even just giving donations. She is putting an incredible amount of time into these, and all the profits go directly towards helping the parish grow.

Please support these wonderful artists, so that their talent may continue to spread joy to our churches!

Every bit of support matters. Thank you!

Blue Nun Fun!

Posted on April 23, 2022April 13, 2022 by Emily Morris

ANNOUNCEMENT
The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Blue Nuns) invite you to be a part of our Associate.
The meeting usually takes place on the first Saturday of the month, but for the month of May we will have the meeting on
May 14th, 2022 @ 11am
at the Convent/MRC
New Members are welcome!

My Parish App

Posted on April 22, 2022 by Emily Morris

Did you know that all things church related can be viewed all in one place? St. Joseph and St. Mary are on My Parish! Father’s Homilies, messages from our parish, event times, mass times, holiday times, prayer lists, act of contrition, podcasts, discussion forums and even more can be found all in once place!

Are you sick of calling the office every time you need more information? Tired of saving bulletins or notice that some info is missing from them? By using My Parish: all of those problems are no more. It is updated every week, so it is the number one place to go for all your religious needs.

If you haven’t signed up for this yet, you will definitely want to now. We are currently updating all of our mass times and regular events on the app- to provide parishioners with all the info they need. Did I mention that this app is completely free and supports your church 100%? Because it does: and that is awesome! If you need help setting up your new account, please follow the instructions below.

Download Instructions:

First visit the Apple App store or Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.michiganlabs.myparish

Type into the search bar “my parish”
When you are met with the screen shown below, tap “install”
Wait for it to download- then locate it on your phone’s home screen

4. Next, you’ll want to add your parish to the list so that you can see all the current info related to the church you regularly attend.

5. There is a small icon of three lines in the top left corner, tap this to continue,

6. Next, your screen should resemble the one below,

7. You want to tap: “Find a Parish”

8. Now enter the name of your church;

St. Joseph and St. Mary Parishes
229 W Washington Place

9. Add this result to your favorites by selecting: “YES”

10. You will need to make an account if you have not done so already, but don’t worry, it is completely free and easy to navigate

* Remember to write down your password somewhere! *

11. Customize your screen to suit your needs, with large font and color options, and optinal additional info about you

With all these steps completed, you are finally ready to start your adventure on My Parish!

Welcome aboard!

RUMMAGE SALE 2022!!!

Posted on April 15, 2022April 12, 2022 by Emily Morris

Harmony United Methodist Church

2600 W. Pearl City Rd

Freeport, IL 61032

(815) 233-0057

Our Mission:

To know Christ and to make Christ known

Portions of the proceeds raised will be used to support mission locally and around the world!

Dates: May 4-6 [Wed-Fri] 8am-4:30pm

May 7 [Sat] 8am-11:30am

We have something for everyone!

Tools, clothes, toys, kitchen supplies, furniture,

EVEN LUNCH!

Harmony United Methodist Church - Worship Sundays 9:30AM

Happy Easter!

Posted on April 12, 2022May 18, 2022 by Emily Morris

April 16th is Easter Vigil

We will have mass at St. Joseph at 5:30pm

Mass at St. Mary will be at 7pm

April 17th is Easter Sunday

We will have Mass at St. Mary at 8am

Spanish Mass at St. Mary will be at 12pm

Mass at St. Joseph will be at 10:30am

We “hop” to see you there!

Join us April 21st for Movie Night!

Posted on April 12, 2022May 18, 2022 by Emily Morris

Join us April 21st

6-8pm in the St. Joseph Rectory

We will be watching episodes 5 & 6 of “The Chosen”

* Past Witness Statments *

The Host’s Opinion

“I have viewed the entire 2 seasons of ” The Chosen” multiple times, The actors, writing, scenery and clothing which is used in this series really transports the viewer to those days of the apostles. Each episode portrays the human and divine mysteries of our Lord. I look forward to sharing this with all of you!”

– Colleen Fenn

The Witness Opinion

“In The Chosen, the words of Hebrews 4:15 come vividly to life. Rather than being difficult to approach, I see that Jesus truly is ‘able to sympathize with our weaknesses…’ having “similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. Seeing Him this way, I am better able to approach Him, whom I owe so very much for dying for me, He who makes even a difficult life so very joyful.”

– Valerie Eilers

“The Chosen” started off as a tiny passion project, and with the help of generous contributers, it soon became a full fledged series with two seasons and more on the way. This film series is truly blessed. There is no doubt that God and Jesus would be proud of how Their deeds are represented in these episodes. This show helps believers reaffirm their faith, and it also introduces non-believers to a fresh new perspective on the biblical stories written by the many followers of Jesus. We can all admit that the Bible can be difficult to read without a guide- and so this show strives to tell the story with characters and themes that we are used to in a more modern storytelling fashion. This way, people can more appreciate the human being behind Christ that existed in our world alongside us so long ago.

If you haven’t seen this series yet- this is your chance to start! If you would like to continue the series after you’ve seen the first few episodes, the instructions for where to watch are displayed below!

Watch it on Prime Video, VUDU, Vudu Movie & TV Store, Apple TV or BYUtv on your Roku device;

https://www.roku.com/whats-on/tv-shows/the-chosen?id=22211048a0cc5d83938fb6a064d64dc6

EASTER LILIES

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Emily Morris

As long term parishioners know, St. Joseph and St. Mary have offered Easter Lilies to buy around this time every year. Our new secretary was not made aware of this news in time to prepare for ordering flowers. We will still have artificial ones, but the real lilies will be offered in a limited quantity. We have the usual forms prepared in the back of the church if you would still like to order flowers before the holiday.

If you have any other questions regarding this, please contact Father Barr at (815)232-8271 Ext. 7

If you would like to order flowers directly on your own, you may look up Deininger Floral Shop.

Florist in Freeport, Illinois Service options: In-store shopping · Curbside pickup · Delivery

Address: 1 W Main St, Freeport, IL 61032

Phone: (815) 232-6191

“I offer my most humble apologies for handling our holidays here at the church with a lack of understanding. There are many aspects about my job that I am still learning as time goes on. Hopefully my mistakes will help me to become successful in the long run. If I am still the parish secretary in the next year, I will pour my heart and soul into making sure that all of our wonderful traditions here are continued and made even better. Until then, I hope you can forgive me. I couldn’t feel worse about this, so I will do anything and everything I can to make up for it. I’m doing my best. Thank you for giving me the chance to be here.”

-Emily