Hello Business,

Like last Sunday’s readings encouraged us, we are prompted again to have faith and trust in God with the added grace of trusting in God’s timing for restoring and healing us and those we pray for, like the parents in the Gospel. “Do not be afraid; just have faith.,” is what we have been commanded to believe. With the knowledge that not even death can separate us as the Risen Lord.

Watch Fr. Bill's homily from last week.

Livestream Mass Sundays at 11AM on our Facebook page.

Mass Intentions

+ Marvin Baecker

+ Joseph Poehlman Stuyesant

+ Kathy Lee

+ William T. Phelan

+ Kathleen Bernert

Notes from Fr. Bill:

Last Wednesday evening, we were honored to welcome five Buddhist monks from the Gaden Shartse Monastery in southern India. These monks are followers of the Dalai Lama. They came to familiarize us with their faith and to teach various forms of meditation. Through meditation and a vigorous way of life, the monks are striving to attain a sense of peace, compassion, humility, joy and love with all people and to live in harmony with the environment. These are qualities which are familiar to Catholics, since that is what Jesus teaches us in the gospels. As Christians we are called to live in love and peace with others by virtue of the saving acts of Jesus and the grace we receive through the sacramental life of the Church. Buddhists, on the other hand, are aiming towards similar behaviors and attitudes but through meditation and a rigorous life style.

The Roman Catholic dialogue with Buddhists has come a long way since the initial conversations of St. Francis Xavier and the Ven. Ninshitsu in the Sixteenth century. In 1996, for example, Buddhist and Catholic monks met at the Trappist Abbey in Gethsemani, Kentucky—Thomas Merton’s monastery—at the request of the Dalai Lama, who, as a young monk, had met Merton there.

At the end of their visit with us, the monks expressed their deep gratitude for our parish’s warm welcome and hospitality. I was very impressed with their quiet, gentle manner and their commitment to living our their faith with dedication and authenticity. I pray for the continued fruitfulness of their teaching and wish them a safe journey home. 

Fr. Bill

P.S.

The monks gave me and the parish a Khata scarf this evening.

“Khata, also spelled as Khada or Hada, is a special silk fabric scarf in the traditional etiquette of Tibetan people. It represents goodwill, auspiciousness, and respect, and is deeply embedded in the social and religious customs of Tibet.”

​My reflections from the meditation exercise with the Tibetan Buddhist Monks

The monks talked about how all people are looking for happiness, peace, compassion, love.

But to actually grow those qualities in our life, we have to stop thinking about acquiring or taking for ourselves. Our focus on taking needs to be replaced by a focus on giving.

They taught us practical postures to help us stay in a prayerful meditative state. There are seven of these postures and while they described them, I practiced them.

After that we focused on our breathing.

We began to imagine and realize that we love all sentient beings, all humanity and creation and want to bless them with joy.

We began to breathe out, imagining white light of compassion, peace, love and joy...

Then we began to breathe in, imagining the dark gray smoky light of stress, unhappiness, anger, strife that others need to get rid of, and filter it through us to turn it white.

I equate this with ways I often pray (some call this centering prayer) knowing that while I am focused on others in love, the Holy Spirit will fill me with new insight, compassion, understanding. Through this prayer process I am the one that is changed, and I come to realize my enemy is not my enemy anymore.

What a peaceful prayer process we watched last night.

Betsy Taylor

Upcoming Events and Opportunities:

Living as a Stewardship Parish

I might be repeating Fr. Bill’s quotes... I do because they have a huge impact on me, and I live by them. Fr. Bill always says: “All that we have is a gift from God; we do not deserve it, but we have it.” That is how I feel about being part of Resurrection and serving as Business Manager in the Parish Office: I do not deserve it, but it was given to me by God, and I do not take it lightly. I am thankful every day for having this job, being around people that are more than awesome, and getting to be able to talk about my Faith during my workday.

As we go through budget season and finalizing the parish budget, I am thankful for something else: You. Resurrection Catholic Parish’s parishioners are big part of the budget. Because of your support, year after year, we are able to balance our budget, even as the costs of living—which impact our parish, as they do each family—continue to rise. Budgeting helps us to be wise in the way we use our resources. Money actually grows by good stewardship (not on trees), allowing money to multiply. (Proverbs 13:11). You trust us with your resources, and we take that seriously. Our job is to use your resources of treasure wisely and with great responsibility.

Every year, we work hard on finding the most economical resources for our expenses (such cleaning companies, internet, phones, etc.). We want to keep our parish at a level that is welcoming to you. And we work hard to do that while making sure we are finding the best resources at the best prices. 

This year, we will be upgrading our cameras on campus again, to get a wider view of the parking lot as well as to cover the new gym building. We are working on more safety projects, and we will share those with you soon.

Our staff brainstorm continuously on how to offer more to our community, without spending more. And the ideas always flow:

Betsy always comes up with awesome ideas... (why don’t we do a dessert potluck at our dinner).

Marcus has great suggestions too (why don’t you use me to play the piano at your dinner, I am here anyways).

Irene is always working on finding good resources. She always seems to have a friend who can help.

Fr. Bill loves and supports our ideas.

We would like to say that we appreciate all you do for your parish, and we DO NOT take it lightly. We will keep working hard to make sure what God has given us is multiplied and shared.

“God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth’” (Gen. 1:28a). 

Maya Bashoury

Business Manager

Hand in Hand Funds Request Information

During the next fiscal year (July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025), a portion of Offertory donations will be set aside for Charitable Giving and work of our ministries, through the Hand in Hand fund. As a Stewardship Parish, Offertory Giving will be the primary means by which parishioners support the good works of our parish.

Parish ministries are invited to request funds to assist them in charitable projects/programs. Click above to request Hand in Hand funds for the next fiscal year.

When submitting your request, take into consideration the projects that you are intending to do in 2024-2025.

All you need to do is mention how much you are requesting for your upcoming projects for the year and how you intend to use the funds.

Please complete and return one form per project/program back to Maya Bashoury at mbashoury@rcparish.org by June 30th, 2024.

Requests will be reviewed, and approval/disbursement of funds will be allocated based on what the budget allows.

Mary Katsilometes, our parish iconographer, continues her holy ministry of writing icons for Resurrection Catholic Parish. Recently, she completed 14 Stations of the Cross for our parish community. This endeavor took her two years to complete. She gave these icons to the church freely.

In Sacred Scripture, we read that a worker deserves to be paid (Luke 10:7). Throughout Lent our parishioners generously contributed to Mary’s support to assist her in continuing to write icons for us. As shown in this picture, Mary is now writing our new processional cross which will be consistent with our large icons of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. To complete this work, Mary relies on the support of our parish to meet her living expenses. I invite you to continue assisting Mary by contributing to our Icon fund on the parish Resurrection Icon website or you may write a check, note “Icons” on the memo line, and place it in the collection.

Thank you for all that you do in supporting our parish ministries.

May God bless you in many ways.

Fr. Bill

WeShare Icons

Upper Parking Lot Announcement

Part of the upper parking lot (behind Rossman Hall and in front of the office) will be paved the week of July 8^th- 12^th. During the week, there will not be any parking in the upper lot area. For Masses on the weekend of the 13^th and 14^th, there will be a small number of parking spaces available in the upper parking lot with limited egress. We strongly encourage the use of the lower parking lot and the use of the elevator. The upper parking lot will be open to all parking on July 15^th.  Thank you for your consideration and patience during this project.

Pope Francis- Laudato Si On Care For Our Common Home

In 2015 Pope Francis issued his second encyclical on our home and environmental challenges. This

“Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home is the new appeal from Pope Francis addressed to "every person living on this planet" for an inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. Pope Francis calls the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges and to join him in embarking on a new path. This encyclical is written with both hope and resolve, looking to our common future with candor and humility. 

The title is taken from the first line of the encyclical, "Laudato si', mi Signore," or "Praise be to you, my Lord." In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. The encyclical is divided into six chapters which together provide a thorough analysis of human life and its three intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor, and with the earth”

The Resurrection Conference of St. Vincent de Paul meets on the second Sunday of the month from 9:45pm to 10:45pm in the Fireside Room. Everyone is welcome! Our next meeting is Sunday, July 14th.

We are thankful for the food and other household items that you donate to the pantry every week. We can always use canned fruit and we would also appreciate small bags of flour and sugar, juice, canned stew and cereal right now. 

In May we delivered food to 11 families, 54 people. We supported 17 households, 51 people, by paying $3,000 in rent and utilities.

Resurrection Catholic Parish School News

Resurrection Catholic Parish School

Welcome! RCPS is ENROLLING NOW for Preschool 3s through 6th Grade! Learn more about our school here.

School Updates:

As enrollment grows, our mission is to offer the benefits of a Catholic Education to any family who would like their children to receive one, regardless of financial circumstances. When you make a gift to our parish school, it enables us to open our arms even wider and offer tuition assistance to more families in need. Make a financial gift to our school here by selecting "School Support."

Community Resources

Although we trust in our Heavenly Father to help us through hard times, we still struggle along the way. Sometimes we need outside support. Below you will find local resources:

• Domestic violence hotline: 1-800-799-723 or website
• Resource number for Clackamas county: 211
• Suicide Prevention hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or website
• St. Vincent de Paul (food and rent/utilities assistance): website or 503-235-8431

QCD

A qualified charitable distribution (QCD) allows individuals who are 70½ years old or older to donate up to $105,000 total to one or more charities directly from a taxable IRA instead of taking their required minimum distributions.

RMD

Required minimum distributions (RMDs) are the minimum amounts you must withdraw from your retirement accounts each year. You generally must start taking withdrawals from your traditional IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, and retirement plan accounts when you reach age 72.

If you are over 72 years of age you qualify to take annual distributions from your retirement account to make tax free donations to charities of your choice.

Resurrection Church is a qualified public charity 501(c)(3) and can receive your QCD.

We thank you in advance for considering Resurrection Catholic Church and School as recipients of your donations.