St. Bartholomew’s ACW is partnering with Catholic Community Services (CCS) during Advent by collecting new and gently used items for the CCS Infant Layette Program.
Every month, CCS distributes layette gift bags to families in need in Snohomish County who have just had a newborn baby. CCS is almost out of supplies and is requesting items from the list below.
Layette items will be collected in the Narthex through December 22. Monetary donations are also welcome. (Make checks payable to the church with “Layette Program” in the memo line, and place them in the offertory plate.)
INFANT LAYETTE ITEM LIST (New or Gently Used) Diapers SIZE 1 or 2 (diapers size 1 are most needed) Diaper wipes (most needed) Onesie T-shirts (sizes S, M, L) Play and Sleep outfits (sizes S, M, L) (most needed) Infant socks and/or tights (multiple sizes and colors) Infant booties and/or shoes Going Visiting Outfits (sizes S, M, L) Sleepers (sizes S, M, L) Hat (cotton/summer type) Washcloth or Hooded towel Receiving Blankets Baby jacket or sweaters Crib Blanket and Sheets Children’s Books Bottles, pacifiers Rattle and safe infant toys Baby shampoo Diaper Bag
QUESTIONS? Speak with any ACW member, orcontact Anne F.
With All Souls’ Day coming up we may wonder, Why do we pray for the dead?” Francis Hall explains in Dogmatic Theology (Vol. X),
“Praying for the departed was a widespread custom among ancient gentilic peoples; and the custom is abundantly justified by the principle whatever we may rightly desire we may also pray for, and by the consideration that the assurance at death of a soul’s final beatification does not eliminate from its intermediate state the contingencies of progress which afford occasions for prayer…To pray for each other is the most effective method and support of the communion of saints, and if the barrier of death does not, surely it does not, break the mystical bond between the living and the departed, the living should pray for the departed.”
Faithfully yours Fr. Rick Gregory
The Collect for All Souls’ Day
O GOD, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful: grant unto the souls of thy servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins; that through devout supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired. Who with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, livest and reignest God, world without end. Amen.
Halloween should not be a day when our churches go dark and Christians retreat into the shadows, but when we fill the darkness with Christ’s light and go out into the culture, inviting everyone to the prepare for the festival of the saints with all the joy we can muster.
Dear brother and sisters in Christ:
As we near All Hallows Eve, a.k.a. Halloween, I usually get asked some questions and Halloween, a.k.a. All Hallows’ Eve, and its Christian roots and celebration.
