Seasons of Hope – A Six-Week Bible Study For Individuals Who Are Grieving
This six-week bible study will begin on Tuesday, June 6 and end on Tuesday, July 18. The study runs from 8:45-10:00 a.m. each week. Hosted by The Lourdes Center at 523 N. Duluth Ave., Sioux Falls, SD. Please call 605-988-3775 to register.
Eucharistic Revival Evening of Prayer
April 5, 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. – Mount Marty University Chapel, Yankton
CGS – Level 1 Part B Training
June 19 – 24 – Risen Savior- Brandon
D-Camp 2023
June 18-21 – Broom Tree (High School)
July 9-12 – Broom Tree (High School) – [FULL]
July 13-16 – Broom Tree (Junior High) – [FULL]
National Eucharistic Congress
July 17-21, 2024 – Indianapolis
Power Hour
Tuesdays at 1 p.m. over Zoom
Anniversary Mass
There have been some questions about dates for anniversary Masses. The dates have not been set yet as we are waiting to coordinate with the new incoming pastors. Don’t worry, the Masses will be happening. Thank you for your patience in this time of transition!
Recruiting Lumen Christi Missionaries for Summer 2023
The Discipleship and Evangelization office is planning to form, equip, and send out 20 Lumen Christi missionaries May 26 through August 6 of this year! We are inviting you to partner with us in these recruiting efforts by identifying exceptional candidates to apply. If you know someone who loves their faith, is college aged, and would be an amazing witness to youth, please encourage them to apply now! To learn more about Lumen Christi or to submit an application, please visit our webpage at sfcatholic.org/lc.
We are still taking requests for Lumen Christi teams for the summer of 2023. To find out more about Lumen Christi and to request a team for next summer, please visit sfcatholic.org/lumenchristi/
Lumen Christi – Summer 2023
If you have requested a Lumen Christi parish team for the summer, we apologize for not being able to solidify the date they will be coming to your parish yet. We are in the midst of hiring missionaries, but we are falling short on the number we need. We are hoping to figure out what this means for the summer schedule soon and confirm weeks with each of you. In the meantime, please pray for missionaries for our diocese. Thank you for all the support of this program and for sharing the word about it with your parishioners and other parishes. For more information on the Lumen Christi program or to direct individuals interested in applying, please visit: sfcatholic.org/lc
National Eucharistic Congress
As part of the National Eucharistic Revival, tens of thousands of Catholics from across the country will be gathering in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 17-21, 2024 for a National Eucharistic Congress. This five-day event will be a pivotal, unifying, and transformative moment for the Church in the United States, and we want to invite Catholics from across the diocese to participate.
To that end, we have been able to secure some “early bird” tickets, which we will be making available for purchase soon. In the meantime, please email eucharist@sfcatholic.org if you’d like more information about this Congress and our diocesan participation in it.
Come witness the Holy Spirit do something amazing!
Deanery Eucharistic Revival Roadshows
The diocese is co-hosting deanery-wide Eucharistic Revival Roadshows in response to the USCCB’s National Eucharistic Revival. The desire is a revival in devotion and belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. These roadshows will serve as a model for those looking to host something similar during the year of the parish which begins in June 2023. Please join us at a location nearest you.
D-Camp 2023 – Almost Full
There are just a few registration spots left for High School D-Camp 2023! The link can be found on our website: sfcatholic.org/youth/d-camp/
CGS – Level 1 Part B Training
If you know someone who has completed Level 1 Part A and is looking for Part B, please invite them to join us at Risen Savior in Brandon June 19 – 24, 2023. Cost is $250. There are only a few spots remaining. You can register at sfcatholic.org/children-formation/. If you have questions, please contact us at cgs@sfcatholic.org or 605-988-3714.
Weekly “Power Hour” for Formation Leaders – Tuesdays at 1 p.m.
For a couple of years now we have been holding weekly Zoom calls supporting our PCL’s throughout the diocese. These “Power Hours” are for priests and PCL’s and consist of ongoing formation, community, discussion, etc. Each week will be something a little different. These meetings are recorded for those who are unable to attend. Make sure to sign up on the PCL email list (see previous blurb) for information on which weeks these calls will be and for the Zoom links (the schedule varies a bit as we work around the School of Missionary Discipleship). Below is the schedule for the current semester:
January 10 – May 16 weekly at 1 p.m. with the exception of April 4, 25 and May 9.
Zoom etiquette reminder: If you are on the Zoom call, please have your video on and come ready to engage in the conversation. If you will be working on other things, walking around, have to take a call, or are eating, etc., please ensure your video and microphone are both off so as not to distract others from the person speaking.
PCL Email List
If you are new or newly diving into our offerings, we invite you to join the PCL email list. You can sign up on the diocesan For Parish Leaders webpage.
Silent Retreats:
Women’s: April 20-23, April 27-30, June 15-18
Men’s: September 21-24, November 16-19
Day of Recollection: Broom Tree Days of Recollection begin at 10 a.m. and include conferences, time for adoration, Mass, and an opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The day ends in mid-afternoon. Because lunch is served, we ask that you please register. A prayerful donation is requested.
2023 Days of Recollection
April 11 – “What the saints say about death,” directed by Fr. Joe Vogel
May 9 – “Power from on High,” directed by Dr. Chris Burgwald
June 20 – “Jesus Christ the Divine Physician,” directed by Dr. Teresa Kemmer
August 22 – directed by Fr. Tom Anderson
September 12 – “A God Who Knocks,” directed by The Lourdes Center
Couples Retreats
April 14-16, directed by Chris and Germaine Burgwald with Fr. Scott Traynor
During this retreat, couples will have the blessed opportunity to spend time together receiving from the very heart of God. The environment at Broom Tree makes for a perfect couples get-away: no TV, no radio, no phones or computers, just beautiful, peaceful surroundings, good food, and all the time and good direction you need to experience renewal in your marriage. Register early.
Healing Retreats
October 13-15
Directed by Fr. Scott Traynor
Goal:
Increased parishioner engagement within each pastorate. Good communication will be critical to involvement during the next phase of the pastoral planning process.
Recommendation:
Each pastorate/parish would initiate an information gathering effort to collect updated member and household data, especially emails and mobile numbers. Using various means to gather the information from parishioners will increase the effectiveness of the effort. Here are some suggested methods:
Parish/pastorate staff will enter the collected information into member and household records within ParishSOFT.
*The Flocknote communication tool is available to any parish and pastorate to communicate information about pastoral planning meetings and activities free of charge. (Now through June 30, 2024)
*Dawn, Adam, and John in the IT Office are available to help in this information gathering effort. Email us at helpdesk@sfcatholic.org or call 605-988-3707.
Overview
We often hear of the term “spring cleaning,” the time of year when we go through our belongings and organize our house and lives in preparation for the upcoming summer. This is also the perfect time to take an annual review of your digital life. The following seven simple steps, taken once a year, will go a long way toward ensuring you can make the most of technology, safely and securely.
ACCOUNTS: Review each of your accounts. Using a long, unique password for each account ensures that if one account is compromised, your other accounts are still safe. Can’t remember all those different passwords? Don’t worry, neither can we. We recommend you use a password manager to securely store all your passwords and make your life far simpler and more secure. Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) when possible, especially for your personal email or financial accounts. This is the single most important step you can take to secure any online account. If you have any online accounts, you have not accessed in over a year, it could be time to simply delete them.
PROGRAMS: Keeping your devices and software updated and current ensures you have the latest security features installed and known vulnerabilities are fixed. The simplest way to do this is to make sure you have automatic updating enabled on all your computers, mobile devices, and even smart home devices. Also, delete any unused programs or apps on your mobile devices and computers. Some apps require large amounts of storage, can introduce new vulnerabilities, and may even slow things down. The fewer apps you have, the more secure your system and your information remains. Many devices show you how long it has been since you’ve used an app. If it has been a year since you last used the app, chances are you don’t need it anymore.
FINANCES: Verify that your bank accounts, credit card accounts, investments, and retirement accounts are configured to alert you whenever a transaction is made, especially for unusual sign-ins, large purchases, or money transfers. This will make it so that you are always notified when a financial transaction occurs and you can spot any fraud or unauthorized activity right away. The sooner you identify fraudulent activity, the sooner you can stop it and the more likely you can recover your money. Depending on which country you live in, an additional step you can take is to implement a credit freeze, which can be one of the most effective ways to protect your identity.
DISPOSING OF DEVICES: Over time you may find yourself collecting old devices you no longer need – perhaps an old smartphone or smart home device. If you dispose of any of these devices, first wipe any personal information from them. Most devices have a simple wiping function that securely purges all personal information (or reset to factory default) before disposing of the device.
BACKUPS: No matter how safe or secure you are, at some point you will most likely need backups to recover your important information or migrate your information to a new device. Set your devices to automatically back up to the cloud. Creating and scheduling automatic backups allows you to recover your most important information.
PARENTING: If you are a parent or guardian, this is a good time to review any parental controls settings you have in place for children. As children get older, you will most likely need to update these controls settings.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Review privacy settings on your social media accounts – these are a goldmine of personal information. Review your accounts to check that you are not sharing sensitive information such as your birthday, phone number, home address, banking information, or geo-location in personal photos.
Spending just a couple hours a year taking these steps will go a long way toward protecting you, your devices, and information.
Guest Editor
Ritu Gill (@OSINTtechniques) is a SANS instructor in development and Intelligence Analyst who specializes in Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT).
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Do you know a young man who has expressed interest in discerning a vocation to the priesthood? Do you know a young man who you think would make a great priest and might be open to investigating the possibility of this call in his life? As part of our work to help young men discern the Lord’s call for their lives, the Vocations Office is compiling a list of such men with the intent of keeping them informed about various vocations promotion opportunities such as retreats, mission trips, Operation Andrew Dinners, seminary visits, and so on. If you know of someone who we should add to our list, please contact Emma Murtha at emurtha@sfcatholic.org or 988-3772.
College Connection
Dear Pastors and Parish Administrators,
This summer, Bishop DeGrood will send a letter to the graduating seniors in our diocese so that he can personally congratulate and encourage them to seek God’s will in their lives. To make this possible, we are requesting the following information from you: names, cell phone number, parent’s names, addresses, sex and plans after graduation for all seniors.
In conjunction with Bishop’s letter, in the past several years, the Vocations Office has used college information to help keep our youth connected with their Catholic faith while they are at school. This has been done with the aid of the SERRA Clubs in our diocese through a program called College Connection.
Through this program, letters are sent out to the seniors, encouraging them to get involved in the local Catholic community at the school they will be attending. The information given will only be forwarded on to the Newman Centers and Catholic Campus Ministry organizations that they will be attending in our diocese. This will help our campus ministers connect your students to other Catholic students and Catholic events.
It is our hope that with this information we can keep more of our young people connected with the practice of their Catholic faith and continue to encourage the growth of their spirituality.
Google Form you can share with your senior parents to fill in for their seniors
Please fill in the Google form by May 1. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for all that you do to promote religious vocations.
In Christ,
Prayer for Vocations
Looking for a good prayer to use for an increase in vocations? Here’s one many of our parishes have been using for years.
Lord Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father and Mary Immaculate, grant to our young people the generosity necessary to follow Your call and the courage to overcome all obstacles to their vocation in life. Give their parents that faith, love and spirit of sacrifice which will inspire them to offer their children to God’s service and to rejoice whenever one of their children is called to the priesthood or religious life. Let Your example and that of Your Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph encourage both young people and parents and let Your grace sustain them. Amen.
Looking for a faith-filled camp for father’s and son’s this summer? Consider the Blessed Michael McGivney Youth Camp! Focusing on faith, fun and fraternity and based on the four principles of the Knights of Columbus (charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism), young men and their fathers can experience knighthood during this weekend camp. The camp will be held at Broom Tree Retreat Center in Irene and begins at 1 p.m. on Friday, June 23 and ends at 10 a.m. on Sunday June 25. Young Catholic men ages 13 to 19 and their fathers are invited to attend at no cost to them. You’ll enjoy games and activities, swimming and canoeing, and guest speakers. For more information or to register, contact John Limoges at 605-957-5074 or johnalimoges@hotmail.com.
