Month: September 2023

Chancery Updates

 

  • If you are part of a parish/pastorate staff and find the Ministry Forum helpful, please check with others on staff to make sure they are getting it. It’s always helpful when everyone has all the same information! If there is someone who wants to be added, please have them reach out to me at rkranz@sfcatholic.org.
  • It’s time to send in your Necrology reports for the Bishop’s Bulletin! Please see instructions below.
  • Also see below information about orientation sessions for Pastoral Planning Committee members in your pastorate.
  • Continue to keep your new pastors and all priests in your prayers as they settle into their new assignments. And pray that the Holy Spirit will fill us all with a spirit of openness and courage.

Training for Set Ablaze Pastoral Planning Committees

Now that pastors have created their Pastoral Planning Committee, the Chancery invites all committee members to attend one orientation session, which will be made available regionally. This orientation will be focused on the handbook and the pastoral planning process. Those dates are below. Pastors are also welcome to invite their assigned facilitators to join their committees at an orientation if they wish.

  • Thursday, Sept. 7, 6-9 p.m. Sioux Falls, St. Therese
  • Sunday, Sept. 10, 2-5 p.m. Yankton, St. Benedict
  • Monday, Sept. 11, 6-9 p.m. Huron, Holy Trinity
  • Tuesday, Sept. 12, 6-9 p.m. Aberdeen, St. Mary
  • Wednesday, Sept. 13, 6-9 p.m. Pierre, Ss. Peter & Paul

Discipleship and Evangelization

Upcoming Events

Anniversary Mass

September 24, 2023 – Cathedral of Saint Joseph, Sioux Falls

National Eucharistic Congress
July 17-21, 2024 – Indianapolis

More Info

National Eucharistic Congress – Send a team from your parish
The USCCB is encouraging every parish to send a team of representatives to the National Eucharistic Congress next summer. They will be commissioned as Eucharistic Missionaries to bring the joy and love of the Eucharist back to your parish and community. 

We still have tickets available at a greatly reduced rate. These tickets are for anyone in the Sioux Falls Diocese and are first come – first served. To claim your ticket, go to sfcatholic.org/eucharist.

Eucharistic Revival – Small Group Resources
During the year of the parish, the USCCB is encouraging each parish to host small groups using their new seven week study, Jesus and the Eucharist. They have made it so easy! There is an online training for planning the small group, parish implementation and table facilitators. They give you the curriculum, videos, slide show presentations, handouts and more. 

If you are interested, please connect with your Eucharistic Revival Parish Point Person or check out the resource webpage for more information.

School of Missionary Discipleship – New Cohort Begins in January
The next cohort of the School of Missionary Discipleship will be launching on January 30, 2024. Participants are deeply formed in their ability to engage in the work of the New Evangelization: to live and share their faith in Jesus Christ with those they encounter in their daily lives, according to the gifts God has given them.

The formation program is attentive to all four areas of discipleship formation: a thorough knowledge of Church teaching (intellectual formation), a deep personal prayer life (spiritual formation), an ability to interact with and accompany others (human formation), and a recognition of the personal call and empowerment to build up God’s kingdom (apostolic formation).

All areas of formation will be engaged throughout the multi-year program. Each year will have a specific focus of formation.

  1. Learning How to Pray and How to Teach Others to Pray – An exploration of how to grow deeply in prayer.
  2. Sacred Scripture and Church History – An overview of the story of salvation from creation to today.
  3. The Catechism of the Catholic Church – An exploration of Church teaching.
  4. Sharing your Faith – A practical introduction to talking with others about our faith.

Year one consists of formation in Christian prayer and virtue. This year of formation will provide a great foundation to help those new to personal prayer, as well as those well experienced in personal prayer, to enter more deeply into their daily relationship with God. We will cover essential principles of relational prayer, specific methods of Christian prayer, the interplay of prayer and virtue, and an introduction to discernment of spirits.  Together these elements will help participants of any background to “fall in Love, stay in Love and let Love make all the difference.” 

Teaching is done through a series of weekly videos in conjunction with large and small group meetings via Zoom on Tuesday evenings. For more information, please visit the School of Missionary Discipleship webpage.

Respect Life Month – USCCB Resources
Respect Life month is coming up in October. To help you be prepared, the USCCB has created some wonderful resources for your parish. They have also created an amazing program called Walking With Moms In Need, which has resources specifically for your parish. 

Engaged Couples Guides
The annual Engaged Couples Guide is going digital! No more misplaced pamphlets for your couples. The entire guide has been recreated in website form. (Click here to check it out.) To make sure couples have easy access to the website, we have created a card that the priest or deacon can hand to the couple. The card has the webpage listed as well as a QR code. These cards will be mailed out later this month. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our office at discipleship@sfcatholic.org or 605-988-3714.

Confirmation Retreats – Fall 2023
We have received calls from Confirmation Coordinators wondering where to send students for retreats this fall. The Abbey of the Hills is hosting the fall retreat this year and they are full with a waiting list. If your parish is interested in partnering with the diocese to host a confirmation retreat open to attendees from the rest of the diocese, please contact our office at discipleship@sfcatholic.org or 605-988-3714.

Anniversary Mass
The annual Anniversary Mass for couples celebrating milestone anniversaries has been scheduled for Sunday, September 24 at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Sioux Falls. Invitations from Bishop DeGrood were mailed to couples last week. If you have a couple who has a qualifying anniversary of 25, 50, 60 or 65+ years of marriage who did not receive an invitation, please have them reach out to our office to be added to the invitation list. They can reach us at discipleship@sfcatholic.org or 605-988-3714. 

Weekly “Power Hour” for Formation Leaders – Tuesdays at 1 p.m.
Power Hour will resume again on Tuesday, September 12. We are looking forward to catching up with you!

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.

Engaged Encounter retreat schedule

Catholic Engaged Encounter retreat dates have been set through March, 2024, and are listed below. Engaged couples should register on the website: https://siouxfalls.engagedencounter.com

Date Sept 16-17 Nov 11-12 Jan 13-14 Feb 17-18 Mar 9-10
City Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Yankton
Parish Holy Spirit St. Mary St. Michael St. Lambert St. Benedict

Catholic Family Sharing Appeal

Thank you to all for your wonderful support of the 2023 Catholic Family Sharing
Appeal. Parishioners have responded with great generosity toward the many
ministries supported by the appeal. To date, we have received 12,443 pledges
totaling $5,136,000. Nearly 2/3 of the parishes have raised over and above the
amount shared with the diocese, providing an additional $636,000 to stay in the
respective parish and be used where the need is greatest.

If you have remaining pledges to send in and enter into the ParishSoft Offering
Module, please do so as soon as possible as we prepare for follow-up this fall. The
follow-up is a great opportunity to connect with parishioners, so if you are
planning to do this at the parish level, please let us know so we do not duplicate
efforts.

Thank you again for your support as the success of the Catholic Family Sharing
Appeal is dependent upon the great efforts of those at all of the parishes throughout the diocese.

Sioux Falls LIFE CHAIN

The Sioux Falls LIFE CHAIN will be held Sunday, October 1, from 2-3 p.m. on the north sidewalk of W. 41st St. between Western and Sertoma Ave.

Life Chain occurs across the USA and Canada annually on the first Sunday of October. It is a unified statement affirming the sanctity of human life and makes a public, prayerful, and peaceful witness against legalized abortion and exploitation of mothers. Life Chain is held rain or shine.

Signs will be provided and may be picked up at and returned to the parking lots of Sioux Falls First Church or O’Gorman High School.

Water, lawn chairs, umbrellas, wheelchairs and strollers are welcome and encouraged. Roosevelt High School, O’Gorman High School and Sioux Falls First Church will have parking. Do not park in front of any open businesses.

Churches have assigned blocks, but individuals who would like to participate should call 605-743-0777, email righttolifesf@gmail.com or come by 1:30 p.m. to receive directions.

Necrology report needed for 2022-2023

Each year in the November issue of the Bishop’s Bulletin, we feature a complete listing of those of our diocesan family who have died during the past year. We need your assistance in compiling that list.

Please check your records and list the names of all members of your parish(es)/community who have died on or after September 1, 2022, through those who have died on or before August 31, 2023, in a Word document or email.

Please note the end date to be included has changed from September 30 to August 31. This is due to the deadline changes with our new printer, which requires content to them approximately six weeks prior to mailing.

Please list (per parish/religious community)

  • Names of the dead, first then last name (no nicknames, only proper names, like Helen Jones, not Mrs. Johnny Jones, or Jones, Helen). Middle name/initial is not needed, and will not be included in the final report.
  • Date of his/her death in chronological order. Day of the week is not needed.
  • For example your report should look like this: Helen Jones- Oct. 24; Jim Smith- Nov. 18; Carol Nelson- Jan. 17

Please respond even if your parish/community has recorded no deaths in this time period. Simply state “no deaths.”

Please send your report in a Word document or type it directly into the email so it can be easily copied and formatted for the Bishop’s Bulletin, and indicate your parish(es)/community in the email subject line.

Begin sending your information after August 31, reports will not be accepted before August 31. The deadline for reports to be sent in and included in the Necrology is September 15.

Brianna will respond to your email when she has received it. If you don’t hear from her, she did not get it.

Please email your reports to Brianna Wingen at bwingen@sfcatholic.org.

Thank you for your help with getting this report compiled. If you have any questions, call Brianna at 605-988-3789 or email at bwingen@sfcatholic.org.

Vocations

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 or Father Tony Klein at frtonyklein@sfcatholic.org. 

SJV & IHM Seminary Visits 

Seminary Visits Flyer

Sign Up

Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus Come & See 

Come and See Flyer 2023-2024

 

Catholic principals, teachers, DREs, and catechists: Vianney Vocations is presenting a short, dynamic online workshop to help you promote vocations in your ministry. This online workshop is Tuesday, October 3 at 3 p.m. You can find more details at https://vianneyvocations.com/amplify/.

 

NATIONAL VOCATION AWARENESS WEEK: (November 5-11, 2023) Resources such as bulletin inserts, homily ideas, and handouts can be found at https://vianneyvocations.com/nvaw/

 

Operation Andrew Dinner Dates:

November 7, 2023 – St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center in Aberdeen: Mass at 5:00 p.m. with dinner and social to follow. 

November 8, 2023 – Pope Pius XII Newman Center in Brookings: Mass at 5:30 p.m. with dinner and social to follow. 

November 29, 2023 – St. Thomas More Newman Center in Vermillion: Mass at 5:15 p.m. with dinner and social to follow. 

December 5, 2023 – CTK Ministry at Christ the King in Sioux Falls: Mass at 5:15 p.m. with dinner and social to follow. 

 

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.

 

Broom Tree Retreat and Conference Center Events

Silent Retreats:
Women’s: October 5-8, November 2-5
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
September 12 – “A God Who Knocks,” directed by The Lourdes Center
October 10- “Renovating the Heart,” directed by The Lourdes Center
November 7- “A Glorified Wound,” directed by The Lourdes Center

Couples Retreats
November 10-12
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