Fr. Patrick J. Murphy Assembly 2420

This year, our Assembly will join the Council and take part in the Red Cross “Holiday Mail for Heroes” program. This is the second year the Red Cross is collecting holiday cards to distribute to American service members, veterans and their families in the United States and around the world. Pitney Bowes is generously donating technology, resources and postage to make this holiday card program possible. The Red Cross’ goal is to collect and distribute one million holiday cards to spread holiday cheer and facilitate thanks to these brave individuals and families.


During the recently completed holidays, each Brother Knight and Sir Knight asked the members of our family and friends assembled for Thanksgiving to take some time out of their holiday to fill out a Christmas card. The Assembly will collect the cards at the December Council Meeting on the 4th. The Assembly will bundle them, pay for the postage, and mail them to the Red Cross.


The Red Cross will then spread our holiday cheer to some of the 186,000 service members stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.


If you would like to contribute individually, please visit the Red Cross’ site for guidelines and deadline dates.

The Assembly will be hosting a Flag Retirement Ceremony on Saturday, November 15th at Sir Knight Dan Frische’s house.  Please bring any flags you would like to be retired to the ceremony or to the Council meeting on the 6th.  All Brother Knights and their families are welcome.  More information to come.

UPDATE:

To help celebrate the upcoming Veterans Day, we will be having a Flag Retirement Ceremony. Normally we hold it around or on Flag Day but this year there was too much going on then. This time it will be held on Saturday, November 15^th at 2:30 pm. The Ceremony will be held shortly before dusk after socializing. Dan has built a fire pit which should work well for it. After the ceremony, there will be a pot-luck. Dan will grill up hamburgers and hotdogs and there will be some beer, but bring your favorite. Bring your flags needing disposal. Note: Due to the fire and smoke, the Color Corps has not been asked to perform in regalia. More information will be forthcoming with regards to Assembly member involvement. See you all there!

WASHINGTON—The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) invites U.S. Catholics to pray before the November election a novena for life, justice, and peace called Novena for Faithful Citizenship. It is a podcast and available for download.

Joan Rosenhauer, Associate Director for the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, said that the special novena is part of “the bishops’ campaign to help Catholics develop well-formed consciences for addressing political and social questions.” The bishops issued their statement on forming consciences for faithful citizenship in November 2007.

Helen Osman, USCCB Secretary of Communications, expressed hope that the novena could help “Catholics enter into prayerful reflection as they prepare to vote.” Seventy-one percent of all visitors to the USCCB’s web site download the free podcasts of the daily NAB readings. These same visitors are encouraged to use the novena podcast for prayer. Osman said that the USCCB wants to support Catholics as they weigh pre-election issues and that “providing a prayer resource on the Web can help us focus on our common values and identity as Catholics.” The novena emphasizes the dignity of life, justice, and peace.

The Novena for Faithful Citizenship runs for nine days and can be used consecutively, one day each week, for nine days prior to the election, or “in any way that works best for a community or individual,” said Rosenhauer.

The novena will be available for download until the election and it can be downloaded online .

For other Faithful Citizenship resources and materials visit www.faithfulcitizenship.org.