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* If less than 2,100 tickets are sold, it will become a 50/50 split with 1 grand prize winner.

AARP will once again offer tax filing assistance on the SFX campus. Call the phone number below to schedule an appointment.
*Please note that the parish office cannot schedule or give information regarding appointments. You must leave a message on the number below.

For your review, below is the Annual Accountability Report for July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of SFX Parish,

As we commemorate the birth of Jesus, I wish to express blessings and good wishes to all of you in this holy season.  What a treasure it is to be with those we love and how blest we are to have the opportunity to do so.  There are many of our sisters and brothers, especially in the Commonwealth, who are finding this year most difficult because of the loss of life, home and work at the hand of Mother Nature.  We must bond with those who hurt so as to keep Christ’s Light of Hope within sight.  Emmanuel is timeless and lives within everyone through ‘good times and bad’.  A weary world needs to remember that God sent His best effort, His Son, to all generations so that we can move from despair to trust.  He knows how tough it is to do… that is why he sends us Grace so we can move one foot in front of the other.

As pastor, I thank you all for your wonderful support and stewardship of time, talent and treasure that you live every day.  Our ancestors-in-faith see and know what you do in their memory.  How can they not?  They know all things because they now know God as God is.  God does not disappoint… ever.

In Christ the Cornerstone,

Father Dale

Enjoy these reflections during this season of Advent.

St. Francis Xavier is seeking an Engagement Coordinator to oversee fundraising activities and lead in organizing special events. This position will assist the Parish Business Manager with yearly Stewardship renewals and will coordinate new member outreach. The Engagement Coordinator will also be responsible for communications to parishioners through Evangelus, social media and website updates. This is a part-time position, 20hrs per week.

Qualifications: Excellent organizational, interpersonal, collaborative and leadership skills necessary.
Self-motivated and flexibility in working on multiple projects with office staff and volunteers. Project management and/or event planning experience helpful. High computer literacy and technical aptitude, with experience using various computer software applications. Familiarity with social media platforms.

Contact Jennifer Sweeney in the parish office for more information.  Interested candidates should send cover letter and resume to jennifer.sweeney@sfxmw.com .

Dear Friends of SFX,
Thank you for being a part of our first ever #iGiveCatholic Campaign! The support and generosity from the SFX community never ceases to amaze me! We raised $7,695 during Giving Tuesday. Gifts made will be used to make updates in our religious education building for Children’s Faith Formation. We will report back to you the on these improvements in 2024. 

If you missed out on the opportunity to give, donations sent to the parish office by Monday, December 4th will be added to this campaign. Wishing you and your family peace and blessings as we enter this season of Advent. Be sure to watch the special Thank You video below from Children’s Faith Formation.

In Gratitude,
Jennifer Sweeney

SFX Business Manager

Thanksgiving Day

Thursday; November 23, 2023

Just one year ago, five Bullitt East Football players (one a parishioner) asked if they could come into our church and say a prayer before their big game of the week against Male High School.  Deacon Earl let them in the church, and they immediately headed to the first pew and knelt there in silence.  I came in shortly thereafter and offered to give them a blessing.  I did and, the pastor in me, was quietly hoping they would come back to give “God the Praise” for their prayers answered.  As ALL know, they won State and they are champions… for life… Incidentally… one returned… the same odds as today’s Gospel…

Instinctively, we ask: Why did only one leper return to give thanks?  The following are nine possible reasons why the original nine did not return…

Maybe, One waited to see if the cure was real.

Maybe One waited to see if it would last.

Maybe One said he would “see Jesus later”.

Maybe One decided that he never really had leprosy.

Maybe One said he would have gotten well anyway.

Maybe One said, “Oh well, Jesus didn’t really do anything.”

Maybe One said, “Any rabbi could have done it.”

Maybe One said, “I was already improved”.

Maybe One gave the glory to the priests! ☹

Imagine that!

I like to picture our hearts as a large container that is filled with all kinds of things…. memories, dreams, feelings, ambitions, possibilities about what happened yesterday, hopes about what is going to happen later today or later next week or next year. 

A heart can be filled one of two ways; either we don’t pay much attention and just allow whatever reactions to people and circumstance to fill it; OR we can choose what we will allow to take up the space in our hearts.  We can be selective…

Saint Paul was an excellent teacher in helping us to understand that. Whatwe focus on, what we fill our hearts with, is really our personaldecision.  Really.  If we believe in Jesus and believe He dwells within the heart, He offers great things of the Spirit, such as joy, love, peace, gentleness, kindness and so forth.  But these things do not happen automatically.  We choose what we allow into the heart.  The Spirit does the changing, but we are the ones who allow the Spirit to work.

For a brief moment, let us focus on the past; that Thanksgiving event in 1621 and the memory of the first pilgrims to this country.  Can you imagine those first days and weeks and months?  It was miserable; … I would think that it did not take long before gratitude kicked in because they were survivors… they were alive to taste the harvest… 

As humorist Will Rogers said about the pilgrims, “In the days of our founders, they were willing to give thanks for mighty little, for mighty little was all they expected.”  If they could gather a few pumpkins, potatoes and some corn for the winter, they wuz in a thankin’ mood…”

How do we retain a humble and honest sense of thanksgiving as a DAILY condition in our hearts?

A serious question: “What is the one goal of your life which you are willing to lose everything else to gain?”  “Do you have a purpose in this life today that is important to you?”  Only individuals can answer these two questions.  No one can be told an answer.

We know that gratitude cannot be taught… as bad we might want to think we can teach it, it cannot be done… 

However, we can model gratitude… and that makes all the difference in being a credible person or not.  We ask God daily to help us BE credible in what we need, in what we receive and how we live.

Today is a time to think back and to re-ponder what God does for us in a daily, unassuming way… You and I both know: God is good, God is so good.

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Are you searching for that perfect Christmas present! Purchase a leaf to acknowledge or in remembrance of a special person. We have only 9 leaves remaining to fill the Tree of Life that is displayed in the foyer of the Xavier Center. The cost is $200. Complete the form below and return to the parish office while supplies last! If you have not seen the beautiful Tree of Life on display in the Xavier Center, stop by and check it out! Contact Cara Blake or Jennifer Sweeney in the parish office with questions.

Saint Francis Xavier Parish will be participating in a program entitled #iGiveCatholic on Tuesday, November 28^th from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM.  During this 24-hour crowd-funding event, all the Catholic parishes will be celebrating our Catholic faith and supporting all the Catholic formation programs that shape our souls.  Funds from our parishioners will be used for purchasing new furniture, classroom rugs and bulletin boards for the Religious Education building foyer.  In addition, we will make technology updates, purchasing Smart TV’s for each classroom and making the necessary upgrades to improve Wi-Fi while increasing our streaming capability.  Most importantly, we will make better security upgrades to ensure safety and security of our students.  An Advanced Giving Phase will run from Monday, November 13^th through Monday, November 27^th where online and offline gifts will be welcomed and appreciated.

Make no mistake, your gift will make an impact!  Please embrace the invitation to invest in our Children’s Religious Formation and Education; visit #iGiveCatholic and search for our parish… (remember, there are 2 SFX’s in the archdiocese).  I know your generosity will inspire others to also give. For more information, please contact our parish office for direct donations or the parish website if you are electronically inclined to do so.

Thanks for your consideration and support.  God bless!

Join us on Tuesday evenings at 7:00PM and Saturday mornings at 9:00AM for Fusion Fitness Classes starting November 11th. $5 per class, all are welcome!

The High-School Youth Group and SFX Outreach Ministries are collecting food and accepting donations for Christmas Food Baskets.

Deacon Earl’s funeral homily for Wrenlow Ainsworth

On behalf of the parish family here at SFX, Fr. Dale Cieslik and the whole staff, we wish to express our sincere condolences to Ashley and Luke, Theresa and Robert, Mandy & Graham and the whole family gathered here today.  We gather to remember the life of Wrenlow Rhode Ainsworth, a precious child of God. 

Wherever our hearts may be this day, know that Jesus knows exactly where they are, and so, we can bring him our confusion, doubts, struggles, and difficulties because this is not an easy thing.

There is something inside us that rebels against death.  This rebellion in us is from the Lord, because God made us to live His abundant life, not this, and that brings us to our confusion.  Wherever your heart is today, the Lord wants to tend to it.

It’s not hard to feel the pain and sorrow at the loss of Wrenlow, but as follower’s of Christ, we know that there is more for us.  When we recall Christ suffering, death and rising, we see God’s plan of salvation being offered to us.  Something so great— out of something so horrible.  Like the dawn of a new day, in the very midst of our grief and sadness, an experience of His goodness can and will come to us.  His goodness is like rays of light that penetrate the darkness of grief and sorrow. 

When we think about “life”, what does it strike up in us?

Many define a “successful” life with wealth, comfort, happiness, and the joy of living to be maybe 80 or 90 years of age.  And so, to compare that sense of life, to the life of Wrenlow, who was in her mother’s womb for nearly 6 months, and only 7 days outside, her life would seem short of that definition.  But as believers, we don’t measure life by a number of years.  We understand the big difference between earthly life and eternal life.  The number of days, or months in a womb, or even 100 years of life really becomes very small when considered against the reality of all eternity, and the immortal nature of our souls.

I will always consider August 26^th as one of the greatest days of my life.   It was the day that Wrenlow was born and baptized.  Ashley, Luke, Theresa and Robert, it is a real testament to your faith and discipleship, that you wanted to have Wrenlow baptized when she was born.  It was a great privilege to baptize her, and your faith in Christ spoke for Wrenlow.  In that precious moment, Jesus poured out his salvation into her soul, freeing her from original sin, incorporating her into the family of God, and He placed an indelible mark on her soul.  It was from God’s hand that she came to you, and to God’s hand that she has returned.  Wrenlow lives eternally with God the Father.

Sometimes we forget the purpose of life.  We forget that God wants us to be in heaven with him eternally.  He created us for heaven.  Jesus told us, on the night before he died, that he would go and prepare a place for us, because He wants us with him eternally.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus said “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them.  For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these”. How much more hope do we need if we trust in those words?  The creator of the universe, the creator of all things, bent down to touch and to bless the little children.  We can imagine how much he delights in inviting Wrenlow into eternity.

In her few days here with you Ashley and Luke, she brought you a deep love, a love you have never known before.  In her short life, she touched the hearts of her parents, grandparents, nurses, aids, doctors, a deacon and many more.  On this side of heaven, we may never know all those she has touched.  It’s very possible, that Wrenlow unleashed a love greater than some people do in a long life.  The sole purpose of this earthly life is to love and to be loved.  And so, in this regard, Wrenlow’s short life was immensely successful.  

Today, let us entrust our grief and sorrow to the One who knows it very well.  The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.  She knew the great joy of carrying her child within.  But she also knew the most profound sorrow and grief, as she held her beloved son on Calvary’s hill.  We can cry out in our grief and sorrow today.  Let it have a voice within you.  Give it all to him.  Let it perhaps… be your offering, surrender it to him, because he is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

We do not know or understand the plan, but we do know God is trustworthy, because a God that suffers and dies for us is worthy of our trust. You held your daughter in your arms, you sang to her, and your  eyes gazed in love and wonderment upon her.  We give Wrenlow back to God today, into his loving arms, and there is no safer for her.  His loving eyes are upon her now and forever.

CSA 2023 officially kicks-off next weekend! Our SFX goal for 2023 is $24,100 with 105 families participating. There are Matching Gift Opportunities; click HERE for more details. Watch the bulletin for CSA updates beginning September 24th.

View the video from Archbishop Shelton regarding this year’s appeal. Archbishop CSA Video