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assistance in aid to the best of our abilities to our family, friends, and col-leagues in southeast Tex-as and Louisiana.

Peace, Mark

**************

To create a sacred space focused on Hurricane Harvey, place three candles in your prayer space to rep-resent (1) those that have lost their lives as a result of Harvey, (2) those that have survived, but have lost so much, and (3) victims of nat-ural disasters everywhere. Light each candle as you offer a prayer for that spe-cial need.

Fall is quickly ap-proaching - the changing of the season is soon upon us. If you live in the northern part of the Unit-ed States or have a change of seasons, you’ll see the landscape blanketed in a myriad of colors. Seeing the colors in fall on a sunny day can be breathtaking for sure. In late August our friends and colleagues in southeast Texas and Loui-siana were hit with the worst disaster in Texas history, Hurricane Har-vey. Experts are saying it will take many years for the area to recover. Our family members, friends, and colleagues need our prayers, not only today but in the coming weeks, months, and years as the victims and their families, and all people engage in the relief, recovery, and rebuilding process. On one news channel, the broadcast focused on looting that was taking place. What struck me about what I saw was the sun was shin-ing on the people. Let me explain.

On our campus at Marian University-Indianapolis we have an Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapel. Two large stain glass windows of St. Francis and St. Clare frame the sanctuary. If you were to stand in the grass outside the chapel and see the sun shining on the windows, you might see some color in the windows. If you step inside the chapel, you would see there is a mix-ture of blues, browns, yel-lows, whites, and reds. After turning the channel, another news broadcast showed images of first responders helping stranded people to safe-ty. There were also images of volunteers helping to provide food, water, and shelter to people who had nowhere else to go. There was even images of a mega church offering shelter and meals to a few thousand people. I couldn’t help but think that in those instanc-es, God’s light was shining through those generous first responders and volun-teers. Help us to respond generously in prayer and

A Message from the Chair — Mark Erdosy

September 2017

A collaborative organization of lay, vowed religious, and ordained

ministers that empowers, advocates for, and develops lay

pastoral leadership and promotes the growth of lay pastoral

ministry in the Catholic Church.

Liturgical Calendar for

September

3 22ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 8 FEAST: NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 9 St. Peter Claver 10 23RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 12 The Most Holy Name of Mary 13 St. John Chrysostom 14 FEAST: THE EXALTA- TION OF THE HOLY CROSS 15 Our Lady of Sorrows 16 St. Cornelius & St. Caprian 17 24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 19 St. Januarius 20 St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon & St. Paul Chong Ha- sang, Companions 21 FEAST: St. MATTHEW, APOSTLE & EVAN- GELIST 23 St. Pius of Pietrecina 24 25TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 26 St. Cosmas & St. Damian 27 St. Vincent de Paul 28 St. Wenceslaus, St. Law-

rence Ruiz & Compan- ions

29 FEAST: St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael, Archangels

NALM News and Notes

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NALM News and Notes

NALM is in the process of developing National Certification Standards for Parish Business Mangers. We briefly started working on this project at the recent NALM Conference in Indianapolis and now plan to continue to develop recommendations for the NALM Board to consider. There were about ten of us at the conference. Hopefully many will continue to work with this ad hoc group as well as recruit a few additional current Parish Business Managers to meet online for three sessions to continue to develop our recommendations. Do you have a recommendation of a current parish Business Manager that we could invite to help with this work? Hopefully someone knowledgeable about the position, ideally a member of NALM, or with other attributes that would help achieve our goals. Please send me their

contact information so I can reach out and invite. Thanks so much! Pat Joyce, Director of Administration, Holy Name of Mary Catholic Parish in San Dimas CA ~ pat@hnmparish.org

Time is of the Essence!!

Your gift today WILL make a difference.

Gifts allow NALM to continue supporting the preparation of lay ministers, networking, and

advocacy.

Please send your gift today to the NALM office at 5401 South Cornell Avenue, #210, Chicago, IL 60615 or online

at www.NALM.org

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2018 PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND

BOOK REVIEW

Fruitful Discipleship: Living the Mission of Jesus in the Church

and the World

By Sherry A. Weddell (2017)

In Fruitful Discipleship, Sherry Weddell describes how the Holy Spirit is at work in all the baptized, calling and gifting us to re-spond in ways that answer someone else's prayers and fuel the mission of the whole church. God has chosen to be present in this world through the faith and obedience of missionary disciples who witness to Jesus Christ and bear abundant fruit. In this help-ful book Weddell shares what she and her team have learned from helping over 100,000 Catholics of all backgrounds, and iden-tifies and explains 23 distinct charisms (gifts of the Holy Spirit). She also provides helpful guidance for discerning and exercising the gifts received at baptism.

From: https://www.christianbook.com/fruitful-discipleship-sherry-weddell/9781612789736/pd/789736#CBD-PD-Description

“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and

we shall walk in His paths" Isaiah 2:3

Faith Journey of a Lifetime through the Holy Land February 4-13, 2018

NALM's second annual pilgrimage to the Holy Land will be held from February 4-13, 2018. We are excited to offer our members discounted prices on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. For ten days, NALM members are led on a tour of the Holy Land by experienced guides. Walk in the footsteps of Jesus and his followers. CLICK HERE for more infor-mation.

NALM News and Notes

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NALM News and Notes

PRAYER FOR THE BEGINNING OF AUTUMN RESOURCES FOR YOUR MINISTRY

Do you have a piece of news, committee report, or interesting article that you would like to share with your lay ministry colleagues in the National Association for Lay Ministry? If so, please submit pieces by the end of each month to the Publications Committee Chair, Bridget Klawitter. Her email is klawitterb@archmil.org

Thank you for being part of the Nation-al Association for Lay Ministry, and helping shape the future of lay ministry in the Catholic Church! We concluded our 40th Anniversary Year with our 2017 Conference in June, but the celebration (and the savings) continues for

you! We are offering you a special one-time opportunity for your membership renewal. You can renew at your regular membership rate of $95.00, or - if you recruit a new member to register with you - both of you will re-ceive a special discounted rate of $65.00 for this year on-ly. You can renew online as usual at www.NALM.org, or use the printable form on the website. In any case, when you renew, please indicate the name of the new member you are bringing on and we will make sure you both re-ceive the discounted rate. Hurry, though! This 40th Anniversary offer ends December 31, 2017!

O God of Creation, you have blessed us with the changing of the seasons. As we welcome the autumn months, may the earlier setting of the sun remind us to take time to rest. May the brilliant colors of the leaves remind us of the won-der of your creation. May the steam of our breath in the cool air remind us that it is you who give us the breath of life. May the harvest from the fields remind us of the abun-dance we have been given and bounty we are to share with others. May the dying of summer’s spirit remind us of your great promise that death is temporary and life is eternal. We praise you for your goodness forever and ever. Amen.

University of Notre Dame

365 Days with Mary

365 Days With Mary app was de-veloped as a valuable resource for the 100th anniversary celebra-tion of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima which occurred

in 1917. This free Marian app is designed to bring you closer to Jesus through Mary by fostering the habit/practice of daily devotion to her. This app comes to you fully loaded with a variety of Marian resources–text, video and audio! You get a rosary guide (English and Spanish); Divine Mercy Chaplet guide; daily Marian reflections; Stations of the Cross reflections (audio op-tion); popular Catholic prayers; Works of Mercy listing; the Pope’s prayer intentions (video included); information on Our Lady and more. You may set up reminders (phone/tablet alerts) to help you remember to pray daily. CLICK HERE for more information and to download.

NEWS YOU CAN USE After serving Dallas Catholics for the past decade, Bish-op Kevin J. Farrell (also chancellor of the University of Dallas) was appointed by Pope Francis in August 2016 as the highest-ranking American clergyman in the Vati-can. Farrell will oversee the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, a new department in which he will focus on the lives of ordinary Catholics around the world. In his response to this appointment, Bishop Farrell stated, “I am extremely humbled that our Holy Father Pope Fran-cis has selected me to lead this newly formed dicastery. I look forward to being part of the important work of the universal Church in the promotion of the laity and the apostolate of the laity and for the pasto-ral care of the family in accordance with the Pope’s recent apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, the Joy of Love, and the support of human life. “ To access America Magazine and Cardinal Farrell’s re-cent article on Lay Ministry, CLICK HERE