Saint Gerald Catholic Church

Say Cheese! Your Picture is Needed for the Family Directory

Our parish is doing a new pictorial directory. We want everyone to get a new picture taken so that our new directory will be complete - IT WON'T BE COMPLETE WITHOUT YOU! You can make your appointment online now by clicking on the link below. The photo dates are January 18-22 and January 25-29, 2022. Families with 7+ members, please complete 2 consecutive time slots.

When asked, please be sure to put NAMES of people in photo - NOT the number of people in photo. List first names only - husband, wife, and children (oldest to youngest).

Make Your Appointment Now

Here is what you will get for helping us make this directory a success:

• FREE 8x10 portrait for participating families (choose your portraits immediately following your photo session via ZOOM)
• FREE directory for participating families
• Specially priced portraits and frames (credit cards accepted)
• 10% discount for seniors 65 and over

Any questions, please contact: Jean 402.516.5846 - John 402.213.1358 - Kathy 402.658.4477

We also need volunteers to help greet families as they come for their photo session. If you are able to help, please contact any of the three committee members listed above.

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Archbishop's Annual Appeal

Our gifts to the 2021/22 Archbishop's Annual Appeal bear witness to God's love at work in our lives. Thank you to all those at our parish who have responded so generously to Archbishop Lucas' invitation to join him in the work of equipping disciples and living mercy. Please prayerfully consider supporting this year's Archbishop Annual Appeal.
Donate Now

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Pray For Priestly Vocations

This year, unfortunately, we had no young men ordained to the priesthood for the archdiocese of Omaha. Please pray that more young men will hear and respond to God's call to the priesthood.

PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS (by Pope St. John Paul II)
Jesus, our Good Shepherd, bless all our parishes with numerous priests, deacons, men and women in religious life, consecrated laity and missionaries, according to the needs of the entire world, which you love and wish to save. Assist our pastors and all who live a consecrated life. Guide the steps of those who have responded generously to your call and are preparing to receive Holy Orders or to profess vows. Look with love on young people and call them to follow you. Help them to understand that in you alone can they attain complete fulfillment. To this end we call on the powerful intercession of Mary, Mother and model of all vocations. We beseech you to sustain our faith that the Father will grant what you command us to ask. Amen.

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What is a Nazareth Group?

To express your interest in joining a group or to find out more click here to go to https://www.nazarethgroups.com/.

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Healing was at the very core of the life and mission of Jesus. As his disciples, it is our calling to carry on that same mission. If you feel called to the healing ministry and would like to learn more about it, please consider registering for the newly-opened Encounter School of Ministry on the campus located in nearby Springfield at Ablaze Ministries. For more information go to encounterschool.org/omaha/. For even more details regarding Encounter Ministries School of Ministry you can also go to their website at encounterministries.us.

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Eucharistic Adoration

Would you pray about committing to 1 hour of Adoration weekly, between Wednesdays at 8 AM and Thursdays at 11:59 PM? You can go to the link below if you'd like to commit to a weekly hour of prayer before Jesus in the Eucharist.

SIGN UP FOR ADORATION

We will notify you when we have all the hours filled and are able to begin exposition for these times on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Although our Eucharistic Lord is not always exposed in the monstrance, He is in the tabernacle 24/7. You are always welcome to come pray in the chapel at 96th and Q. To find out how to get the code for the chapel doors (west doors), please contact the parish office at 402-331-1955.

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From Our Pastor - A Future Full Of Hope

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future full of hope. When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you, says the Lord, and I will change your lot; I will gather you together from all the nations and all the places to which I have banished you, says the Lord, and bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you (Jer. 29:11-14).

Written by the prophet Jeremiah, this was God's love letter to the nation of Israel-a nation in crisis very much like our own nation today. Like our own nation, it was a suffering nation- a nation under siege and in exile, cut off from loved ones, from a country they once knew and cherished, and from all that was close and dear to their hearts. Like many of us, they were a nation whose future was uncertain and they were beginning to lose all hope.

As a contemporary evangelist once said, "we may not know what our future holds, but as believers we do know Who holds our future". We know that God has a plan for our welfare and not for woe. Let us take time out of our busy days to call on Him and pray to Him. Let us take comfort in knowing that when we look for Him with all our heart we will find Him and He will change our lot. God's message to Israel is a message for all of us and for all humanity. It is a message of restoration and of hope. God's promise of restoration, however, is not merely a restoration to "normal", but something far greater. It is a restoration to a peace and a hope that only God can give us. It is a restoration to a whole new life in and with Christ. A life of profound joy and true freedom. A life that our world and its leaders promise to give us, but fail to deliver time and time again.

My hope and my prayer for all of us is that as we look to the future, let us first look to the present and find that God is with us. And, come hell or high water, that it is in Him and Him alone that we will find a future full of hope.

In Christ our Hope,
Fr. Mark

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Live Adoration Broadcasts

Here are a few adoration LIVE STREAM links to help you with continuing your hour of adoration. God will honor your love for his Eucharistic Heart.

• Live Adoration at the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Vilnius, Lithuania
• Live Adoration on EWTN Poland
• Live Adoration at Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Singapore
• Live Adoration from Tyburn Convent
• Live Adoration at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Doral, Florida

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Prayer for Family Formation

Prayer for Family Formation in Every Part of Our Parish
Dear Lord, you have always been faithful to us and have always guided our parish to know, love and serve you. You call us to be Disciples who actively share their faith with others. Strengthen the gifts of the Holy Spirit in each of us as we seek to help our families become the primary place of religious formation. We give you thanks for the fruit that has come from Family Formation. Bless all our efforts this coming year especially as we move the Family Formation model into our school and as we begin YDisciple among our youth. Encourage us as we move in this new direction and keep our hearts tuned to your will. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Article Suggestions from Father Mark

- Our Lady of America Warned Us
- Understanding the Coronavirus
- Coronavirus Proof Your Home
- Quarantine: The Call to a Deeper Spirituality to the Desert
- Fatima and the Necessity of Suffering
- What Does the Lord Want to Teach Me During This Crisis?
- I Cried When Mass Was Cancelled
- Are Sundays a Day Off for Lent?
- How To Rescue Souls
- Discipleship vs. Volunteer
- Renewing the Priesthood Involves Spiritual Warfare

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Vision
Encountering Jesus · Making Disciples · Transforming Lives

Mission
Led by the Holy Spirit, we are a Catholic community of faith whose primary purpose is to know Jesus, to love Him, and to serve Him in serving others. Sent to make disciples, we invite and welcome everyone to come and share our Master's joy.

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St. Gerald Athletics

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