SCS strives to integrate religious truths and values with knowledge and skills in order to provide a quality education for all students. This vision motivates our students to not only grow academically, but physically, culturally, and socially.
Our school mission is to develop our students to live their lives as a Witness to Jesus. We believe our school exists to teach the mandate of Jesus: "Love one another as I have loved you."
We believe that we share the vision of Jesus within an atmosphere designed to celebrate and practice the love of God and neighbor. We motivate students to grow academically, culturally, and socially. Jesus remains with the community He formed, and we are privileged to witness and share that Presence.
There is no better investment in the world than the local Catholic parish. It is where people meet Jesus and lives are changed. We are called in faith to be good stewards, and there are many ways to do that. Stewardship is simply recognizing that everything we have and everything we are is a gift from God, and being grateful and generous with those gifts weather they be in time, talent or treasure. When a steward loves God above all, God provides the grace for the steward to love to an even greater depth.
At St. Columbkille, we believe that stewardship and giving should be well thought out and easy to do. Please visit our "Giving" tab for more information, or click one of the buttons bellow to explore how to contribute to our great legacy.
STEWARDSHIP OF TREASURE APPEAL COMMITMENT WEEKEND!
The St. Columbkille Stewardship Appeal reaches its climax with Commitment Weekend during Mass today. As you have heard over the last two weekends from Eric Perusek, our stewardship director and Greg Babcock, from finance council, our goal is to increase our offertory income so that our parish can continue to grow and make disciples of Jesus Christ.
This week all our parishioners received a letter and brochure in the mail inviting everyone to become a weekly/monthly offertory giver through Faith Direct or if you are already giving to prayerfully consider increasing your giving by a percentage that is within your budget. If you haven’t already, please take time to read the letter and brochure so can you better understand all the good we are doing to fulfill our mission of
Worshiping God, Serving Others and Growing Disciples of Jesus. At St. Columbkille we understand giving as an act of worshiping God.
As your pastor I give to our parish using Faith Direct Online because it is simple, easy to use, and I don’t have to remember to turn in an envelope each week. In Faith Direct offertory money is collected by electronic funds transfer which you have total control over. Faith Direct also includes special collections like Holy Days of Obligation and Repairs and Maintenance. Signing up for Faith Direct is easy and you can find a simple link online by scanning the QR Code on the commitment card this weekend or visiting or website and clicking on the Giving tab.
During the Liturgy this weekend, we will have envelopes containing a commitment card at the ends of each pew. We are asking every household to consider increasing their weekly contribution becoming a percentage giver using the guide to giving. Success will be ours if every family or individual responds with a small sacrificial increase on Commitment Weekend. There is also a place on the card for you to request envelopes or have information sent to you regarding our electronic giving program. You may also call the parish office to place this request as well.
Please take the time to fill out a card this weekend and drop it in the collection basket. For our staff and finance council to budget for the coming year we will use this data to make important spending decisions over the year to come. We are grateful for the positive response we have seen and heard in the last couple of weeks. We are confident in a positive response from our great faith community during this Commitment Weekend. We pray for the success of this appeal to secure our legacy for future generations.
PARISH FINANCIAL REPORT!
Also, included in this weekend’s bulletin is our Parish Financial Report that covers the fiscal year beginning on July 1st 2023 and ended on June 30th 2024. Here are a few highlights to keep in mind:
• Our parish investments have performed very well earning over $2.4 million dollars of investment income this past
year.
• We spent over $600,000 of the investment income to cover an increase in budgeted spending for our school
($406,000) and parish ($194,000) this year.
• Included in these numbers are salary scale raises for all our schoolteachers, to make their pay more competitive
with surrounding public and neighboring Catholic schools.
• Our goal is to run both the parish and the school at break even without needing to use investment income to cover
expenses.
• Our offertory collections decreased by two percent this year which is precisely why we are inviting everyone to
prayerful consider giving for the first time or increasing your giving over the next year.
• Our finance council and staff are working hard to decrease unnecessary spending while continually improving our
campus.
ADVENT SMALL GROUP BOOK STUDY!
Do you want to grow closer to Jesus during the upcoming Advent Season? I want to invite you to join an Advent Small Group Book Study for 5 weeks during the month of December leading up to Christmas. We will be using the book Adore by Ave Maria Press to delve deeper in the mystery and beauty of the Advent season as we prepare for Jesus’ birth at Christmas. If you are interested in leading or joining a group please stop by the welcome desk after mass and sign up with your name, phone number and email so we can contact you. The groups will meet weekly throughout entire month of December. There is no better way to prepare for Christmas!
Never forget, the Lord Jesus is with us, always!
As missionary disciples of Jesus, formed as a community through Scripture and Sacraments, we are sent into the world to joyfully proclaim the Gospel.
6740 Broadview Road
Parma, Ohio 44134
216-524-1987