Thursday, 30 June 2011 13:14

From Independence Day until the week before Christmas, Bishop Michael O. Jackels will spend his every weekend getting to know more members of our diocesan family.
He will share the TOGETHER Vision with more than 14,000 families in 31 parishes during the next 24 weeks, inviting each family to share responsibility for the mission of the Church.

“These parish visits are a key part of the TOGETHER Vision because of the first two goals: to strengthen the sense of family or oneness in our diocese and to deepen our practice of stewardship as a way of life,” Bishop Jackels said. “The parish visits allow me as the bishop, to be physically present at every Mass, in every parish, to say to every parishioner in the Diocese of Wichita: We are a family. ”

The bishop is asking each member of our diocesan family to do two things: pray for the spiritual and material success of the TOGETHER Vision and make a sacrificial gift in support of true needs in our diocese.

“The faithful of our diocese have already pledged more than $20 million toward seminarian education, Catholic formation programs and our Cathedral campus renovation,” said Mike Wescott, director of development for the diocese. “But we still need your support to form nearly 50 seminarians each year, to help our struggling Catholic schools and our religious education programs. And we still need your help to repair the buildings on our Cathedral campus that serve thousands through liturgy and community outreach.”

The bishop has already traveled nearly 6,000 miles to speak at every Mass in 59 parishes during the past year. He’s been welcomed into rural and urban parishes with prayers, songs and gifts of support for the TOGETHER Vision, and he’s left parishioners with a greater sense of their responsibility for the mission of the Church.

During the month of May, the parishioners of Mary Queen of Angels in Fort Scott demonstrated their connection to our mother church and our diocesan family as they prayed for favorable construction bids for the renovation of our Cathedral campus.

In February, parishioners of St. Anthony in Wichita reinforced the first two goals of the TOGETHER Vision by cancelling all of their Sunday Masses, so that they could celebrate one Mass together as a parish family followed by a multicultural luncheon where parishioners presented the bishop with family contributions to the TOGETHER Vision.

And throughout the past year, hundreds of Catholic school and Parish School of Religion students have demonstrated their understanding of and support for this vision through songs, prayers, posters and actual buckets of money for the future of our diocese.
“The TOGETHER Vision will not end,” Bishop Jackels said. “This vision for the future of our diocese is not over with the beginning of our Cathedral campus renovation, and it will not end with my last parish visit on Dec. 18. The goals of this vision will live on with each of us sharing responsibility for the mission of the Church.”

You can pray with the bishop: Go to TOGETHERvision.org to pray for the spiritual and material success of the TOGETHER Vision with Bishop Michael O. Jackels.

Where will Bishop Jackels visit next?
Bishop Michael O. Jackels continues his TOGETHER Vision visits. Here is a schedule for the next few weekends.
July 9-10: St. Francis of Assisi, Wichita
July 16-17: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Wichita
July 23-24: St. Mary, Newton
July 30-31: Sacred Heart, Halstead