Our parish consists of Good Shepherd Catholic Church & School. The Catholic Community of Good Shepherd strives to live Christ's word daily by our commitment to worship, stewardship, faith formation, Catholic schools, family and social outreach.

Good Shepherd Catholic Church & School recognized that maintaining the safety and security of parishioners, students, staff and visitors to our church and school campus is best implemented with a multifaceted approach. To the extent modern technology provides tools to maintain safety and security, the use of video surveillance cameras may be in place in and around the parish campus. Cameras will not be permitted in areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.

2301 N Stockwell Rd
Evansville, IN 47715
Phone: (812) 477-5405

August 3, 2020

Act of Spiritual Communion

Parish Office and Church accessibility status

In order to maintain safe precautions from COVID-19 for our Parish Staff employees and parishioners,  our church prayer space remains closed throughout the working day (except during scheduled Mass and liturgical service times).  Parishioners will be given access to our Parish Office for business related concerns.  If you are in need of SCRIP GIFT  CARDS, please stop by the Parish Office between 8:30 AM and 3:30 PM.  We will continue our presence through social media, answering the phone and responding to emails; as well as dealing with emergencies that might come up.

Good Shepherd Catholic Parish will continue to send updates through our Facebook page -
https://www.facebook.com/gsparish.evv/

The Message will continue to provide updates as necessary. Because our print edition is weekly, please visit our website and social media accounts for the latest information:

The Message website: https://evdiomessage.org/,  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CatholicMessage/

Instagram: @themessageonline,  Twitter: @messageonline

Prayer of Pope Francis

O Mary, you shine continuously on our journey as a sign of salvation and hope.
We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick.
At the foot of the Cross you participated in Jesus’ pain, with steadfast faith.
You, Salvation of the Roman People, know what we need.
We are certain that you will provide, so that, as you did at Cana of Galilee,
joy and feasting might return after this moment of trial.
Help us, Mother of Divine Love,
to conform ourselves to the Father’s will and to do what Jesus tells us:
He who took our sufferings upon Himself, and bore our sorrows to bring us,
through the Cross, to the joy of the Resurrection. Amen.

We seek refuge under your protection, O Holy Mother of God.
Do not despise our pleas – we who are put to the test – and deliver us from every danger, O glorious and
blessed Virgin.

If you haven’t already setup an electronic giving account, do know that you can always drop off your collection in our outside mailbox.

What You Can Do to Stay Healthy:

The CDC has a good site showing the possible symptoms of Covid-19:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html

For More Information:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/current.htm

Indiana State Department of Health Weekly Influenaza Reports
https://www.in.gov/isdh/22104.htm

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacred-art-and-music/influenza-and-the-liturgy.cfm

Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

In the July 16 issue of The Message, Bishop Siegel announced his intention to consecrate the Diocese of Evansville to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on September 12. Bishop Siegel also encourages each of us to consecrate ourselves individually to Mary. In the weeks before (typically the 33 days), we are all invited to spiritually prepare for this consecration.

If you wish to consecrate yourselves to Mary and to follow the traditional 33 day (or approximately 5 week) preparation for Marian Consecration, you'll begin preparation on August 10. One book you could consider reading is, "33 Days to Morning Glory, A Do It Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Marian Consecration," by Fr. Michael Gaitley. You can purchase it from the Augustine Institute at this website: Augustine Institute - 33 Days to Morning Glory

If you would rather not do a self-guided retreat, for each of the five weeks, please pray a Marian Prayer together as a family.  You can also choose a different prayer each week. Following are some possibilities:

Week 1: Memorare
Week 2: The Angelus
Week 3: Hail Mary - Part of Rosary Prayers
Week 4: Magnificat
Week 5: Hail Holy Queen - Part of Rosary Prayers

Along with the Marian Prayer for the week, you can also pray a rosary after Mass either on Saturday or Sunday.  All families are being encouraged to spend some time with the Blessed Mother in personal prayer.  May Mary watch over you and bless you as you begin this new school year.  Let us turn to our Lady for her prayer and protection now and always!

One of the potential impacts of the temporary suspension of public celebration of mass is a decline in Sunday Collection/Offertory.  Good Shepherd Catholic Parish and most of our parishes offer automatic withdrawal ACH giving.  Our Catholic Diocese of Evansville has also established an Online Sunday Collection Giving Page on its website for the benefit of each parish in the diocese.

As you are aware, many are working to reduce the spread of novel coronavirus COVID-19 within our state and our communities. According to Governor Holcomb, "Non-essential gatherings must be limited to no more than 10 people. This includes any event or gathering of people who are in one room or a single space at the same time, such as cafeterias, churches, stadiums, meeting and conference rooms, auditoriums and the like. This guidance applies to professional, social, community and similar other gatherings.“  Good Shepherd Catholic School and all Catholic schools within the Diocese of Evansville will continue innovative instructional practices until returning to school within the school building (tentatively set for May 4, 2020) or we complete the school year utilizing extended learning at home through Friday, May 15, 2020.  Therefore, Bingo will remain cancelled until further notice.

We thank you for your past loyalty to our Bingo program, and we hope to see our regular Sunday and Tuesday Bingo friends when it is deemed safe by local authorities to proceed.  God Bless,

The time has come for us to admit what we all were probably thinking.  The uncertainty of what the future few weeks and months will bring has forced us to make the call of postponing the planning for our 2020 summer social at least in the form we have all come to know and love.  What this crazy situation does provide, is the opportunity to make this year's social one of the most memorable and impactful to our parish and local community than any other year ever could.  Good Shepherd has been so blessed with the generous donations of time, treasure and talent of our dedicated and active parishioners but we would not have experienced anywhere near the financial successes we’ve had without the loyal and wide-spread support of hundreds of local businesses over the years.

It is for this reason that we would like to make 2020 the year of the Good Shepherd Catholic Parish Reverse Summer Social.  We would like to try, as a parish, to return the support to these local businesses that many so desperately need right now.  Over the next few weeks, it is our goal to have someone from our parish personally contact as many of our prior year business and auction sponsors as possible to not only thank them but to get a link to their business information that we will then post at the following:  https://gsparish.org/summer-social/

Each business will be given an opportunity to provide a link to their catering or take out menu, their direct online shopping site, a list of the services they offer, or it may just be a link to their general website that lists their location and hours of operation.  We’ve also had a couple of businesses contact us about sponsoring summer “give-back” programs to help us replace some of the lost income from our social so it could be a link to that information.  Whatever it is, we want it to be easy for all Good Shepherd Catholic Parishioners to be able to help those that have helped us in so many ways.  We would appreciate everyone’s help in spreading the word to check our site before making decisions on where you will purchase your next set of goods and services.  If you are willing and able to help make a few of these calls, please let one of the chairpersons know as our list of supporters is very large.

The financial part of our social gets so much attention and obviously is a blessing when it comes to making the ends meet in the parish budget but the true benefits of our social and why we have been so successful is the sense of community, teamwork and family it brings.  While we want to make the “Reverse Social” a parish wide goal and team effort, we would also like your input on other creative ways to foster parish camaraderie and togetherness in this unusual time.  The ideas could be revenue generating or not.  Obviously many things will depend on how everything develops over the coming months but we want your ideas and opinions.  The more ideas we have, the more prepared we can be for whatever situations are thrown at us these next few months.  A few that have been thrown out already are:

• Drive thru dinners
• Inviting and promoting food trucks from local restaurants on the Good Shepherd grounds
• Dumpling and dressing sale for Thanksgiving
• Incorporating a small “social” with the fall mom’s kickball event
• Sponsoring social distancing approved mini concerts in the Activity Center that can be enjoyed virtually
• On-line Silent Auction

We want everyone to know that if things change and we can go back to a normal plan for our social we will do everything in our power to make it happen in whatever scale is appropriate.  But given the current circumstances, we felt it was important to have a back-up plan.  We know that whatever happens, Good Shepherd Catholic Parish will rise to the challenge!  A HUGE THANK YOU  to each of you for your continued support of the social.  We WILL get through this and just imagine the party we will have on the other side of this!!!

Everyone stay safe and healthy until we can all be together in person again.

Summer Social Co-Chairs:

• Sam & Lori Tenbarge
• Eric & Karen Lively
• Troy & Beth Keck
•  Rev. Zach Etienne - Pastor

St. Theresa Parish has been merged with Good Shepherd Catholic Parish. The church and school buildings have been torn down. Only the rectory and garage are left standing and are being used by Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities is building their office building along Stringtown between Herndon and Wedeking.

Habitat for Humanity has proposed to build 14 houses east of the rectory - 7 houses facing Herndon and 7 on Wedeking. The cost to sponsor a house is $80,000. The area will be called St. Theresa Place.

A group of St. Theresa parishioners and friends of St. Theresa have met 2 times to keep alive the family spirit of St. Theresa. Father Ted Tempel served as pastor of St. Theresa from 1979-1993. He volunteered to raise money for 3 Habitat Houses - $240,000.

He is asking us to consider making a commitment to achieve this goal. They are seeking a commitment over a 4-year period, to be given by the end of 2023.

This is what they need:

20 People to Give $1,000 a Year for 4 Years
10 People to Give $2,000 a Year for 4 Years
04 People to Give $5,000 a Year for 4 Years

They have 4 people who have pledged $80,000 to build a Habitat house. It is more joy in giving while we are living - realizing we are helping people own their own home.

Give directly from your IRA to Habitat for Humanity. Save on taxes and still receive a charitable deduction.

To make an online donation, visit: https://evansvillehabitat.cloud9strategies.com/give/

Please stay up-to-date with current details from Fr. Frantzdy Joseph, c.s.c. and members of our Twinned Parish - Saint Rose of Lima [Pilate, Haiti].

They are truly struggling currently, especially as a result of the coronavirus pandemic:

Twinned Parish – Saint Rose of Lima [Pilate, Haiti]