Padre's Message

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September 15, 2019

Showing True Repentance

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we are now children of the eternal kingdom. We have been forgiven by God in Christ Jesus. Forgiveness for sin is always accompanied by the specific grace to move us to show we are truly sorry by freely and lovingly performing charitable deeds. We must concur with God’s forgiveness not only by our words of sorrow but by our actions of love for God and neighbor. As members of God’s kingdom, it is never enough to merely say to God, “I am sorry” or “Forgive me.” He surely forgives us but also pours His grace into our hearts, whispering, “Show me that you are sorry.” He does this when we pray the Confiteor at the beginning of Mass. In this prayer, God forgives us for our venial sins, gives us grace to show true repentance for these sins and then whispers to our hearts, “Show me that you are sorry.”

In the sacraments of confession, we acknowledge and confess our sins to Jesus in the person of the priest. We receive forgiveness and divine guarantee of forgiveness from the lips of the priest, the specific grace to show true repentance in what we do, as well as the divine exhortation, “Show me that you are sorry.” God is not satisfied with our merely confessing or acknowledging our sins. How different and more life-giving our Masses and Confessions will be if we receive these sacraments always thinking of one concrete way in which we can show God that we are truly sorry for our sins. It may be a concrete way of avoiding such sins in the future, or something done or endured out of love for God and neighbor, or a new attitude to life. Or it may just be refusing to give up in the struggle with sin out of love for God.

What do we get when we move from merely saying to God, “I am sorry” to actually showing Him that we are truly sorry for our sins? One sure reward is that we find great peace and we become instruments of peace to others in the world. The Prophet Isaiah speaks of the coming of the messiah as a descendant of David. The messiah will bring a peace that would extend to the animal kingdom and to all the cosmos. “There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain.” Is this type of peace possible or is the Prophet dreaming?

Truly this peace is possible because Jesus is with us here and now in the Eucharist we celebrate and “the Spirit of the Lord rests upon Him.” By this Spirit, we are forgiven, reconciled with God, and given access to this peace of Christ. By this Spirit, we are brought into His kingdom even now and moved to bear good fruits in loving deeds to show our true repentance. The peace that extends to all creation is the peace that comes from God to creation through truly repentant hearts. Peace in our world depends on how authentic our repentance is. We become those graced channels of peace to our world only when we realize that we now belong to the new reality of God’s kingdom and choose to move beyond merely saying to God, “God, I am sorry” to actually showing that we are sorry by the lives that we live today.

Glory to Jesus, Honor to Mary

July 28, 2019

Dear parishioners and guests,

I am reaching out to you with a short message since I am not at every Mass. I would like to give you an update on our progress with the parish ministry center and restoration of the chapel.

The primary reason for the building is to ensure the safety of our school students and to provide a secure place for them to study. School security will be greatly improved by moving all the ministry meetings from the school to the new ministry center. In this brutal world, the safety of our children is our priority.
The chapel will host adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and small liturgical events.
The project is moving forward. We have completed the work on the site. All the foundations are set and utilities installed. The concrete slab has been poured and it will serve as a floor for first level of the building. The opening for the elevator is made and secured. The chapel was stripped to the point that we can continue the restoration. In that subject, the new roof on the chapel was installed and now we are insulating inside of the chapel. By the end of July, you will be able to see new windows in the chapel and in the middle of August, steel frame will start to be erected.
We are planning to finish the project January of 2020.
The school expansion is in the early stages. We do not have a school building committee, yet formed, but our School Advisory Committee (SAC) is working with an architect so we can figure out what we can do about the school expansion and put a price tag on it.

So far, we have the financial support of 1.8 million dollars. It is my prayer that more families will financially support the ministry center and chapel, so I ask you to prayerfully consider making a pledge toward this much-needed addition to our parish.

Thank you in advance for all your help in this matter and I promise to be transparent to you and inform you on a regular basis about this project. Please contact me if you have any questions.

In Christ,
Fr. Gregory

About Fr. Gregory
Fr. Gregory Golyzniak was born and raised in Muszyna, Poland, the youngest of four children. He attended the world's largest Catholic Seminary in Tarnow, Poland, and was ordained in 1998. Father Gregory came to the United States and was assigned to the Diocese of Syracuse, New York, from 2002-2008. He then transferred to the Diocese of Colorado Springs, first serving as pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Southgate. In 2013, Fr. Gregory was assigned to St. Peter Catholic Church in Monument. Fr. Gregory is currently working long distance on a PhD in Sacred Architecture with an emphasis on the Gothic architecture of the 11th-17th centuries.

UPON THIS ROCK
Building our future, honoring our legacy.

Our plans to renovate the chapel, construct a new ministry center and expand the school are moving forward. Your pledge is vital to making this project a success. We are growing and we are all grateful for that! With growth often comes opportunities, equating to the need for space to accommodate the number of persons wishing to maintain and expand our stewardship and faith potential. Currently, our ministries use St. Peter School for many of their activities. In order to keep our school students as safe as possible, the school facilities must be dedicated for school use only. Please prayerfully consider financially supporting this project. Your support is greatly appreciated. The “Upon This Rock” pledge card is located on our website petertherock.org. If you have any questions about the project or want to meet with Father Gregory or Debby Dover, our Campaign Coordinator, please stop by or call the office at (719) 481-3511, we are happy to meet with you!

Groundbreaking Ceremony
Sunday, March 3, 2019