“How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord God of hosts.”
(Psalm 84:2)
San Pedro is truly a lovely dwelling place for the Lord. During the 40 Hours Devotion, it was filled with a spirit of prayer and praise, which overflowed in the Eucharistic Procession on Corpus Christi. This public witness to our Eucharistic Lord was a testimony to anyone driving along Tamiami Trail that afternoon -and even made the front page of the Florida Catholic. Thank you to all who helped coordinate and participate in these events. Many graces were received, which will continue to bear abundant fruit throughout the ongoing Eucharistic Revival.
God’s house here at San Pedro is also more beautiful as much of the restoration work proceeds. Repairs to the church roof, as well as the new roofs on the Parish Office and Youth Center buildings are now complete, and a damaged skylight in the church narthex has been replaced. Light poles and signs that were damaged by Ian have been repaired and replaced, making it easier to navigate the parish grounds for parishioners and visitors alike. A new Fellowship Hall, the former business office, has taken shape, arising out of the damage from the hurricane, and is ready to host groups and events. And the broken water main has been repaired!
The water main repair will be paid for from the Capital Expense funds held in reserve from our monthly second collection. The rest of the repairs are linked to the Parish Restoration Fund (PRF) which is underway. Thank you for your generous support to this point, and we look forward to some fun and exciting fundraising and community-building events over the coming months to build up that fund.
Some work still in progress tied to the PRF are gutter and soffit repairs on the Activities Center and replacement of the Chapel doors. The Activities Center repair will continue once supplies are available, and the new Chapel doors are being made, and should be installed by the end of August.
The offices of the Diocese of Venice have been instrumental in helping move all this work forward, and we would not have been able to make all this progress without their vital help. In that way, your support of the Catholic Faith Appeal which funds these services – among so many others – is a direct benefit to our own parish community.
Let us know if you have any questions about the CFA and Parish Restoration Fund, the works they support, or ways you might help us reach our goals. All of this is at the service of maintaining the lovely dwelling place of San Pedro Catholic Church – not only the buildings, but the community of faith that abides here – a visible sign of God’s living presence in our midst.
-Fr. Tom
