Growing up on Sinton Avenue in Carrick, I was very blessed to have good neighbors: the Winschel, Paff, Ruhling and Burke families all looked after one another as our back yards all connected. There were many times during the summer we would have a Block Party and had great food, games and rode our bikes out in the street.
 
This weekend we celebrate the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The readings focus on love and service, not just to God, but to others. In the first reading from Deuteronomy, we read part of Moses farewell speech. He has an important message for his people that they must never forget to serve the Lord. In the Gospel of Luke we read the famous Gospel of the Good Samaritan. In the parable, as an injured man lays on the side of the road the first two travelers, a priest and a Levite see the man and walk right past him. The third man, a Samaritan, considered an outcast and enemy to the Jewish people, approached the injured man, poured oil, bandaged him and took care of him. Luke wants to extend Jesus’ teaching to proclaim that a neighbor is not determined solely by racial, cultural, or religious heritage. As Jesus clearly shows, a neighbor is anyone who acts out of love for God and meets people’s needs with love. We need to love and service our neighbor’s especially in difficult and inconvenient times and put our faith into action.  
CCEEP Social Ministries Center It gives me great pleasure to welcome Anne Scheuermann as our new Coordinator of Social Services and Community Action for the Catholic Community of the East End of Pittsburgh. Anne has extensive background in social ministry working for Jeremiah’s Place in East Liberty which is a Center that assists families in crisis, Financial Development Committee Volunteer at the Deer Valley YMCA Camp in Fort Hill, PA, and previously volunteered in the St. Bede Religious Education Program. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon. She will oversee the Ministry Center in Wilkinsburg and also the Food Bank in Homewood and will begin her employment on August 1. Welcome Anne!
 
For St. Bede and St. James parishioners, be sure to use your July offertory envelope packets for a new envelope for “Social Ministries and Community Outreach.” St. Charles Lwanga Parishioners will receive their new envelope in the August packet. 100% of the donations will go to fund our Social Ministries Center. We thank you for your generosity.

New weekend Mass Schedule begins next weekend!
Effective next Saturday, July 20, the new Mass schedule will be:
Saturday Vigil: 4 pm     St. James
                        5:30 pm St. Bede
 
Sunday:           8 am     St. Bede
                        9 am     Mother of Good Counsel
                      10 am     St. James
                      11 am     St. Bede
 
CCD Religious Education Sundays 9:45 am - 10:45 am St. Bede
 
Parish Improvements Our maintenance department continues to do summer projects including painting around the St. Bede Campus. Several outdoor hand rails have a new fresh coat of paint on them and the Preschool Room and Kindergarten hallway at St. Bede School has a fresh coat of paint.
 
Several areas of the St. James Church roof are leaking and we will be working with Welte to repair them. Work continues on the St. Bede Rectory roof.
   
CCEEP Blood Drive Please join us next Sunday, July 21, from 9 am to 2 pm in St. Bede Activity Room or St. James Chapel for our CCEEP Blood Drive. If you are able to donate blood it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Happy Anniversary! Fr. Augustine celebrated his 12 ^th Anniversary of Priesthood Ordination last Sunday, July 7.  Congratulations!
 
Congratulations to Graham Robert Cooney, son of Greg and Monica Firment Cooney who was baptized last Sunday.
 
Happy Birthday to our Director of Religious Education, Teresa Maynor, who is celebrating her birthday on Saturday, July 13!

Welcome Home A special St. Bede Welcome to John, Angela, and Sophia Rondia who recently registered at CCEEP.

Something to Think About…