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Celebration Ideas


STEP THREE:

Priesthood Sunday Celebration Ideas

Celebrate! There are many ways to celebrate Priesthood Sunday with the whole parish. Here are some ideas:

1) Parish pot luck dinner to celebrate "Father's Day"

2) "Coffee cake" reception following masses

3) School essay or poetry contest

4) Create a banner for in front of church using these banner and posters provided here...

5) Place an Ad in local diocesan paper along with short story about priest(s)

6) Photo on cover of parish bulletin along with biography

7) Publicity in your diocesan and local community newspaper about your parish celebration of "Priesthood Sunday." Please feel free to copy, customize and then print this suggested parish press kit to promote your Priesthood Sunday celebration with the local media.

8) Put posters announcing your parish celebration on parish bulletin boards. Call the USA Council of Serra International 1-888-777-6681 to order a poster for parish and school bulletin boards to announce your parish celebration, ask for Item #705 ($1.50 ea). (Temporarily SOLD OUT please consider making your banner/posters using these examples <click here>.

Celebration planning:

Form a celebration committee.

Select dates for the committee to meet.

What parish groups would like to participate?

Select a date for the celebration.

Make it a Surprise!

From St. Gabriel the Archangel
Catholic Community, McKinney, TX ...

We just celebrated Priesthood Sunday here in our parish this past weekend. We have done this for a number of years, but with a new pastor this year, we were delighted to be able to “surprise” our pastor, Fr. Don Zeiler, and our parochial vicar, Fr. Peter Tuan Le, receiving the gift of prayers in the form of paper chain rosaries and a blessing from the community at the end of all the weekend Masses.. I’m not sure who enjoyed this more…the priests or the children and their families!

Thank you for providing us a way to honor and celebrate the hard work our priests do every day of the year!


St. Gabriel Faith Formation Programs Celebrate Priesthood Sunday

Faith Formation Family Clusters and the Early Childhood Programs participated in honoring our parish priests, Fr. Don and Fr. Tuan, for Priesthood Sunday on October 25th and 26th by praying a part of the rosary. In all, 6+ rosaries were prayed in honor of the wonderful work our parish priests do every day all year round to support our community’s spiritual needs.

Each Family Cluster was invited to pray one decade of the rosary, signing their names to the backs of paper chain links which were then linked together with other Clusters’ prayer contributions.

Our Toddler Faith Formation (TFF) groups practiced making and saying the Sign of the Cross. They then decorated the crosses for the rosaries with feathers, glitter, foam stickers and a variety of other craft items. Their names were added on the back of the crosses to indicate their participation.

Children’s Liturgy of the Word participants from both the 9:15 and 11 a.m. Masses prayed one Our Father and 3 Hail Mary’s which were then attached to the TFF crosses. Children’s names were added to the backs of the paper links by the CLW leads.

Faith Formation staff prayed the Hail, Holy Queen and supplied the medal that connected the cross sections to the decades section. Staff also assembled the rosaries and coordinated the presentations with the Worship Office.

Presentations of the rosaries were made by Cluster families and children at each Mass on the weekend of October 25 & 26. Each presentation was also accompanied by a blessing of the celebrant by all of the Mass participants.



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Share Your Celebration Ideas

From Blessed Sacrament Parish in Springfield, IL...

Thank you for the poster - I sure wish we had three! (One for each bulletin board in the church.) The poster arrived yesterday. It is really nice - thank you!

Here is what we plan to do for Priesthood Sunday that will not press our parishioners for more funds:

We are designing and printing spiritual bouquet cards in two colors - one will be for our pastor and the other for our parochial vicar. These will be placed in the bulletin as inserts the week before Priesthood Sunday.

The parishioners will be asked to fill out what they wish to offer in prayer for each priest as their spiritual bouquet and return it in the collection basket at the Weekend Masses on this special day.

The children in our school are making special gifts for our priests that will be presented to them at the all school Mass on the Friday before.

We will be placing a special tribute ad with our priests pictures in it in our Diocesan Church Paper that will come out on the Friday prior. Our arts and environment committee is planning special efforts in decorating the church for this special Sunday.

Our music director is incorporating our priest's favorite hymns into the liturgy for all weekend Masses along with other hymns reflecting the theme of the readings, which are also very appropriate for the theme of the celebration.

Thank you for your support,

Sr. Margaret Mary

 

"A Wonderful Celebration"

March 15, 2004

Dear Father,

Last October our parish, St. Paul the Apostle, Racine, Wisconsin, celebrated Priesthood Sunday. This was such a wonderful celebration and our vocation team that was responsible for organizing it received many positive responses.

We had the banner, picture of our pastor and week end assistant displayed in the gathering place and after all masses, the parish was invited to hospitality and good cheer. Best of all, we had lay men and women give testimony as to WHAT THE PRIESTHOOD meant to them in their lives. This was done after the gospel proclamation. Their testimonies were then printed and featured in the following Sunday bulletins. We also had an essay contest for the students with the same theme.

It was on this Sunday that our newly established vocation team was introduced. Since then we have moved mountains doing many things to raise the consciousness of the parish for the need of priestly and religious vocations.

The reason for writing this is to ask if this celebration will be an annual event and what is the date in October for this celebration. We have a few ideas for this event that will need the summer to prepare for. As soon as we get the idea worked out, I'll be glad to share it with you.

Sincerely in Him,

Bea Willing
Vocation chairperson


LOOKING FOR A WAY TO CELEBRATE PRIESTHOOD SUNDAY?
Priesthood Sunday Bookmarks

The Fort Collins, Colorado, Serra Club prepares bookmarks to encourage prayer for the priests their club serves. Mary Stanton is willing to help anyone who would like further information on this project. Her attached bookmarks show the way they were prepared. In the past she used an ordinary Word format but is considering using Publisher this year. If you want more information, contact Mary at mstanton40@msn.com These bookmarks have been well received by the priests in their area and the parishioners. Club members often see the bookmark in peoples prayer books long after Priesthood Sunday. This is one good way to encourage prayer for our priests, see an example.

From the Serra Club of North-Minneapolis...

Sometimes priests are not comfortable with calling attention to themselves even though Priesthood Sunday is not to call attention to themselves but to call attention to the Priesthood. (This is more apt to happen when there is a lone priest in the parish than when there are two or more priests who would share the celebration.) If that’s the case, permission is not always granted to put up the “Priesthood Sunday” posters or insert bulletin announcements. It’s then we have to use a little ingenuity to say thanks and let our priests know we are praying for them and sincerely appreciate them.

Here is how we did it. Each year we composed a prayer for one side of a “bookmark” sized card and the other side listed all the pastors, assistants and deacons to remember in prayer. These cards were placed in the pews, in the Adoration Chapels, hymnals, and in the church pamphlet racks. Individuals were also invited to send personal greeting cards. It worked out well. Extra cards remained in the Chapels and pamphlet racks throughout the year.

This year, we updated the prayer and want to share it and the others with all of you. We also include the example the reverse side listing the pastors, assistants, and deacons that have so faithfully served us.

The format is simple. It’s just a 81/2 X 11 sheet printed on the horizontal using four columns and then printing on cardstock to provide “bookmark” quality cards. Printed on both sides, your print shop will be happy to cut them into bookmarks for you. Click here for sample prayers and click here sample of both sides.

Four More Parishes Join the Celebration

Dear Father,

This will be our third annual celebration of PRIESTHOOD SUNDAY. We have added four other parishes in our district to celebrate the day also.

Our celebration will include our two past pastors to be with us for the liturgies followed by a Fall Dessert Brunch, THE FRUITS OF THE HARVEST.

A special banner announcing that this is PRIESTHOOD SUNDAY with the logo on it  will be carried in procession . Families with young children will carry the banner.

Hopefully , the awareness for the need of vocations, especially to the priesthood will be impressed on the younger generation.

This same idea is carried through with the carrying up of the gifts at the offertory.
Ready made cards for anyone who wishes to make PRAYER PROMISES ( SPIRITUAL BOUQUETS ) AND MESSAGES will be available for the parishioners to fill out and be given to our present and past pastors.

We certainly appreciated the idea to have parishioners give their blessing to our priests after each Mass and will continue to do it again this year.

Peace,

Bea Willing and the Vocation Team members of
St. Paul the Apostle Parish, Racine