August 16, 2026

Dear St. James Parishioners, 

Saint James/Seton School: I welcome our students, parents, teachers, administration, and staff to this new school year (See Page 2 of this week's bulletin). Can you believe school begins this Tuesday? Where did the summer go? It seems to go faster every year! Thank you, parents, for entrusting your children to us for their education. We promise to do our best! Let us all work together to make this a productive, holy, safe, enjoyable and great learning year! Let’s keep our prayers going so that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph will be with us always!

Saint James/Seton PRE: Our Parish Religious Education (PRE) Program will be starting next week on Wednesday, the 26th. We encourage all those who have children in public schools to sign them up for PRE. When a child was baptized you promised to bring him or her up in the practice of the faith. Parents are responsible for doing so both by making sure their children have learned their faith (at home and at PRE) and by practicing the faith conscientiously (weekly Mass) with their children. We can help! We have a great program, good leadership, good teachers and plenty of room for more students.  

OCIA: We have another program coming up the following week on Thursday, September 3rd and that is OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation). This is for adults who are curious about the Catholic Faith. Do you know someone who always asks questions about the Catholic Church? Why do Catholics do this or that, or believe this or that? Why do we have to go to Church every Sunday? Why do Catholics hold Mary in such high esteem? Why do we listen to what the pope says? Where in the bible does it say….? Why do we have to go to Confession? How do we know somebody is in Heaven? Why does the Church reject abortion? Why do we believe in Purgatory? What are the sacraments? What about the crusades, the Inquisition, the Reformation, Galileo, evolution, global warming, life issues, social justice, and so many more questions?

We have lots to talk about and it’s an interesting journey. We don’t pressure anyone to join the Church. We just invite anyone who is interested and open to come and see. We love to answer questions and help a person to discern where God is calling them. We actually have a lot of fun. Each week we have prayer time, question time, a video and/or a teaching time, discussion time, snack time, and basically time to explore more deeply the things that are most important to life here on earth and for eternity in Heaven. We invite anyone: 1) who might have an interest in joining the Catholic Church; 2) who definitely has an interest; 3) Catholics who want to go deeper into their faith; 4) Catholics who have not been Confirmed and want to be; 5) Catholics who just want to help out, be sponsors, or to support those on the journey. We meet on Thursday evenings from 7-9 pm starting on September 3rd and going to the end of April. I do most of the teaching with help from Deacon Steve Nelson and various video programs, particularly Catholicism (with Bishop Robert Barron) and Symbolon (with Dr. Edward Sri).  If you know someone who might be interested, please let me know or give them my phone number 402-572-0499. 

May God bless you! Have a great week! 

Fr. Tom Weisbecker