First candle of the Advent season

Photo by Jane Winstead

Father Dominic lights the first candle to mark the beginning of the Advent season on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Mass. It is the first of the four weeks leading up to Christmas.

St. Vincent de Paul Giving Tree

Photo by Jane Winstead

St. Raphael parishioners selected the gift ornaments for the St. Vincent de Paul Giving Tree after Masses on Sunday. There's still time to get an ornament and purchase a gift for a needy child in the area. The ornaments indicate the age and gender of the recipient so appropriate gifts can be chosen. Gifts should be returned with the ornament attached to the St. Vincent de Paul Box by the Giving Tree by December 11.

Inspiring words of Matthew Kelly

Have you ever wondered if God was speaking to you or if it was just a voice in your head? Do you know how to tell the difference? Come hear dynamic Catholic speaker Matthew Kelly and find out.

Matthew Kelly will speak from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3 at White Family Center at Clearwater Catholic High School, 2750 Haines Bayshore Road in Clearwater.

Tickets are just $39! Call Mary Russell or Robin Babka

at St. Cecelia Church: 727-447-3494

Help us with the rummage sale

By Denise Debord
Are you starting to clean out closets in anticipation of the holidays and holiday visitors? Are you downsizing or do you know friends or family who are moving or downsizing? If so, CCW has a way to help you out.

The St. Raphael Chapter of the Council of Catholic Women will hold its annual Pack Rat Rummage Sale on Saturday, January 21, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Every year the event gets bigger and better but to insure this we need donations. This year I have some storage space available for those of you who have some items and don't have anywhere to store them until the sale. The space is somewhat limited but it is available so let me know and we'll try to make whatever arrangements we can.

Volunteers have signed up to help with the event but we still need more volunteers to help not just on Friday, January 20 with the set up and Saturday, January 21 with the sale, but with helping to receive and sort the items in the afternoons the week of January 16 through the 19.
And please, don't think that this is a ladies only event. We need to enlist the help of husbands, daughters and sons. Every year we have a few more teens and men helping out but we always need more help.

This is an opportunity for the teens, school, parents—all of our parish organizations to pull together to make this a fun, successful fundraiser. This year's festival showed how much we can do if we all support each other. I'm asking that you redirect this message so I can get the word out to everyone.

We could use some additional storage space so if anyone has a bit of extra room in their garage or storage unit that we could utilize for a few months it would be greatly appreciated. We also need volunteers who have a truck or van and can help out with transporting some of the items to and from storage and the church.

Please contact me by phone or email if you have items to donate, have some space or a truck or can spare some time to volunteer. You can reach me at home at (727) 526-7580 or on my cell at (727) 502-2761 or with this email address wdebord727@yahoo.com

Look forward to hearing from a lot of you. Thanks.

All Saints Day Children's Mass -- 8 a.m.

Photos by Jane Winstead

St. Raphael Festival photo gallery

Photos by Jane Winstead

Photos by Donna Lynch