News

Fall Festival 2023 - Thank You!

Thank you to all of our 2023 Fall Festival sponsors and volunteers! A big thank you to our planning committee for all your hard work in organizing this wonderful event — especially our principal, Martha Laurent, for overseeing the planning. Our volunteers really make the event happen! Thank you to everyone who volunteered for one or several shifts!

Please support our sponsors. Thank you so much to these businesses and organizations for supporting Holy Name of Jesus! 

Saturday Morning Mass and Wednesday Confession

Update: this will be a permanent change. It was very well received over the summer.

An announcement from Fr. Tim Wratkowski, July 20, 2023

In my first two years here, which have been extremely blessed, I have often heard two requests regarding the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Mass. People have asked me, “Can we have another scheduled time for Reconciliation?” And I’ve also heard, “We used to have a Mass on Saturday morning, can we start that again?” It is edifying for me to hear the spiritual hunger and desire to grow in your faith. Given that we are blessed to have three priests around for the summer, and after consultation with the parish staff and the Liturgy Commission, I am pleased to announce that we will be adding an additional opportunity for Reconciliation and a Saturday morning daily Mass at least through the summer. 

Starting this week, we will be offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesdays from 5:15-6:15 p.m., the first day being July 26. We chose an evening time with the hopes that those interested could stop by on their way home from work before dinner time. We know that no time will work for everyone’s schedule, but we hope this opportunity will be helpful. In addition, anyone is welcome to set up a private appointment for Reconciliation outside of the regularly scheduled times (through Grace Johnson if you would like to remain anonymous.)

Also, starting this week on July 29, we will be offering a daily Mass on Saturdays at 8 a.m., with the usual Reconciliation to follow at 8:30 a.m. From ancient times, the Church has had a beautiful tradition of dedicating Saturdays to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the faith of the Church resided in Mary, whose faith did not waver at the foot of the Cross. Therefore, the Church has a rich treasury of Mass formularies dedicated to Mary, and we hope to celebrate some of these Masses on Saturdays which are not impeded by another saint’s celebration. 

We hope you and your families will join us for these wonderful opportunities to grow in your faith this summer!

Communion Outreach

The Eucharist is at the core of our celebration each Mass. The sacramental signs become the Body and Blood of Jesus we receive.  At the Last Supper, sharing His Body and Blood with the disciples, Jesus said, "Do this in memory of Me" and so we do, through Holy Communion. The Eucharist not only brings us into communion with God, but with others as well.

For many, the bond of the Eucharist is felt and celebrated at Mass. But some members of the HNOJ community are not able to physically attend Mass. For this reason, HNOJ’s Communion Outreach team has dedicated volunteers who go out into the community to visit and bring the Eucharist to those who cannot get to Church due to their circumstances.

At Holy Name of Jesus it is our joy and honor to be able to provide this ministry through our Communion Outreach Team. If you or someone you know is homebound in our parish area and would like Communion brought to them, please contact the parish office at 763-745-3492.  This ministry will be led by Steve Hayes and Maureen Laird-Hayes.

Do you take photos while you're at HNOJ that ought to be shared? Send them to us!

We love seeing photos and video taken by parishioners. It gives us a unique perspective on what you experience. It's especially helpful to have more photos and videos to use in our marketing materials such as social media, publications, our website and more.

In particular, the Stewardship Commission would like images or short videos that show your ministry!

Please make sure that all submitted photos and videos that depict people have the person(s) permission to share with HNOJ, and that they understand that HNOJ may publish these photos and videos in upcoming marketing materials, on our website, social media channels or any other medium.

Email photos and videos to photos@hnoj.org.  Please call Sarah Reid at 763-746-8194 with questions.

A few parishioners have received text or email messages from people pretending to be our pastor. These messages state pretty generically that he would like your help.  When a person responds, they receive a reply requesting donations in the form of gift cards. Please know that text messages are fake and should not be responded to. Fr. Wratkowski will never text or email you for gift cards.

In all cases, we have found that the contact information was "skimmed" from our website. This is a very common practice among spammers and is seen in businesses of all types. To help reduce the possibility of emails being copied from the website, icons with links to the email are used instead. This is not effective with phone numbers as a desktop would not be able to call out.

HNOJ takes security and the confidentiality of your data very seriously.  We have multiple systems in place to help keep us all as safe as possible. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Michelle Hudlow, Director of IT at mhudlow@hnoj.org or 763-233-0250.