"Fun in the SON"

As we have been advertising around the parish recently, St. Andrew’s will be hosting an outdoor Summer Rock Fest, “Fun in the SON”, next Saturday, July 21, from 12-4 pm on the Athletic Field. We are inviting all St. Andrew’s parishioners as well as teens from other parishes. There will be a Catholic band (Crispin), food and drink, sports games on the adjacent county fields (flag football, soccer, kickball), and priests offering Confessions. Tickets are $5; food and drink will be sold separately. The event is rain or shine; hopefully, it won’t rain!

In some ways, it’ll be like a mini-version of World Youth Day which Pope John Paul II spearheaded in the 1980s. World Youth Day is a week-long festival in a designated city (e.g., Denver in ’93; Sydney, Australia in 2008) where Catholic youth gather from all over the world; the Pope attends on the final day(s). “Fun in the SON” will be on a much smaller scale, and, of course, the Holy Father won’t be coming! But, Crispin played at World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002 (in front of a million people), and priests heard Confessions in a field after an outdoor Mass for 10,000 youth in Cologne, Germany in 2005. So, we have those two common denominators!

I think that I heard Crispin play at WYD in Toronto. From what I remember and from the word on the street, Crispin rocks! They play an assortment of music with powerful lyrics and a very solid message. They are based out of Texas and have been touring all over the world recently. We very much look forward to welcoming them to St. Andrew’s next weekend!

Many SAA parishioners have come forward to serve as volunteers for this event, and I am grateful. We could use a few more, though! If you or someone you know is interested in helping before, during, or after the event, please contact me.

The biggest thing we need right now is to know how many people are coming. We will ask parishioners to sign up this weekend and indicate how many tickets they need. This is primarily for us to know how much food and drink to provide.

We can have an initial sign-up here to reserve tickets. Tickets can be reserved by: a) leaving a comment below this post –please include your name-, b) sending me an email (my address is under my profile), or c) calling me at 301-649-3700 ext. 314. Can you spread the word to other parishioners to reserve tickets?

Teens / youth ministers from outside the parish should call Kelly @ 301-946-1161 to reserve tickets.

Please pray that God blesses our event. As I said in my homily this past weekend, it’s a great way to build up the Kingdom in our community. It should be a lot of fun, too!! It’s all for Jesus…Fun in the SON!!