Dear Friends of St. Alphonsus: 

Each fall, all members of our parish community are invited to consider what financial support we are giving to our church and its ministries. This is a time to recall that all of creation is a gift to us from our Heavenly Father. In turn, we are asked to be generous and grateful stewards of the gifts that God has entrusted to us. Scripture tells us, “As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). 

September 26-27 will be our parish stewardship weekend when we will recommit ourselves to support the many good works of our Church.  By sharing our gifts of time, talent and principally our treasure, we will advance the ministries that we offer at St. Alphonsus, reach out in love to others in need, and draw closer to the Lord. 

Please review the enclosed form which describes several ways to become more active and involved in our parish life.  I’m asking all of you to complete the enclosed form and return it via the offertory basket or in the mail as soon as you are able. 

Thank you for reading this letter and making an authentic sacrificial commitment. I pray you find true peace and great joy in continuing to support our church and her worthy ministries.

Respectfully yours in Christ,

Fr. Jim Harvey, Pastor

Sharing the Good News at St. Alphonsus:
How We Have Engaged in Ministry (2019-2020)

Celebrating with 10 families as we welcome young Catholics into our midst with the 
        sacrament of baptism. 
Uniting 4 couple with each other, and with the Lord, in the sacrament of Matrimony. 
Praying with and comforting 22 grieving families as they commend their loved one 
        into God’s care. 
Forming children, teens and adults into our faith and traditions, and prepared them 
        to receive sacraments of initiation:
        22    1st Communion Candidates
        34    Confirmation candidates
Through the sacraments, Heaven comes, not just to visit, but to live with us and in us. 
By receiving the sacraments, we are graced. When Jesus died upon the Cross, he paid an 
infinite price for an inexhaustible flow of grace. That grace enables each person to turn 
to God and to remain united with Him in this life and through eternity.

Click here for the Stewardship form

We welcome you to find your spiritual home with us here at St. Alphonsus.  We are a thriving Catholic community that resides in beautiful Crossville, Tennessee. We invite you join us and see what we're about!

Join us on our Facebook page for a Liturgy of the Word (at our 8:30 Mass).   You do NOT need an account to access, simply click the blue icon on the left of this page OR the link below, which will take you directly to where you need to be for viewing.   You will not see any video until the exact time on Sunday.   Look forward to praying with all of you!   https://www.facebook.com/StAlphonsusCrossville

A Letter from the Bishop:

805 S. NORTHSHORE DRIVE, KNOXVILLE, TN 37919-755 l • (865) 584-3307 • WWW.DIOKNOX.ORG

April 2, 2020

OFFICE OF THE BISHOP 

DIOCESE OF KNOXVILLE

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and hold you in my prayers during this difficult time in the life of our Church, our country, and the world. Presently, the coronavirus pandemic has taken center stage, with alarming statistics and increasing numbers of sick people and deaths. My dear brothers and sisters who reside in this wonderful diocese throughout East Tennessee, I call on you to lift this COVID- 19 crisis in prayer. Pray that God will heal our land and all the countries of the world. It is the first thing we should do. It is the most important thing we can do. It is the thing we should do at all times, as the Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, to "pray without ceasing."

With that being said, as we approach Palm Sunday and Holy Week, I feel compelled as your bishop to share two pastoral thoughts with you. First, as you are aware by now, public Masses are canceled in the Diocese of Knoxville until further notice. As such, I know there is great sadness shared by each of you in not being able to participate publicly at Mass and not being able to receive the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. Please know that I sincerely and wholeheartedly share in your sadness and disappointment.

During this time, I encourage each of you, as frequently as you can, to watch Mass via livestream or television and at the appropriate time make a “spiritual Communion”. St. John Paul II writes that “it is good to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist.” This practice of “spiritual Communion” has happily been established in the Church for centuries and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life. St. Teresa of Jesus wrote: “When  you  do not receive Communion and you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual Communion, which is a most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed on you.” To make a “spiritual Communion” simply pray these words: My Jesus, 1 believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.  I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.

Second, I want to encourage each of you to pray the Way of the Cross through livestream or television tomorrow (Friday, April .3*) and Good Friday (April 10'h). The Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus will livestream the Stations of the Cross after the noon Mass tomorrow (at 12:30 p.m.) and at 12:00 noon on Good Friday. I make this request because the experience of suffering and of the cross touches all of us. I know this pandemic and the restrictions put in place to control the spread of the coronavirus are difficult There are misunderstandings, conflicts, worry for the future of our children, and especially worry of succumbing to sickness and death. These days, too, the situation of many families is made worse by the threat of unemployment and other negative effects of the economic crisis. The Way of the Cross, which we can spiritually retrace, invites all of us, and families in particular, to contemplate Christ crucified in order to have the strength to overcome difficulties.

My brothers and sisters, the cross of Christ is the supreme sign of God’s love for every one of us, the superabundant response to every person’s need for love. In times of trouble, when our families may have to face pain and adversity, let us look to Christ’s cross. There we can find the courage and strength to press on; there we can repeat with firm hope the words of St. Paul: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:.3.5, 37).

During this time of trial, as your bishop, the shepherd of the faithful of East Tennessee, I want to remind you that you are not alone; your family is not alone. Jesus is present to you with His love; He sustains each of you by His grace; and He grants you the strength needed to carry on, to make sacrifices, and to overcome every obstacle.

We must move forward with faithful, unceasing prayer, as well as persistence, patience, and grace. God bless you all

Sincerely in Christ,

Most Reverend Richard F. Stika Bishop of Knoxville

The Parish Pastoral Council invites all St. Alphonsus parishioners to submit images and textual descriptions of their preferred church exterior elevations and styles, to be considered for the dedicated worship space process.

In order to submit your entry, simply send an email containing images and/or descriptions of your preferred elevations to ppc@stalonline.org.  These submissions will be organized into three composite style groupings. From these composite groupings an artist will prepare three conceptual elevation drawings, which will be presented to the parish, and voted on by parish members. The winning conceptual elevation will be included in a "Request for Information" which will be solicited as part of a feasibility study.

As you gather your submission for the Church Elevation Project, please consider praying the following prayer asking for assistance in the undertaking of this project:

Heavenly Father, 

As the early Christians were of one heart and one mind – we ask you to bestow on all of us that same spirit of unity.  Touch the hearts and minds of our Parish Family as we prepare to build a permanent worship space. Increase in all of us a spirit of love, generosity, alms-giving and selflessness for the support of this project.  We pray that faith, hope and charity prevail among all of us as we undertake this project with your assistance and abundant blessings.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen