Science confirms that the human life of an individual begins at conception and our experience tells us that all human life is precious, fragile and given directly to us as a gift from God. We are brothers and sisters in our human family, made in the image and likeness of God. We are all called to live out our responsibility to protect and care for one another, whether born or unborn.

We've certainly had a lot to celebrate the past two months! Together, we've celebrated the Easter Season with all of its holy days, Fr. David Verbsky's Mass of Thanksgiving, Deacon Larry's 25th Jubilee, Fr. Spisak's 40th Jubilee, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Happy Father's Day! God our heavenly Father has made the gift of fatherhood precious as He has called our earthly fathers to be like Him in every way. He calls us fathers, married men and priests, to grow in our fatherhood by making a generous gift of ourselves for the building up of our families, our society, and our Church.

All women are welcome to join the WOW Prayer Group at our next gathering on Saturday, June 18th in the Hospitality Room at 9:15 a.m. Please come to join us in prayer and discussion. Happy Father's Day to all men: thank you for using your masculine gifts in the imitation of Christ, St. Joseph, and the saints in fatherly ways to edify others. We are praying for you!

Welcome back to Ordinary Time! Our Easter Season has concluded, but our Church nonetheless gives us some awesome feasts to celebrate for the next few weekends. This Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, reveals that our one God exists eternally in a communion of love among the three Persons of the Trinity.

Our Easter Season comes to a close with Pentecost this weekend. With Pentecost, Easter doesn't really "end" as much as it begins anew whenever we call down the power of our Risen Lord in the Holy Spirit. Pentecost celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church in each of the baptized. Through each of us, the power of Jesus is made manifest in the fruits of the Holy Spirit given to us. Wouldn't you know that each moment is a new Pentecost! Rather than celebrating Pentecost as a static one-time event 2,000 years ago, or even as an annual commemoration, we as a Church celebrate a daily Pentecost as we follow Christ in every part of our lives.

Can you believe we have yet another BIG weekend here at our parish? Two weeks ago, we were engaged in learning about the Angel Scholarship Fund. Last weekend we celebrated the Mass of Thanksgiving for our newly ordained son of the parish, Fr. David Verbsky. And this weekend…

The Lord is so good! We have much to celebrate this week: priesthood ordination, graduation, and a blossoming scholarship program for our school.

I hope you enjoyed the nice weather this week! This week, I want to provide you with a few special invitations and an awesome opportunity to support Catholic education at St. Mary Parish and School!

Happy Mother's Day! What a wonderful opportunity we have this Sunday to be grateful for the gift of our moms. While no one has a 'perfect' mom (except Jesus!), we thank God for giving us a mother who said yes to our, your life and mine. We pray that mothers may rejoice in the gift of motherhood bestowed upon them by our Lord.

All women are welcome to join the WOW Prayer Group at our next gathering on Saturday, May 14th in the Hospitality Room at 9:15 a.m. Please come to join us in prayer and discussion. Happy Mother's Day to all women - whether you have children or not, we are all called to use the gifts of our feminine genius in motherly ways to edify others. May our Blessed Mother, created by God as the ultimate human expression of feminine genius, lead us ever closer to Christ as we strive to imitate her! We are praying for you and hope that you will join us.

May is Mary's month, and it is a time to honor her in our Church by reverencing all the good things Christ is doing in our midst. Her YES to Christ makes it possible for all the graces of the Incarnation and Resurrection to flow into our lives. This month, we have a lot to be thankful for to God. Here are some things coming up that I am grateful for:

Mother's Day is the perfect day to honor the connection between Mother and child and start our baby bottle fundraiser on May 7th and end on Father's Day, June 19th. Because of the coin shortages we are asking for paper money or checks to be placed in the Prolife envelopes found in the baby bottles on the display tables in the Gathering Space.

I hope you all celebrated a wonderful Easter last Sunday with your loved ones, and are enjoying the Maple Festival this week! We still have 6 more weeks of Easter remaining until the conclusion of Pentecost, so there's plenty of time to rejoice in the gift of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and our redemption in Him.

Happy Easter to all of our parishioners, along with their family and friends who are visiting this weekend! This joyous celebration affirms our faith in our Lord Jesus' triumph over the powers of sin and death. The Resurrection of our Lord and the redemption of our whole personhood (body, mind, and spirit) is the reason for our hope. Sin and death will not prevail in us when we remain in the grace and protection of our Lord Jesus!

Holy Week is upon us! I wish to invite you once more to come to confession if you have not had the opportunity to celebrate this Sacrament during Lent, and to participate fully in the Triduum celebrations this week. Here are a few reminders for the week:

I hope you take full advantage of the remaining days of Lent to prepare your heart for welcoming our Risen Lord in the Easter Season. Please check today's bulletin for Confession and Holy Week times, and commit yourself today to coming to these liturgies.

This week, I celebrate my 8th complete month with you as Administrator. I feel immensely blessed to be called to shepherd our parish along with Fr. Spisak and our deacons. I thank you all for your patience with me as I continue to learn and grow into my role and responsibilities. I fully trust the Lord’s hand guiding us all, especially in this Lenten season, as we prepare for Holy Week and Easter in the next few weeks.

St. Mary's and St. Patrick's Church are in the second month of the Adopt-a-Baby program. It is not to late to pray for an unborn baby and their parents. The program will continue to the end of October, respect for life month. Each month a new development poster is displayed. Everyone loves the beauty and innocence of a baby. But not all babies who are newly conceived are allowed to be born. More than 4,000 babies lose their lives every day.

I am grateful to be going through my first Lent with you all. Can you believe this week marks our midpoint through our Lenten journey? Stay strong with your fasting, prayer, and almsgiving with trust that the Lord will do great things through our small sacrifices.