From the Pastor...

I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)
 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In last week’s bulletin I wrote that some of the themes in the readings for that 16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time were "getting one’s priorities right and being attentive to the presence of God." In the first reading from Genesis 18, God visited Abraham (and Sarah). In the Gospel from Luke 10, it was Jesus = God, visiting with Martha and Mary.
As I was preaching, though, I had a slight change in prospective, you might say: the main theme, of course, was prayer, that is, through prayer living in the presence of God. In whatever life’s situation we may find ourselves in, whatever ones state in life, whatever ones vocation: everything should be coming from a life of prayer in the presence of God, like we see in Abraham, like we see in Mary… In prayer, we might discover that even our sufferings can have meaning, if we connect our sufferings with the sufferings of Christ (cf. 2^nd reading from Colossians) …
The readings of this 17^th Sunday, deepen and widen this theme of prayer: In the first reading from Genesis 18, it is Abraham now pleading for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Luke’s Gospel, it is the Lord teaching his disciples how to pray. The Lord is indeed encouraging his disciples to pray, but also to recognize the needs of others, to answer their needs… Include the world, the people around you in your prayer, and let your prayer, your faith become alive in being attentive to the needs of others, in answering the call for help from others around you. Through prayer, one might even accidentally encounter the presence of our Lord around us!
May God bless you and your family and loved ones, upon the intercession of our heavenly Mother Mary, the Queen of Heaven, and may He give you His peace! Fr. Simeon


Roof Replacement & Repair Fund 
Starting amount in the roof fund  $73,318.16
Total amount in the roof fund        $102,055.75
Raised since February 26                     $28,797.59
Expected challenge grant                     $14,368.80
Thanks be to God! The Catholic Extension Society has awarded us a challenge grant! The deal is: Catholic Extension will give us up to $60,000, if we can raise an additional $120,000 between February 26, 2022, and April 30, 2023! The ratio is, for every $2 raised, we would get $1 from Extension…
Please keep praying – and please, if you can, continue to contribute to the Roof Replacement and Repair Fund! We’ll have to do some serious fundraising now… At any rate: we need to look at a course of action to replace the leaking roofs of two more school buildings, the parish hall, rectory, and to repair the concrete driveway north of the rectory – a project somewhere in the neighborhood of some $250,000…