Dear Parishioners:
We had a great celebration of Catholic Schools Week. Our student speakers delivered terrific talks about OLM School at Masses last weekend. They are an example of the outstanding education OLM School provides. We thank them for a great job!
The school boiler project is completed. Two new boilers are fully operational and keeping our students and faculty warm! We thank Paul Anderson for overseeing the project and Bob Bolten and Arden Engineering for installing it. The final cost of the project was $180,000. Thankfully, the Grateful for God's Providence Capital Campaign funds covered the cost.
We also recently had to install new sewer pumps at the school. After a couple of decades of wear and tear, they gave out, causing us to temporarily close one bathroom. But again, Arden Engineering came to our aid, and we now have new sewer pumps working properly! The cost was about $10,000. Thank you for your donations to the Building and Grounds Collection, which help defray the costs of such unforeseen projects.
Another project we are commencing at OLM School is a more spiritual program. The late Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton, who was known as the Rosary Priest, famously said: "The family that prays together stays together. A world at prayer is a world at peace."
We ask our school families to make "A Pledge to Our Lady." This pledge commits them to attending Sunday Mass weekly, offering Grace before meals, and praying together once a day. Those whose families make the pledge spiritually commit to developing their faith lives with these three actions under the guidance of Our Lady of Mercy. As Father Peyton also said: "If families give Our Lady fifteen minutes a day by reciting the Rosary, I assure them that their homes will become, by God's grace, peaceful places."
Those families who make the "pledge" will fill out a pledge card, which will be placed in the sanctuary of our Church, where they will be remembered at Masses. This is a great spiritual and prayerful support for these young families by our entire parish. As many of our older parishioners know from their experience raising a family, prayer and the Sacraments are central to family life. And as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us:
"Sunday, the 'Lord's Day,' is the principal day for the celebration of the Eucharist. It is the pre-eminent day of the liturgical assembly, the day of the Christian family, and the day of joy and rest from work."
Today, February 2, in the secular world, is Groundhog Day. The fate of Spring hangs in the balance as a burrowing rodent looks for its shadow. However, today, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, which occurs forty days after the birth of Jesus. It is also known as Candlemas Day since the blessing and procession of candles is included in today's liturgy. The Presentation of the Lord supersedes the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Feasts of the Lord that fall on a Sunday in Ordinary Time and in the Christmas season replace the Sunday liturgy.
Founded by Pope St. John Paul II in 1997, today is also the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life. He attached it to "Candlemas Day" because the consecrated men and women are to be the light in the world, imitating Jesus, the Light of the World. So please pray for our good sisters at OLM, Sister Lourdes, Sister Emma, Sister Jane, and Sister Jeanne.
Monday, February 3, is the Feast of St. Blaise, the bishop and martyr of the 4th century. He is the patron of candle makers and ailments of the throat, as he once saved a young child from choking on a fish bone. We invoke his intercession for throat ailments like the colds and flu making the rounds this winter. In anticipation of this feast, we bless throats at weekend Masses. They are blessed with two candles tied together with a red ribbon to form a cross as we invoke the intercession of St. Blaise. Let us also pray for all those suffering ailments of the throat.
At OLM, we have much to be grateful for and much to pray for. Let us be grateful and prayerful! Be well. Do good. God Bless. St Blaise, pray for us!