Financial Update Summary

Stewardship
Budgeted Weekly $ 4,620.80 Budgeted YTD $218,361.60
Received $ 5,751.39 Received $195,370.57
Overage/Deficit $ 1,130.59 Overage/Deficit ($ 22,991.03)

Loose Collection
Budgeted Weekly $340.00 Budgeted YTD $ 17,843.00
Received $224.28 Received $ 15,202.59
Overage/Deficit ($115.72) Overage/Deficit ($2,640.41)

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Children’s Corner
Here are just a few of the many offerings to God from the youth at St. Mary’s.

This week my prayers of Special Intention were for: Mom and Dad, All those who are sick, St. Mary School Teachers, for my Grandpa up in heven, The people that did not make it to state, Moms really sore shoulder, Grandma E. Homeless

This is how I used my Time & Talent: Helped my mom, Helped with preschool bind, help kinders who are hurt, worked together with my team, Played with my sister sieria, I made Grandpa a birthday present and card, Reading, to help with Gathering the Children

Gifts from the youth envelopes: $14.75

Happenings This Week:

Monday, March 16, 2009
Evening Prayer. 6:30pm in church.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Lunch for Body & Spirit Noon, with Father Bill. Bring a bag lunch and enjoy discussion & fellowship in the Rosary Society Room.
St. Mary School Staff Soup Supper. 5:00pm - 6:30pm. Come and enjoy!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Religious Education and Faith Formation
Grade School Faith Formation 3:45 pm –5:00 pm
High School Faith Formation 6:45 pm—8:00 pm

Friday, March 20, 2009
No School
Way of the Cross - 4:00pm in church.
St. Mary Trout Boil - 4:30 to 7:00 pm. Boiled Trout, Red Potatoes & Onions, Coleslaw, Rye Bread, Desserts & Beverage.
Adults—$8.00 Children—$4.00, Fish & Chips—$4.00. Sponsored by St. Mary Building & Grounds .Helping Hands & Desserts Needed.

Saturday - Sunday, March 21 - 22, 2009
The Stewardship Committee will be at all exit doors promoting “Bag & act of kindness.” Once again we will ask for that wonderful giving spirit that makes St. Mary Parish special. What better time than Lent to reach out to others. All donations will go to the Algoma Food Pantry. We thank you in advance for your generosity.

In Joy and Hope: JOURNEY TOGETHER ALONG THE LAKESHORE

Like a professional baseball player who is engaged in spring training to get in shape for the upcoming season and to reacquaint himself with some of the fundamentals of baseball, Lent is spring training for the disciples of Jesus. We need to deepen our friendship with the Lord and the fundamentals which help us do this are three: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Let’s focus on prayer. Certainly prayer is like breathing for the Christian. Lent is a time for more intense prayer. Some have decided to participate in Evening Prayer and others in the Stations of the Cross during Lent. Many have picked up the book of meditations, Not By Bread Alone; others are doing some other kind of spiritual reading during Lent. Across England in the Anglican Church, Archbishop Rowan Williams has recommended that Anglicans read the book, Why Go to Church? The Drama of the Eucharist, written by the former Master of the Dominican Order, a Catholic priest, Fr. Timothy Radcliffe. Father Tim is British and lives in Oxford, England. An interesting choice, for sure, to be recommended by the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury!

Let me suggest that our celebration of the Eucharist on weekends during Lent might also be deepened by a renewed commitment to full, active and conscious participation. Some points to consider:

• Do I bring all of my heart and mind and soul to the celebration of the Eucharist?
• Do I give my utmost attention to the Mass and what the Lord might be saying to me personally during the Mass?
• Have I prepared for Mass by reading and meditating on the Scriptures ahead of time? Remember that the Bible references for the Sunday Scriptures are in the bulletin each week!
• Do I join the priest in praying the prayers – especially the opening and closing prayers of the Mass? Do I really pay attention to these beautiful words?
• Do I offer my gift of treasure with sincere gratitude to God for all of God’s blessings in my life?
• Do I pray the words of the Eucharistic Prayer with the priest – the great prayer of thanksgiving which calls upon the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the Precious Body and Blood of Jesus?
• Do I receive Holy Communion with open hands and heart – fully expecting to be joined intimately to the very life of Jesus?
• Do I drink from the cup? I especially like this prayer which might accompany this beautiful act: “If you will be with me, Lord, I can accept and get through whatever sufferings I have to face.” Recall Jesus’ great prayer of trust in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.”
• Do I enter into the periods of silence during the Mass – especially after the homily and after communion – being lovingly attentive to the presence of the Lord?

Pope Benedict XVI, in a recent Q & A session with the priests of Rome, said this: “We must learn to celebrate the Eucharist, learn to know Jesus, the God with a human face, who is close to us. We must enter really into contact with him, learn to hear him and learn to allow him to enter into us. Sacramental communion is precisely this interpenetration between two persons. I don’t just take a piece of bread, I take or open my heart so that the Risen One may enter into the context of my being, so that he may be inside me and not only outside me, and thus so that he may speak inside me and transform my being…”
Father Bill +