Dear Parishioners, The joy of Easter remains! It’s hard to believe that three Sundays have already passed since we celebrated the Lord’s Resurrection. Yet this Easter Season, and the 50 days before Pentecost, remind us that we as Christians should never stop celebrating the Resurrection. What Jesus did for us is indeed a great mystery. But something that should never be a mystery is the love that He had for us when He died on the Cross and rose to new life. Let the joy of Easter remain in your hearts this Sunday and in our continued celebrations of this Easter Season. As we begin our annual Bishop’s Appeal 2023, we are reminded how, even from the earliest times of the Church (from the Acts of the Apostles), we hear how the Church was supported. This past week, your individual mailings and pledge card for the appeal should have arrived in your mailbox. I ask that you prayerfully consider a pledge to the appeal, even in these times of inflation and financial stress, to continue the work of the Church throughout the counties of our Diocese. As we find ourselves at St. Catherine, in the midst of transitions for the clergy in our parish, we see how important our priests are to a life with the Sacraments. Thankfully, we do have some seminarians that are approaching their ordination in May. However, we know that their numbers are not enough to sustain our parishes and our prayers and support need to continue to foster more vocations. We continue our prayers for our priests and more vocations and at the same time pray for the successful support of this annual appeal. You may have noticed a number of service vehicles at the parish over the past few weeks. We are getting some projects taken care of that have been needed for a long time. Our work on the sound system in the church is continuing as a number of speakers have needed to be replaced (notice the bare wires hanging from the ceiling in places). A couple of replacements have arrived, but the factory is having a hard time giving us all the speakers we need. The most noticeable project is repairs/replacement of our rainwater system. On the west side of the church, we have been experiencing flooding for a number of years that sometimes makes its way into Marian Hall. During the pandemic, we were unable to find any contractors that were able to help us. Finally, we were able to get into the schedule this spring and the rainwater collection system and the underground pipes are being replaced to prevent the flooding that we experience every time there is torrential rain. In addition to this project, work began several weeks ago on replacing the thermostat control system in the Stanley Centre. This system has been failing us for quite some time (remember that this building is over 20 years old now). Both the drainage system project and the thermostat controls are being paid for by money that we have put aside these past few years to fund projects such as these. Thank you for your support that has made necessary projects like this a possibility. Thanks for reading! Fr. Mark