Dear Parishioners, As we began the season of Lent last week, we now enter our first full week of the Lenten season. We sometimes need those “extra” early days of Lent to get our minds and hearts into these weeks of preparation before Easter. We all know that Lent is not always an easy spiritual season. It can be challenging in some ways as we look at our lives. But in other ways, it can be very fulfilling as we seek to come closer to Christ. Our time of prayer during this season is an essential element. Of course, finding time for prayer is often a challenge. Whether it is in private prayer or committing to a new routine of prayer such as attending daily Mass or the Stations of the Cross each week, Lent can renew our spiritual lives! I especially ask your prayers for our Catechumens and Candidates in our RCIA program as they prepare to receive the Sacraments at the Easter Vigil. This Sunday afternoon, they will be going to meet Bishop Lohse at the Cathedral for the Rite of Election. Confession is another important element of this Lenten Season. You may have noticed on the schedule that we are going to be offering a time of Confession each Friday night during Lent a half hour prior to the start of the Stations of the Cross. This is in addition to our regular schedule and the upcoming Lenten Penance Service. Since we have fewer clergy this year versus last year, we didn’t feel that we had enough resources to offer the weekly Lenten talks this year. However, our Parish Lenten Retreat will be held next Saturday, February 24th. We still have a couple more weeks of work to be done on the Marian Hall bathrooms. Thank you for your patience with this project and I believe you will be pleased with the updates to these bathrooms. I also thank you for your patience as we have had to deal with replacing one of the fire alarm panels in the main building. Our contractors had to order the parts twice as the manufacturer shipped the wrong parts the first time. Everything is working now and has been certified by the Portage Fire Marshall. Thanks for reading! Fr. Mark