April 20, 2024
Dear Holy Family Parishioners,
Happy Easter Season! I am very pleased to announce two of our parishioners, David Guerrero Del Rio and Mark Klinkenberg, were recently accepted to the Permanent Deacon Formation Program for the Archdiocese. Thank you to their wives and families for their support and willingness to join the Deacon Formation Program! During this 4-5 year process of discernment and formation, I ask the parish community to please keep them in your prayers.
Holy Family is hosting a retreat day for the lay pastoral staff of the entire Archdiocese on April 25th. I am pleased for the generosity of our parish and staff, to enable us to be a resource for the larger Archdiocese. In addition, there will be a retreat day for all the liturgical ministers of our parish on April 27th. All current liturgical ministers are encouraged to attend. We will begin the retreat with Mass at 9am.
The 2024 Annual Catholic Appeal starts on April 20th. Rich Shively, director of the Seafarer’s ministry in Seattle, will be speaking at all Masses on April 27-28. He is a long-time minister of the archdiocese and a close friend. Last year we exceeded our goal by a substantial margin, and we were able to use the money collected over our goal to help pay for the new air conditioning in the church. Let’s try to exceed our goal again this year as our overage will be used to renovate the church bathrooms and build a proper confessional – much needed areas of improvement.
During May, we will gather in the Marian Garden after the 11:00 AM Mass on May 5 to crown Mary. In addition, we will celebrate first communions and confirmation, and I will be doing a teaching Mass on the Eucharist at all the Masses on the weekend of May 4-5. Mass will still be about the same length, just with some extra instructions to provide helpful reminders about why we do what we do at Mass. I am offering this in the context of the USSCB year of the Eucharist.
I look forward to these opportunities to grow in our faith during the Easter season.
God Bless,
Fr. Bryan Dolejsi, Pastor