WE DID IT! Last weekend, we were blessed to have some speakers with us who helped put a real face on our annual Catholic Charities Appeal. We heard about the ways that our contributions to the Appeal make a real difference in the lives of those especially who have found themselves on the margins of our society. I mentioned during the Masses that we were closing in on our ambitious $30,000 goal for this year.

I am so happy to be able to share with you that, thanks to you, we have now not only reached that goal, but we have surpassed it.

AS OF MONDAY, WE HAVE RAISED $31,876!

That is more than $11,000 beyond our total last year when we raised slightly more than $20,000. My deepest thanks to each of you who have contributed to this worthy appeal. If you haven’t had a chance to send in your contribution, the Appeal continues through the end of the month. Any amount will be greatly appreciated. As always, I am humbled by the generosity of this parish.

BUILDING FOR OUR FUTURE. I also wanted to share with you some exciting news for the future of our parish. Since re-forming the Parish Pastoral Council last summer, we have been working very hard on a number of areas that will help our parish grow and thrive in the years ahead.

We have focused our attention on reaching out more to the young families in our parish and community; we are creating a strategy for a more focused outreach to the cadets at the Maritime Academy; the diocese is working hard on improving and solidifying our school for the future.

Part of this task has been an attempt, at the direction of the Diocese, to address some of the space issues that we have here in the parish. As you know, we lack adequate office space and meeting space, all of which effects the amount of rectory space. Additionally, the Diocese has asked us to also address our worship space and the oddity of our two-sided church.

As part of this effort to address these issues for our future, the parish has just purchased a nearby house that will serve as the new rectory for the parish. This will give us the ability to renovate the current rectory to serve as more adequate office and meeting space for the parish.

I have written about this in much greater detail in a special letter in the bulletin today. Please take a few moments to read that letter and feel free to reach out to me with your comments and questions.