Dear Parishioners,

Spring has sprung, albeit in a very wet way. Yet, we all know we need the precipitation given our drought situation. In addition, many of our ministries are becoming more active after being shuddered or reduced due to the threat of the pandemic. It has been heart-warming to see many parishioners who have been away return to regular attendance at Mass. Last weekend, we had our annual Spring Cleaning event. I hope you noticed how much better the campus looks. A big thank you needs to go out to Kirk Chapman of our Maintenance Committee who lead the charge of this wonderful event and all who participated in it.

In this weekend’s Gospel, we hear from Jesus, ‘I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’” Our Lord created the Church, founded upon Peter as the first leader, so that we would be able to live out this commandment more easily and allow it to energize us to go out and love others. This is done in many ways, including the ministries of the parish. Thank God our ministries are starting to come back to life again so that we can get busy about living out this new commandment from our Lord.

Here is a simple list of the ministries winding up again at St. Anne:

• “Newcomer’s Ice Cream Social” which will take place this Sunday at 1:30 PM in the Sky Room. If you are new to our parish in the last two years or so, please consider coming. We will have, of course, ice cream with various toppings. The leaders of various ministries will be present to help you get acquainted with the activities and mission of our parish.  

• This Saturday (May 14), we witnessed the return of our school’s BINGO & Spaghetti Dinner. 

• One of the most important ministries is that of funerals. Connected to our funerals is our ability to offer receptions afterwards. In this regard, I hope that our Funeral Reception Teams will return so that we can host these important receptions again. 

• I have been told, as of this writing, that we may very well have Coffee & Donuts after the Sunday Masses this very weekend. Ah! Yes! Coffee & Donuts, the eighth sacrament!  Just kidding of course. I have a feeling this ministry may need more help with set up and take down of tables as well as cleaning.

• The removal of the temporary 9 AM Sunday Mass which we had added due to COVID, means that we can start hosting other events between the Masses on Sunday’s such as “Catholicism 101."

At Our Lady of the River, the community was quickly able to start up Coffee & Donuts after Mass once the mask mandates were dropped. At St. Patrick of the Forest, I hope, they will be able to do similar soon. I know that they have are will soon restarted their Pastoral and Administrative Council meetings. 

None of this would be possible had people not responded in faith to God’s prompting. Please pray and ask God how you are being called to participate in these or other ministries of our parish and/or missions. We are called to be in greater communion with our Lord, and he wants us, consequently, to be in greater communion with each other. Participating in any of these and other ministries of our parish or missions, is a magnificent way to encounter God and his people. And by doing so, others will come to know that we are His disciples.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor