I. Mary Crowning to honor our foremost saint takes place the first Sunday of May each year. We honor and respect Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother. Immediately after the 9:00 Mass, we process with our First Communion and Confirmation parishioners to Mary’s grotto (between the church and the rectory). Special thanks to John and Sharon Bell for bringing Mary’s grotto to life with beautiful flowers! Thank you! 

II. Ministers of Care visit and take Holy Communion to those who are homebound or in nursing homes. This is a wonderful outreach which binds the sick/shut-ins with our larger Eucharistic community. Each visit says, “you are not alone.” This ministry Home visits usually take place on Friday mornings or on Sunday. Interested? 

III. Inspiring & Honorable Witness! A young priest from Belgium requested to be stationed on the island of Molokai, where the lepers and the diseased were “dropped-off” to die. Outraged by the deplorable conditions of the island, he sought to restore a sense of dignity to the “un-touchables” discarded there. Within a short period of time, the sick were living in clean houses instead of caves, and were given a proper burial upon death rather than being “dumped” into mass graves. Even though the leprosy was highly contagious, Fr. Damien chose to remain in close contact with his people, and align himself even more with the crucified in society. Damien de Veuster (1840-1889) eventually contracted the disease and died from it. So fully did Fr. Damien immerse himself in the grim world of Moloka’i, that he could say not “You lepers” but “We lepers!” With Jesus praying for us, we serve the world not by setting ourselves apart from others, but by witnessing in their midst. Celebrate Mass on his feast day, Thursday, May 10th. 

IV. Formed.org: beginning in February, our parish invested in this learning, evangelization, catechetical, and entertaining media tool for every member of St. Stephen Cathedral. To date, there have been 117 parishioners who have signed up for this new and exciting formation tool–videos, audios, e-books, movies, study series–for adults, teens, young adults, and children alike.

I encourage you to sign up this week by going to: ststephencathedral.formed.org. This will take you directly to the cathedral sign-up page. Take advantage of this window of opportunity! Explore! Discover! 

“Proclaim a joyful sound and let it be heard; proclaim to the ends of the earth: The Lord has feed his people, Alleluia.”