All are invited to Procession with Blessed Sacrament next Sunday the 24 at after 11am mass "To have that ability to express our faith publically also encourages our faith internally. If we don’t express the things we believe, they tend to fade"

Closing Celebration for the Year of Faith - November 24 This has been a good year! Many exciting things have happened in our Parish and as our liturgical year closes so does our privilege to be a place of pilgrimage. We thank God for so many graces poured out upon us this year of faith.   Faith as St Paul says is “the conviction of things not seen” (Hb 11:1) and we are sure that many of efforts to grow in our desire for holiness might not been visible nonetheless these efforts are real.   As part of our celebration for the closing of the Year of Faith, the School Centennial and the 125th anniversary of our parish, we a preparing a Eucharistic procession after the 11am Mass, a prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours and a social time as a moment of celebration as a family. Why a procession? Faith, which we celebrated this year, moves us to express ourselves not only in the context of Mass or School, but in the ‘outer’ world too. Also, Faith ‘takes place’ that is another reason why a procession is meaningful. We are all in a journey to the house of the Father. We need the aid and impulse of faith go get there. It is a tough journey, yes but with a little faith we can move mountains.   As a way to prepare ourselves; confessions from Tuesday November 19th through Friday November 22nd will be offered from 7 to 8pm in the Church. Other small changes will take place as way to enhance the beauty of our Church.   At this time it is good to remember the conditions and steps to earn a plenary indulgence here at our own Church. The universal prescriptions for the plenary indulgence are: Each time they visit, in the course of a pilgrimage, a papal basilica, a Christian catacomb, a cathedral church or a holy site designated by the local ordinary for the Year of Faith (like St. Mark’s), and there participate in a sacred celebration, or at least remain for a congruous period of time in prayer and pious meditation, concluding with the recitation of the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, depending on the circumstances, to the Holy Apostles and patron saints (from the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis Website). These indulgences can be earned once a day for you or for deceased brothers and sisters.   As you can see the Lord gives us plenty of opportunities to grow in faith, hope and love for Him. Let us make of celebration an opportunity for a deeper relationship with the Lord!