“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Is 43,18-19

Dear parishioners,

We have a beautiful illustration of the fulfilment of these beautiful words from Isaiah in today’s gospel. But more about that in the homily.

For now, just a bit of news. 

This Sunday’s special collection is the annual Share Lent collection for Development and Peace. Hopefully, we will be generous this year. The last two years’ collections, for obvious reasons, were very poor. Development and Peace is struggling, and the needs are so great in our world full of turmoil.

You won’t believe this, but our special collection for the woman stuck in a refugee camp in Jordan totaled $9,024.80! That’s one thousand above our goal. Her son will be able to bring her to Vancouver. God bless you all for this generosity.

We have placed the Sunday edition and now the daily edition of the Living with Christ at your disposal. Also, we have resumed the daily morning prayer of the Rosary and Lauds, the official morning prayer of the church. If you wish to join in, we begin with the Rosary at 7:15 a.m., followed by Lauds, Monday to Friday. On Saturday, we begin the Rosary at 7:45. I’m ever so thankful to Gleceria and all others who have worked with her to restore this beautiful prayer practice.

This brings something else to mind. Sanitizing our hands upon arrival and again when leaving the church has taken on a new timeliness and relevance since we are touching books again that have been touched or will be touched by a multitude of other people. All the more reason to keep up this excellent practice.

Another bit of good news is that we now have a deacon at St. Mary’s! Deacon Gilles Simard, our Dominican brother, was ordained to the diaconate on March 12th. He arrived this week to exercise his ministry as a deacon here at St. Mary’s for a period of six months. We’re really so happy to have him, not just in the parish, but in our Dominican community as well, which is much enriched every time a brother joins us. You’ll have ample opportunity to meet him, or at least see him, in the weeks and months ahead.

We have launched this year’s Building fund online raffle. Effective this Sunday and until June 22nd, there will be volunteers available in the foyer after all masses to help you purchase tickets or take your raffle orders. The final draw date is June 24. There will also be an early bird draw. See the parish bulletin on the parish website for more details. 

Please note that during the last two weeks of April we will be installing new playground equipment in the parking lot north of the school. This means that on Sunday, April 24th, parking will likely be very limited on that parking lot.

Finally, we will be participating in a project called the “Joyce Street clean-up party” on Saturday, April 23rd. The actual cleanup lasts from 10:00 until noon, and is followed by a barbecue here at St. Mary’s. We can only contribute 15 people to this joint neighbourhood venture, so we are requiring pre-registration to control numbers. The sign-up sheet for this is at the very top of the parish website main page. Just look for “Joyce Street cleanup party” at the top of the page. First come, first served!

We all could use “a new thing”, something new, something good right now. Let’s keep up our unrelenting prayer for peace in Ukraine, and for an eventual end to this pandemic…

God bless, keep safe, 

Fr. Guy