The average age of our volunteers in our art & environment ministry is 70. This ministry needs some younger help added to help put up decorations in the church as the church year evolves. It can also include taking care of the plants/flowers inside of the church building or outside flower arrangements. If you're interested in this ministry, please reach out to Marianne Verner at 978-2340 or mverner@stcatherinesiena.org.

Today, we share a post from Busted Halo titled "How to Be a Blessing to Others". We hope you find this post inspiring and hopeful! Please click on the article title to read the article or visit https://bustedhalo.com/life-culture/how-we-can-be-a-blessing-to-others. Enjoy!

Effective Monday, June 14, our Front Office will now be open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm. We’re very excited to see everyone back at church and to be able to offer extended hours during the week to accommodate the needs of our parish. If you need to come in at a different time, please contact our Front Office for an appointment. Please contact us with any questions at FrontDesk@stcatherinesiena.org or 327-5165.

Dear Parishioners, Congratulations Graduates! I believe all our local high school Kalamazoo/Portage graduations finish this weekend with Hackett’s graduation. It’s been another unusual year with the pandemic and all of you have survived the experience! Our prayers and thoughts are with all of you during this time of transition and we wish you the best in the future. Please also pray for our youth who will be receiving their confirmation at the end of June. Because of the repairs and renovations that have been completed at the Cathedral, and the fact that the Bishop is getting close to retirement, the Bishop is hosting all Confirmations at the Cathedral this year. On a completely different note, our Marian Hall Kitchen Project is still in the works! Much of the monies were donated several years ago and we delayed the project for over a year due to the pandemic. We have been working to get the project restarted and have run into the same delays that everyone else is facing: supply chain problems, obtaining all the necessary permits, etc. All the work has currently been taking place behind the scenes. It will be good to see some work start soon in the kitchen! As the Universal Church celebrates the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ, this weekend, no matter what problems or difficulties that any of us have faced during this pandemic, we need to remember how the Eucharist is indeed at the center of our life of prayer. We were reminded over and over again that this was how the Apostles and the early Church always encountered Christ. Nothing else we encounter in this world will ever compare. Let us always keep our lives focused and centered on Christ in this way! Thanks for reading! Fr. Mark

As a Church, we pray for one another that the Lord continues to bless, guide, strengthen, and console us. One incredibly beautiful and ancient way we can pray for someone is to have a Mass offered for that person. It is a holy and devout practice to have Masses offered for a loved one, living or deceased. Masses may be offered on any day, but many offer them on a birthday, anniversary, or for a special need. To learn more about Mass Intentions, or to schedule a Mass Intention online, visit our website at https://stcatherinesiena.org/massintentions. Please click on the article title to view the Mass Intentions for June 5-12, 2021.

Reminder: Our priests continue to hear "drive-in" confessions every Saturday from 11 am - 12 pm in the main parking lot. They ask that you remain in your car for confession. If you would like to schedule a different day/time for confession, please contact our Front Desk (327-5165 and leave a voicemail or email frontdesk@stcatherinesiena.org) and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

As we continue to welcome everyone back to in-person Masses and our numbers increase, we need more Ushers, Sacristans, and Lectors to help us with our weekend Masses. Sometimes our Sacristans are also serving as the Lector for the same Mass; sometimes, our priests are filling in as Sacristan, helping to greet and seat our parishioners and visitors as they arrive for Mass, and then distributing Communion at the same Mass; And often, our priests assist our Ushers prior to the Masses at which they also preside. Several very reliable volunteers have been serving as Sacristans, Lectors, and Ushers nearly every week for the last year, and we are so grateful for all that they do. But they need your help! With more volunteers, we would be able to rotate responsibilities more evenly and give all of our current volunteers some much-needed relief. Training is provided for all positions. If you are able to help out in any of the above ministries one or two weekends a month or even less frequently, please contact our Front Office at FrontDesk@stcatherinesiena.org or call 327-5165. Thank you for considering these important ministries!

On June 1, several statewide COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and our Diocese of Kalamazoo has responded with a new set of guidelines for us to follow. These new guidelines take effect this coming weekend, June 5-6. Please click on the article title to see Father Mark's letter about how these changes affect us here at St. Catherine's. You may read the full guidelines from the Bishop on the Diocesan website: https://diokzoo.org/public-return-to-mass.

We are currently in need of several volunteers to launder and iron the liturgical linens that are used at Mass. Volunteers commit to washing the lavabo towels, purificators, corporals, palls, and the amice, and then ironing everything except the towels, once a week for one month out of the year. We especially need volunteers for the months of April, June, and August. If you're interested in this ministry, please reach out to Marianne Verner (978-2340 or mverner@stcatherinesiena.org). God Bless you as you contemplate this ministry.

Marriage is a place of refuge in a world filled with all kinds of emptiness. The Church looks to marriage as the fundamental unit of our Church, calling the family the domestic church. We regard marriage as a sacrament. We would like to recognize our Parishioners who are about to celebrate an upcoming Milestone Anniversary (10, 25, 50, or 75 years). In a time where many couples struggle to make it through marriage, we want to celebrate those with success stories! We have a list in our Parish data system, but we don’t want to miss anyone. Let our Front Office know at FrontDesk@stcatherinesiena.org or 327-5165 if you have a Milestone Anniversary you would like featured in an upcoming bulletin and on our website/Facebook. Thank you!

For those who would like to make a donation in memory of a lost family member or friend, you may now make those donations online at http://www.stcatherinesiena.org/give.