Dear Parishioners, Have you read a good book lately? A great suggestion from St. Benedict to his monks, that we may also benefit from, is to enjoy some spiritual reading during Lent. This is a way for us to draw closer to Christ during Lent, especially when so many of the activities we do during Lent are virtual. This could be the Bible, the Lives of the Saints, or other spiritual writing. Reading a good book causes us to ponder our spiritual lives and our relationship with Christ. We also know that prayer is an important part of Lent. I ask for your prayers for all of our RCIA Catechumens and Candidates who continue to move closer each day to the Sacraments at Easter. Of course, last year, this didn’t get to happen in the way we normally do. That makes this year’s celebration even more special! Last week, we made a “field trip” to the Cathedral with our Catechumens and Candidates to present them to the Bishop for the Rite of Election. This helps all those who are preparing for the Sacraments to realize how they are part of a universal Church community, and not just our local parish of St. Catherine’s. As we inch closer to Easter each day, please add this intention to your prayers. If you haven’t checked out our Lenten Resources page on the parish website at https://stcatherinesiena.org/lentenresources, please do so for additional Lenten resources and the links to our Lenten videos. 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 February 27-March 7, 2021.

We are very grateful for the members of our Pastoral Council who serve the parish by consulting our Pastor in the development of goals and objectives for the parish, and in the assigning of priorities for the current and future spiritual needs of the parish. You may view the meeting notes from prior meetings on our website at https://stcatherinesiena.org/parish-pastoral-council. If you have any suggestions or comments regarding the parish’s spiritual life, please email [email protected]. Next Scheduled Parish Pastoral Council Meeting:  April 13, 2021, via Zoom President: Nathan Whitford Finance Council Representative: (Available) Members:     Scott Betzler Nancy Dudasko Paula Hudson Gracie Kayany Tammy Lefaive Paula Mathieu Gretchen Merkel John Munnelly Colleen Semler Barbara Walters

Dear Parishioners, Lent has begun! Now what? It can be a little challenging to get started in our Lenten practices (and a pandemic makes it even more challenging). If you remember Lent last year, everything started to fall apart after the first week. It looks like we will have a better and more consistent Lent this year. One of the things that continues to make Lent (and life) challenging is the fact that vaccinations are still ongoing. Our St. Catherine priests were all blessed to be vaccinated in the past few weeks. This will certainly help us as we continue to minister during these difficult times. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to pray for all of you! We will have a few Lenten activities in person, but not as many as in years past. Daily and weekend Masses will still be celebrated and the Stations of the Cross will be in person on Friday nights. We will continue to follow all our normal safety protocols for in-person activities. Please join us if you are able. We will continue to have virtual options for those who are unable to make it in person (Livestream Mass, Pre-Recorded Stations of the Cross, Pre-Recorded Lenten talks by your priests). Additional information about these opportunities will be published in our bulletin, on our website, and on our Facebook page. In fact, my Lenten talk on “The Saints and Lent” has been released for viewing (please click on the article title to view the video or visit https://youtu.be/RsopWKSlAG0). I urge you to make the most of Lent this year, as it will help to strengthen you during these most difficult times. 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. Here are the Mass Intentions for February 20-28, 2021.

Mark your calendars: Beginning Saturday, February 20, at 3:30 pm, the rosary will be prayed prior to the 4:00 pm Mass every Saturday. Join our Knights of Columbus (KOC) in the church for this prayer led by one of the knights. When you come in, be sure to tell the ushers that you are there for the rosary so they will seat you with the group praying the rosary. If you are unable to make praying the rosary in person, our KOC group also offers an online rosary via Zoom on Sundays at 9:00 am. To join, go to http://bit.ly/KOCRosary to get to Zoom. Meeting ID: 931 1348 9747 Password: 157576 Note - the Zoom software/application is free. If you have any questions about the rosary meetings, please contact the Front Office at 327-5165 or [email protected].

Dear Parishioners, For the last several weeks, I have been doing a “countdown” of columns to prepare everyone for the differences they will notice when we celebrate Lent during a Pandemic. Yes, we will be able to receive ashes in person at Mass on Ash Wednesday (although they will be sprinkled on our foreheads-they will not be imposed on our foreheads in the shape of a Cross like normal). Yes, we will have Stations of the Cross on Friday nights at 7:00 pm in person (yet a virtual version can be found on St. Catherine’s website). Yes, we will have some Lenten talks this year, but they will be held virtually. The way we receive ashes this year will be the change that will cause us to pause. This is the way ashes are distributed on Ash Wednesday in Europe and in other places around the world. But it hasn’t been our experience here in the United States. It does allow us to maintain a contactless environment and still accomplish the same thing. In fact, the Holy Father is encouraging priests and deacons to distribute ashes this way in this time of Pandemic. We will have three Lenten talks that will be recorded. Once they are released and posted on our website, they will be available throughout Lent. The topics for the talks this year are: “The Saints and Lent” by Fr. Mark. “Lent, Give Up, But Also Give Forward” by Fr. Bill. “Lord, Teach Me How To Pray” by Fr. Jeff. If you are able to join us in person this Lent, all the same protocols, capacities, and safety measures and cleaning will continue. Otherwise, please join us in a virtual way during this upcoming Lenten Season. Also, please check out the section in today’s bulletin that reminds us of the days of fasting and abstinence that begin this week on Ash Wednesday. Thanks for reading! Fr. Mark

We would like to extend a warm St. Catherine's welcome to all our new members for the month of January 2021. We're glad you're part of our St. Catherine's Family. Please click on the article title to see the complete list of January New Members.

As a Church, we pray for one another that the Lord continue 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 see the Mass Intentions for February 13-21, 2021.

Many people have asked questions about the Catholic Church's position on the now-available COVID-19 vaccines. In summary, both the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccines are morally permissible. For complete information, please click on the article title to read the statement from our Michigan Bishops about the COVID-19 vaccines or visit http://bit.ly/BishopsCOVID19vaccines.

Dear Parishioners, If you have been following my columns, this is week two of what to expect/anticipate for Lent 2021. Last year, we just began having the Stations of the Cross on Friday nights when everything shut down. This Lent, Stations of the Cross will be in person (with the 25% capacity in the church) and we will also have pre-recorded Stations of the Cross meditations that can be viewed anytime during the week. Due to the limitations of our camera in the main church, it is not possible for us to live stream the Friday night stations (such as moving the camera around to focus on the Stations). Last year, we were planning to have some Lenten talks on the Year of the Eucharist. Once again, I think we maybe had two talks before things shut down. This year, we will have some virtual Lenten talks. More on this next week! We are still unable to have Penance Services in the Church and we feel that the safest way that we can do confessions remains outside in the open air. We will continue our Drive-In Confessions on Saturdays from 11:00 am until noon until further notice. Towards the end of Lent, we most likely will add some additional times for confessions, especially as the weather starts to turn a little warmer and spring-like! What about the end of Lent and Holy Week? As of the time I write this, we are still waiting for guidance from the Diocese as to what this will look like. Stay tuned for details about Ash Wednesday! Thanks for reading! Fr. Mark

As a Church, we pray for one another that the Lord continue 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 see the Mass Intentions for February 6-14, 2021.

As a Church, we pray for one another that the Lord continue 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. While the Intentions for many of our upcoming weekend Masses have already been requested, we do have quite a few open Mass Intentions for upcoming Daily Masses. To learn more about Mass Intentions, view the real-time Mass Intentions schedule, or to schedule a Mass Intention online, visit our website at https://stcatherinesiena.org/massintentions.