My Dear Parish Family:

I am writing to you from St. Louis where I continue, with my classmates, to study preaching. It is a challenging week and very full, but I am taking this moment to tell all of you that I am praying and thinking of you.

As you are reading this I will have left St. Louis and traveled to North Carolina for the first of the two Missions that I will be conducting.

This week I am speaking at all the Masses to encourage the parishioners to attend the Mission. Please pray for me that I will speak clearly and in love to the people of St. John Neumann Parish here in Charlotte. My theme is “God desires to Heal us all!” I will be hearing Confessions and celebrating a Mass with the Sacrament of the Anointing so that the people can truly experience the healing mercy that is Our God.

This provides me the chance to remind you that we will join with other parishes in our area at St. Frances de Chantal Parish for an area Mission on April 9th, 10th and 11th.

I will be attending the Mission. The speakers at our area Mission will be Fr. Bill Cleary, who was assigned to
St. Frances de Chantal before becoming a priest at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers to help educate and train future priests and our very own Fr. Dan, who we already know to be an engaging and dynamic speaker. Please mark your calendars now for our Parish Mission at St. Frances de Chantal on April 9th, 10th, and 11th. Please remember me in your prayers until I return.

Until next week, peace! St. Benedict and Cardinal Cooke, Servant of God, pray for us!

Fr. Stephen Norton