My Dear Parish Family:

It was a great day for Confirmation and we are so proud of all our students who made Confirmation on April 6th. Please join me in praying for all of them and for their families.

We want to pray for them that they will remain close to Christ and His Holy Church. Often times people seem to think that Confirma- tion is like a “graduation” and, therefore, do not need to attend Mass anymore, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, as full members of the Catholic Faith having now em- braced the three Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation they are able to be Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors and involved in Church Life completely. Their parents and godparents promised to make sure these young men and women would have made it to this day and so we thank God for all who helped these wonderful young people receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

We also thank God for the gift of Bishop Massa who conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation at our parish. We pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to strengthen Bishop Massa as he continues to serve the Church.

I continue to ask all the members of our parish to seriously pray about the amount you are able to donate to this year’s Cardinal’s Appeal. I am hoping that each member of the parish will join with me and donate to the Cardinal’s Appeal. Thank you in advance for your Appeal gift.

Once again, as I mentioned last week in this column, con- ducting a Mission in Charlotte provides me the chance to re- mind you that we will join with other parishes in our area at St. Frances de Chantal Parish for an area Mission on Tuesday, April 9th, Wednesday, April 10th and Thursday, April 11th at 7:00pm. There will be two wonderful speakers. 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 will be the other speaker. We already know him to be an engaging and dynamic speaker.

The English Mission speakers will be in the Church and a Spanish Mission speaker in the lower Church hall at St. Frances de Chantal. There will be a chance to go to Confession and a bilingual Mass to conclude the Mission. All are welcome! So, please mark your calendars now for our Parish Mission at St. Frances de Chantal on April 9th, 10th and 11th at 7:00pm.

I would also like to add a special note to Fr. Dan who was willing to allow me the chance to leave the parish for almost three weeks to study and to conduct the two Missions in Charlotte. I am very grateful to Almighty God for Fr. Dan and to the Cardinal for sending him to us. I also thank God for Fr. Ginel, my friend and a retired priest of the Archdiocese, for “coming out of retirement” to be with us. Deacon Michael was also very supportive and helpful in countless ways in my absence and I am grateful to him and his lovely wife Maria now and always. Until next week, peace! St. Benedict and Cardinal Cooke, Servant of God, pray for us!

Fr. Stephen P. Norton