Dear Parishioners,

Last weekend, I mentioned Fr. Paul Strommer would be moving in with me at the rectory for some time. He will arrive, probably on Monday the 23^rd. Please pray for him, and lets try to make him feel welcome.

This Tuesday is the priest study day in Duluth. Because of that, the noon Mass will be moved to 6 PM, so I can get back in time to celebrate it. Afterwards we will have a wrap up meeting for the total consecration to Jesus through Mary in the social hall at SJ.

This Wednesday we will have two Masses for the Annunciation, 9 AM OLF, and 6 PM SJ. After both Masses there will be the consecration to Jesus through Mary. I am grateful for all who have made the effort to do this consecration. I believe it will bless our parishes. 

The next Spanish Mass is at 8 AM Sat. 28^th, feel free to come. We have some guides for non-Spanish speakers. 

Next weekend is Palm Sunday. The Masses are the usual times, but note that the 10:30 AM Mass will begin with a procession from the SJ parking lot, weather permitting. If you are not able to participate in the procession, you can have a seat in the church and wait for us to arrive.

The Sacred Triduum is just around the corner. I encourage you to make it to the Triduum celebrations if at all possible. Clear your schedules for those days. 

• Holy Thursday Mass 6 PM SJ, confession afterwards
• Good Friday service 3 PM SJ, confession afterwards, stations of the cross OLF 6 PM.
• Easter Vigil Mass 8:30 PM SJ, Resurrection party afterwards
• Easter Sunday our Mass schedule will be slightly different, 8:30 AM Mass at OLF, and 10:30 AM Mass SJ.

Update on OLF projects:
The OLF floor project and water update project are complete. We may need to do a little fix on the carpeting in the sacristy area. However, the bulk of the work that needed to happen is done. 

• We replaced the flooring in the church. 
• We replaced some of the piping in the church, installed a water softener, connected to the external drain system, put in a mop sink and simplified some of the water plumbing that had been jerry-rigged over the years. 

As part of this project we also have been getting rid of items that have not been used and do not have a foreseeable use in the future. So, some items are out in the social hall at OLF if you would like to take them. 

Overall, I am very pleased with how this process has gone. Thanks to all who have helped.

Update on new SJ church project:
Most of the work is on the inside for now, so it might be hard to see progress from the outside. I hope when we get a little further along that we can organize some tours of the inside of the church. 

Here are some other elements related to the project that are happening:

• We have recently approved a change order that added some costs to the project.  It looks like this will be an additional $200,000 or so. A big part of that is adding the tent pad. But the good news is we are still looking pretty good financially overall. I am hopeful that we will land somewhere between 0-$500,000 for a mortgage on our church which is fantastic. Originally, we applied for a loan up to 1.5 million because we weren’t sure where finances were going to land. 
• We have begun discussions about what to do with the old church. We are doing some research to learn about what our options might be. Regarding sale, or demolition of the old church. It probably wouldn’t be something we would do until at least the spring after the new church is complete. 
• We have been working on developing plans for the new rectory and maintenance buildings that would be at the new site. The hope is that we would do our next Gala to raise money for this element of the project. 
• The next gala is preliminarily planned for Feb. 5^th 2027. That’s the Friday before Lent begins. We plan to do this gala in the new church, which would be a great use of our new social hall.
• We are also planning to begin updating the designs of Phase II. This would be part of trying to get estimates for what it would cost. This in turn might help us determine when we think we might want to dig into that next phase. We might find we need a break, or perhaps we will feel we just want to keep moving ahead. Regardless, this information will be helpful in our decision process.
• Part of all of this, is looking at the value of our current properties. It is possible that the sale of these properties might help fund the next phase of our new church. 

I wanted to share this with you just so that you are aware we are working on these elements, but also to help you understand most of this is preliminary. We need more information and time to work out the decisions we will make. It seems that now is a good time to do this, so that when we complete phase I this fall, we will be in a better place to judge next moves and steps. 

Please keep praying for the project, and thanks for all the support that has been given to it.

In Christ,

Fr. Eli