Dear Parishioners,

I pray you have had a blessed Easter octave. It was a great Holy Week, I was blessed by the way so many of you came and partic-ipated in these special days.

We are wrapping up our faith formation year. This past week we had our last class. We have a few special events occurring soon. 

• Michelle Duppong was a young woman who passed away in 2015 after a battle with cancer. Her cause for canonization has been opened. Her sister and brother-in-law are coming to our parish to speak about her life and the call to holiness. They will speak on Wednesday the 15th at 6:30PM in the St. Joseph social hall. This is open to anyone in who is interested. There will also be a talk at ‘That Man is You’ on Thursday morning (16th ) at 6 AM, and another talk Thursday at 9:30AM for anyone interested in attending during the day. Michelle’s is another local person just like Msgr. Joseph Buh who we are hoping will be canonized. 
  
  
• We will have our Spanish Mass this month on Sat. April 18th 8 AM. - I will be on my annual canonical retreat from April 20th -24th , therefore we won’t have daily Mass that week. 
  
  
• Fr. George celebrates his birthday on April 24th . If you have a chance, wish him a happy birthday. 
  
  
• There will be an engaged couples retreat at St. Joseph on Sat. and Sun. April 25th -26th. Let’s keep them and all who are preparing for marriage in our prayers. 
  
  
• Sunday April 26th at the 10:30 AM Mass will be our First Communion Mass. 
  
  
• May 1st is the ordination of the transitional deaconate. It will be held in the Cathedral in Duluth at 4 PM. I believe there are 5 men being ordained. 
  
  
• May 2nd at 10 AM we will celebrate Confirmation for our parish. Bishop Daniel will be here for that Mass. We will still have the first Saturday Mass and confessions afterwards, confessions will necessarily end a bit early because we have to start the Mass on time. 
  
  
• May 3rd 5 PM is a wine pairing fund raiser at Cana wine bar which the parish is promoting. I believe all 50 spots are filled, which is great. We are raising funds for the Priest Care Fund which helps priests who need a little extra support either through counseling or other similar programs that might not be covered under normal circumstances.

This weekend we celebrate Divine Mercy (it always falls on the Sunday after Easter). It’s a day when the Lord offers us extraordinary graces. It is also a day when the universal church invites us to recall how much the Lord wants to show us his mercy. No sin is too great for God to forgive. The only way God is stopped from forgiving our sins… is when we refuse to ask for his mercy. Please remember, God is here for you, Jesus died to help us be forgiven. It causes the Lord sorrow when we focus more on our sins then on his mercy.

In the diary of St. Faustina Jesus tells her: “Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion (Diary, 1146).” Consider then how willing the Lord is to meet us in our areas of need.

In order to receive the extraordinary grace for Divine Mercy Sunday we are directed: The soul that will go to Confession and re-ceive Holy Communion will obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment (699). To receive these graces, the only condition is to receive Holy Communion worthily on Divine Mercy Sunday (or the Vigil celebration) by making a good Confession beforehand and being in the state of grace and trusting in His Divine Mercy.

In Christ,

Fr. Eli