SCAM EMAILS  and  SCAM TEXTS  never stop. Please don’t believe them . Some are supposedly from me (or from our Deacons), asking you to contact us, or to purchase gift cards for us to distribute to other people. Don’t be fooled. We would NEVER ask you to do this kind of thing, no matter “how busy” these messages say we might be. Just DELETE these scam requests and save yourself some major headaches  and financial losses .  

Fr. Pawel (Paul) Barwikowski (age 36), is being assigned to us as our next Associate Pastor effective May 15th. He was born in Poland and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago by Cardinal Cupich in 2016 at Holy Name Cathedral. He has previously served at St. Constance Parish in Chicago and at St. James Parish in Arlington Heights. He helped us out here at St. Edna last year, presiding at two funerals that both Fr. Tomy and I were unavailable to preside at ourselves. He’s a kind, friendly and compassionate priest who I’m sure you will like, and I think you will also like his puppy -- our new Parish mascot! I am very pleased and grateful that the Cardinal has assigned Fr. Paul to serve St. Edna Parish for the next several years. We will have a Welcome Reception for him on Sunday, May 19th in the Doherty Center after all three morning Masses.

SNACK Theater was wonderful ---- a truly great run. The five performances were excellent! Thanks are extended to Maureen Durack and her incredible Team for putting together such a superb event. Many compliments are still coming in!

ANOINTING OF THE SICK takes place this Friday, May 3rd, in the Church Narthex after the 8 a.m. Mass for anyone seriously ill in mind, body or soul.

CONFESSIONS will be heard on Saturday, May 4th in the Church Reconciliation Room from 8 a.m. until 8:45 a.m.

Please note that the Archdiocese of Chicago (which includes St. Edna) will be celebrating the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord on the weekend of May 11-12, NOT on Thursday, May 9th.

All six new STAINED-GLASS WINDOWS have been sponsored. I thank our donors for their interest and generosity! The artists of the Daprato-Rigali Studios in Chicago have designed six beautiful new windows of a religious nature that reflect our Catholic Faith, to replace the original stained-glass windows on the West wall of our Church. Contact me at dboscutti@stedna.org if you are interested in being placed on a “wait-list” in case someone who has sponsored a window changes their mind. The new windows will be completed and installed by early December.

All the fluorescent lighting in the Hurley Center Basement was replaced recently with new LED lighting , to make things a lot brighter down there, and to reduce our electricity costs.

The Hurley Center carpeting in Rooms A, B, C and D has been replaced with brand new vinyl plank flooring . The east wall in Room A was repainted by Tom Walters, and a new Video Monitor was installed there, for our various Groups to use. The west wall of Room D will be repainted soon, and also the north walls of Rooms A, B, C and D. The generosity of our parishioners and benefactors allows us to continue improving and upgrading our campus.

Please consider becoming a Eucharistic Minister or Lector . We need many more ministers to cover our five weekend Masses. Thank you.

We can always use a few more Altar Servers  at our weekend Masses. The parents of any interested boys or girls should contact Deacon Joe for training.

Our Rosary Group is praying a continuous SPIRITUAL BOUQUET   “for peace in the world” , so please continue praying Rosaries and  Hail Mary’s  and letting Tomi Gaudio know at  tomig@comcast.net  so she can keep count. As of this writing, over 351,262 Hail Mary’s have been prayed.

Be sure to take a walk (or drive) around our parking lot this week to look at all the beautiful Spring flowers in bloom, thanks to the efforts of our Gardening for God volunteers.

Keep our First Communicants in your prayers this week as they get ready to receive Jesus for the first time on Saturday May 4th and Sunday May 5th. These will be wonderful days for them and for us, as a Parish family.

May God bless our world with the peace we so urgently need.

Fr. Darrio