Our Summer BLOOD DRIVE last Sunday was hugely successful. 44 units of blood were collected! Thanks to everyone who donated the gift of life, and thanks to Jackie Lapetino and her Team for putting this Blood Drive together.

Thanks, too, for your donations to last weekend’s Second Collection for the Congregation of Servants of the Poor . Their charitable work in India cares for children, the elderly, and the infirmed. Over $7,000.00 was collected.

Our next Knights of Columbus sponsored FOOD DRIVE takes place tomorrow (Sunday, July 20th), from 1-3 p.m. Pull up under the Church canopy to drop off your donations.

Plan on attending our 60th Anniversary Fest on Saturday, September 6th , starting with Mass in Church at 4 p.m. Bishop Rassas will be presiding, and our previous pastors (Fr. Jerry Jacob, Fr. Rich Yanos, Fr. Bob Heidenreich) will be concelebrating, along with many of our previous associate pastors (Fr. Tomy Abraham, Fr. Rodolfo Ramirez, Fr. Steve Dombrowski, Fr. Kurt Boras, Fr. Benedykt Pazdan). After Mass we’ll head outside for a wonderful meal for purchase (brats, chicken kabobs, pulled pork sandwiches, hot dogs) and then a night of free entertainment that begins with a musical performance by our Children’s Choir (The Minor Miracles). After that, our SNACK Theater performers will entertain us with a medley of tunes from their history of fine shows. The evening will conclude with the band “Oh, Yes” providing live music until 10:30 p.m. Please be part of this St. Edna milestone event as we celebrate God’s blessings to us.

Parents, thanks for keeping your kids safe! St. Edna is a very welcoming place (as we all know), and thank God, we’re a very safe place, too, and we want to make sure St. Edna remains a safe place. Thus, it’s very important for parents to keep a sharp eye on their small, young children so they don’t wander through any part of our buildings alone , where they could possibly be harmed or even snatched away. Sadly, the world we live in has predators seeking vulnerable children for evil purposes. We can never presume that our kids are 100% safe, just because they are in our Church building or on our Church property. Please monitor your kids when they need to use the restrooms, and please, never allow them the opportunity to wander alone near our exit doors.

More SCAM EMAILS  and  SCAM TEXTS  are going around again. Never believe them . Some are supposedly from me, or from our Deacons, or from Fr. Paul, 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 .  

Please be EXTREMELY CAREFUL when exiting our Parking Lot and making the left turn onto Arlington Heights Road to travel south. We have always hired (and we still do) Arlington Heights police officers for traffic control at our Saturday evening 5pm Mass and at two of our Sunday morning Masses, but less and less officers are signing up for this detail, so please be very cautious, and, as always, be extra kind and patient to your fellow drivers exiting our parking lot. Thank you!

Our Adoration Chapel is a wonderful place to find some personal peace. Pray before the EUCHARISTIC LORD Monday through Friday from 7am to 7pm. Enter the Chapel through Door 4.

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 or Fr. Paul for training. Veronica (Ronny) Erxleben is now helping with altar server 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 485,285 Hail Mary’s have been prayed.

Our St. Edna 60th Anniversary Cookbooks are loaded with many wonderful recipes. You can purchase them at the Parish Office.

Our Ugandan friends will be celebrating Mass here at 1 p.m. on Sunday July 27th, followed by their Social in the Doherty Center.

Please join us on Monday, July 28th, for the presentation of St. Edna’s son, seminarian CODY BEEBER entitled “What Am I Grateful For?” at 7 p.m. in the Parish Center. Parental discretion is advised for anyone under the age of 18, since Cody will be mentioning some adult topics that he witnessed in his missionary work.

May God bless our world and bring peace and hope to everyone.

Fr. Darrio