With everyone’s traditional New Year’s greetings and wishes—as well as the resolutions—I thought I would outline some of the new things that will be occurring here at St.Catherine of Siena, at least in January 2015. And I also offer my best wishes and prayers for a peace-filled, happy, very healthy and blessed New Year to all!

January will see our parish celebrate our prayer life with a NEW TIME for the monthly, first-Monday-of-the-month rosary. It will move to 7-7:30 p.m. to accommodate the return of Monday night Confessions, from 6-7 pm, as I return to more normal liturgical schedules; January will also see our return to our Religious Education class schedule and my taking over teach-ing Confirmation class on Sunday nights after the Sunday evening Mass. I thank all those who filled in for me while I was recuperating after surgery. On Sunday, 25 January our parish Welcome Committee will host a pancake breakfast after the 8 and 11 am Masses—please join in this wonderful welcome to all our parishioners as we kick-off the New Year. Making Music, Praying Twice is set to begin again on Friday, 16 January taught by Susan Zybert our music director. This music in motion class for our youngest parishioners and their parents meets on Fridays through March in the music room at 10 am. And many of the longstanding ministries of our parish resume in January. Please check the parish calendar on the website (stcatherine.info) and in our weekly bulletins for more details.

Looking ahead, our Health and Healing Ministry, headed up by Diane Smith and many others, will be promoting a Prayer Foundation Workshop on 7 February from 9 a.m. to 12 noon in Russell Hall. Prayer is vital in our faith life…”when we do our part (prayer), God does His part!” Why attend this workshop? Well, here are some reasons: Jesus sent out 72 (all of us) to cure the sick through prayer (Luke 10:8) and called His Church to “pray unceasingly” and at Baptism all received the gifts of the Holy Spirit and one of those gifts was of healing. Come learn what and how to talk (pray) to God, especially when praying for someone else. More information and details will be forthcoming in the bulletin and online.