Dear Parishioners,

I would like to express all my appreciation for your generous support to the Capital Campaign, which has now been completed successfully. To paraphrase St Paul (this weekend’s first Letter to the Thessalonians 1:1-3) "I give thanks to God for the generosity of all of you, remembering you in my prayers."

When we launched the Capital Campaign four years ago, we wrote to all of you: "The top priority is to renovate the Sanctuary and Narthex; the current 400 chairs (380 to be exact) and the carpet in Sanctuary need to be replaced; with a new configuration, we will be able to provide a seating capacity of about 450. A second priority is to provide additional space for multi-purpose classrooms, meeting rooms and storage. A third priority is to evangelize by making the outdoor space in front of our church more prayerful: we plan to have a small Perpetual Adoration Chapel and we will have a beautification project and a new, larger steeple for our church. For this capital campaign to be successful, we will need broad support to raise the estimated investment cost of $1 million. Our parish has a history of rising to the occasion. As your pastor for the last five years, it is my firm belief that we will do so once again! In the first 35 years of our existence as a parish (1980-2015), we have been able to raise a total about $3 million. While everyone's situation is different, the campaign goal is 100 percent participation. I leave the amount you can give to your prayerful consideration."

Over the three-year campaign, you provided close to $750,000 which helped fund all the expenses for our three phases. We accomplished all the original objectives while keeping new construction within the building footprint:

Phase 1 was the renovation of our Nave including the proposed increased capacity to close to 450 (437 to be exact), including new oak wood pews and new ceramic tiles in the Nave. We also added new entry glass doors, new ceiling light and a large closet in the Narthex.

Phase 2 was the renovation of the Father Martin Hall providing folding partitions which have enabled us to have three separate rooms giving us more flexibility as classrooms or meeting rooms. This also included two large storage closets, three large screen televisions, new ceiling tiles and major HVAC and electrical work.

Phase 3 focused on the Narthex renovation. It included an Adoration Chapel, a multipurpose room serving as a Confessional, new floor ceramic tile, new entry door set and major HVAC and electrical work. As originally planned, we added a tall steeple, which is also lit at night. In addition, we were able to add ceramic tile and a wood sanctuary floor in our existing Chapel (traditionally used for daily Mass).

Again, all the above was made possible by your generous donations. Whether your contribution was small or large, we appreciated your generosity and sacrificial effort in participating in such a great number of donors. As you know, I do not like to talk about asking for money. Money is essential for all our daily lives. What is wrong is love of money. Jesus reminds us in this weekend’s Gospel (Matthew 22:15-21) that everything belongs to God. Our lives are totally dependent on God. Everything we have comes from the generosity of God. The Judeo-Christian tradition has been to "tithe", giving back to God one- tenth of our income. As Mother Teresa always said, "God will provide."

As we have just celebrated our 40th anniversary as a parish, we recognize our building is over thirty years old. We can expect to have some large expenses such as HVAC units and roof repair in the not too distant future, and we need to set aside resources in our Building Maintenance Fund. As our capital campaign is now completed, we invite you to consider providing additional donations to our Building Maintenance Fund.

May God keep blessing all of you and your entire families.

One in Christ,

Father Alain