From the Desk of Fr. Mike

One of the great expenses of a beautiful building like Our Lady of the Sierra Church is maintaining the exterior elements of the edifice from the effects of summer sun and winter ice and snow. It was determined necessary recently to clean and apply new layers of lacquer to the large tree poles that decorate the church in the front and back. There are 8 poles that needed care, first time since the church was built in 1999 (ten years). The poles were powered washed, sanded down, and then given two applications of lacquer. The cost of this upkeep was $3000, done by Yosemite West Window Cleaning of Fresno. It was done very well and in a timely fashion. Such expenses are the types we do not always forsee, and can hit our budget quite hard, unexpectly. Please consider these factors in your parish donations. Every bit helps us maintain all our beautiful facilities.

We are soon coming to the time to change back our Mass times for Saturday afternoon at Our Lady of the Sierra and for Sunday afternoon at St. Dominic Savio in Bass Lake to 5:00PM. Beginning Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5, we will revert to summer hours for both these Masses. This will be on Palm Sunday weekend. Please mark your calendars as we approach the new month.

We will begin to announce our Holy Week and Easter schedule in the bulletin and in other venues that allow Catholics, both active and inactive to the holy season that will shortly be here. As you begin to receive the information, please pass the information to relatives and friends who attend normally only at this of the year. It is a great way to evangelize and to welcome back to the Church those are might need a gentle shrug. Palm Sunday is only two weeks away from now, Easter following. We are adding an extra Mass on Easter Sunday morning to accomodate more people this year.

We continue our Lenten practices of daily Masses, stations of the Cross on Wednesdays and Fridays, and encourage everybody to consider some kind of prayer, fasting or alms giving. These sacred forty days are a means to be in touch with the larger world that needs our attention, particularly those who are in great need. As the recession continues to touch more and more people, we are made more aware of our need to reach out to others.