Dear Beloved Parishioners and Guests,
As you may have noticed in last Sunday’s bulletin, we CssR’ers
are presently gathered in St. Mary’s in Yorkton, SK for our annual two
day workshop. There was a time when some 25 of us Ukrainian
Redemptorists spent these days in preparation and discussion, but sadly
there are only 13 of us here now. However, it is still good to be together!
From this distance I happily recall our joyful celebration of our parish praznyk
last Sunday. The good Lord did His share in offering us a relatively warm day and for
this we are most thankful. But I especially want to express my gratitude to all the
generous volunteers who made this “family celebration” such a wonderful success.
Francis Steiman was most pleased to have so many new and young ladies helping out in
the kitchen for the food preparation. Of course, our Steve Prokop has been and always is
a great asset to the ladies and to the parish at large. It was most gratifying to experience
the number of new faces, assisting Don Cilinsky our president, as they set up the large
picnic tent (graciously donated by Allan Malenko), carried all the tables and chairs onto
the lawn and volunteered in barbequing all the hamburgers and hotdogs. And even the
wandering minstrels, Michael Ryszak and Gene Kaban, added a special joyful musical
dimension to our festivities. Truly I thank all of you for your time and talent!
It was also a proud moment to witness the presentation of the founding Charter
of the Squires Circle- an organization sponsored by the Knights of Columbus for
young adolescents from 12 to 17. This is a joint effm1 of three Councils- our St.
Joseph’s, St. Anthony’s and St. Ann’s Councils. We are most pleased that this youth
program is off to an excellent start and of course, we would be most delighted to have
more young teenagers join their ranks. My first challenge to them was to help us stack
the chairs and table and clean up after the praznyk. Wow! They happily responded and
in a matter of25 minutes, they had accomplished their first task and were having a great
time at it. Thank you and congratulations as founding members of this Squire Circle!
Painfully for us Redemptorists and for the Yorkton parishioners, we had to make
a difficult and necessmy decision to dismantle the historic four stmy monastery that was
built by the original Belgium and Ukrainian Redemptorists back in 1910. All of us have
spent memorable time in this wonderful old building that once housed 25 members and
sadly, only is the home for three fellow priests. The cost of restoring and maintaining it
is totally prohibitive and therefore, we are sadly and tearfully saying “good-bye” to it!
Ah! But the memories will always be part of our life and for this we give thanks!
We are on the verge of a new month- a beautiful autumn October where
together we at St. Joseph’s pray, celebrate, meet, organize and eitioy all the
various exciting parish events. Let’s take advantage and cherish them all!