A few things to note regarding the upcoming four-day Independence Day holiday weekend : The Parish Office will be CLOSED on both Thursday, July 4th and Friday, July 5th. There will be NO COMMUNION SERVICE at 6:45 a.m. those two days. The Adoration Chapel will be closed on Thursday, July 4th (but will be open on Friday, July 5th). There WILL be a special 8 a.m. Mass on Thursday, July 4th. Our usual 8 a.m. Mass on Friday, July 5th will still take place, with the ANOINTING OF THE SICK immediately following the Mass. CONFESSIONS will be heard on Saturday, July 6th from 8 a.m. until 8:45 a.m. On Sunday, July 7th, there will NOT be a 5 p.m. evening Mass.

My sincere apologies for the lack of a SOUND SYSTEM in Church this past weekend. A relay shorted out early Saturday afternoon, which disabled the entire system for the weekend. The problem was corrected this past Monday. Joe Coleman brought some relief to us on Sunday, providing a portable microphone and speaker so the Scripture Readings could be heard a little easier during the 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and 5 p.m. Masses. Thanks, Joe, for your quick response to our dilemma.

We welcomed the members of our Sharing Parish (St. James on Wabash) this past weekend at our 11:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, June 30th. The Mass was beautiful, and afterward, a wonderful buffet lunch was served in the Parish Center. Deacon Joe and his wife Diane Yannotta did a terrific job planning this annual event and organizing a terrific team of volunteers to host the luncheon. Grateful thanks to all of them.

Bishop Grob hosted an afternoon of reflection for the Staffs of Vicariate I last week at St. Mary of Vernon Parish in Vernon Hills. Employees who have served the Archdiocese of Chicago in various positions for 25 years or more were honored at this event, eight of whom are from St. Edna: Bonnie Eiffes (26 years), Gail Jevne (28 years), Kathy Walters (29 years), Laura Kniskern (31 years), Lisa Hall (37 years), Lynette Lilly (46 years), Nancy Wolowicz (39 years), and Tom Walters (42 years). We are blessed to have these eight people working for us here, who have so much accumulated talent, wisdom and experience to share with us from their various years of service all across the Archdiocese. Congratulations to them all!

Our Summer PARISH PICNIC is two weeks away. Please join us on Saturday, July 20th in the parking lot north of the Parish Center between 5 and 8 p.m. Mass that day will be in the Church at 4 p.m. (instead of 5 p.m.).

16 Teens took part in last week’s FEED MY STARVING CHILDREN service project in Schaumburg. Our new Youth Ministry is off to a very good start. We have hired Beth Tsoumas as a part-time Coordinator of Youth Ministry to get our program up and running.

Please don’t believe the many SCAM EMAILS  and  SCAM TEXTS  that are always going around. They never stop! Please don’t 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 .  

All six new STAINED-GLASS WINDOWS have been sponsored. I thank our donors for their interest and generosity! The Daprato-Rigali Studios in Chicago have designed six beautiful new windows of a religious nature that reflect our Catholic Faith, to replace the original stained-glass windows on the West wall of our Church. The new windows will be completed and installed by early December.

Please consider becoming a Eucharistic Minister or Lector . We need many more ministers to cover our five weekend Masses. Thank you.

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.

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 367,578 Hail Mary’s have been prayed.

May your Independence Day Holiday weekend be safe and blessed. Enjoy some time with your family, and always be grateful to live in this land of ours.

Fr. Darrio