Prayers and best wishes for all who are celebrating Mother's Day this Sunday. A special welcome to any family members who are visiting St. Raphael as part of a Mother's Day celebration. Please note that a Rose Sale is taking place after the weekend Masses. Roses make a terrific gift for a mom and the proceeds will help support the dignity of human life in Lake County. God bless all the mothers on earth and in heaven.

With gratitude to God, I will celebrate 25 years as a priest in May. I look forward to celebrating this blessing with my family and friends. Please save the date, May 19, 2019. The anniversary Mass will be at 11:00 am here at St. Raphael the Archangel church. Please plan on joining me and my family on this joyous day. Father Mike

Rebecca Long, an art historian from the Art Institute of Chicago, will offer a presentation here at St. Raphael on the art of Domenikos Theotokopoulos, most widely known as "El Greco" (1541-1614). The artist was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. Perhaps El Greco's best known painting in the Art Institute is the Assumption of the Virgin. Please join us for this excellent presentation featuring images of El Greco's works on Thursday May 23 at 7:00pm in the Fellowship Hall. All are invited.

St. Raphael will be having a parish picnic on Sunday, June 23 after the 11:00 am Mass. This is an excellent way to visit with old friends and meet new people. I hope you can join us for the afternoon. God bless you!

Lately someone has been using my name in sending fraudulent emails to people in our area requestion that you respond and send items such as gift cards. Please do not open any emails that claim to be from me without first sending an email to me at the address below and verifying that I sent the initial email. Any questions, please call me at the parish. Father Mike Thank you.

St. Raphael is looking for additional Altar Servers. If you are between the ages of 9 and 14, and would be interested in becoming a server for our weekend Masses, please have your parents fill out this form. You will be contacted to schedule training sessions. Your service to our Church and parish is greatly appreciated. Click on the picture to complete the Request Form and You will be contacted to schedule training sessions

CHRISTMAS SEASON As we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord today, we reach the conclusion of the Christmas Season. Before we take down the manger scene and Christmas lights, I want to thank once again all who helped us with the liturgies. I am also grateful for those who helped us welcome 1,600 people on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It seems the last three weeks we have seen many new faces in church; I hope that our guests and visitors consider becoming part of our parish. Thanks also to all who donated in support of our Christmas collection; as we go to press it looks good that our parish met our financial goal for this year. God bless you!

Time to Reflect on 2018 & Solemnity of Mary

Each year we accept donations for our Families in Need Fund. This fund helps our parish assist people in our parish family who are hurting financially and need help during the Christmas Season and beyond. There is a lot of "quiet good" that goes on in our parish thanks to the kindness of parishioners. If you can contribute to this year's fund, please place a donation in an envelope marked "Families in Need"; you may place the envelope in the collection or see me in church. Thank you for helping some of the families in our parish this year.

RENEW MY CHURCH: EVANGELIZATION In October a group from our parish participated in three days of meetings in Rosemont learning how we can share our Catholic faith with one another and the wider community. Every parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago will participate in these meetngs with the goal of becoming more effective in living and spreading the gospel. With that in mind, I encourage you to invite your friends, neighbors and families to come to St. Raphael for our liturgy or any of the programs we are offering. If you have ideas about how we can better connect with people in the community please let us know. There is a "suggestion box" in the narthex; please feel free to write a note and share your ideas. Thank you.

Interested in becoming Catholic? Are you baptized and in need of completing full ignition into the Church? Catholic and desiring to update your catechism? The Church's process for this is called RCIA, or the "Rite of Catholic Initiation of Adults. At St. Raphael, we begin each year in late September. Times and location vary with participation needs. If interested, contact Fr. Mike (mmcgovern@archchicago.org; 847.395.3474) or Deacon Greg (brotherinthestole@gmail.com; 517.258.1463).