• Join a Synod Small Group at your Parish this Fall!

    Year 3 of the Synod Has Begun

    Year 3 (2021-2022): The Church Engages

    Fall 2021: Parish Consultation Process with Small Groups

    • Small groups meet in every parish to learn, pray, and discuss the Focus Areas.
    • Parish feedback on the Focus Areas will help determine the Synod Topics.

    January/February 2022: Deanery Consultation Process

    • Pastors and parish representatives gather to learn, pray, and discuss the Focus Areas.
    • Deanery feedback informs the Parish Consultation Process.

    June 2022: Archdiocesan Synod Assembly (Pentecost Weekend)

    • Approximately 500 appointed delegates (including two from each parish) gather to learn, pray, and discuss the Synod Topics and recommend pastoral priorities to Archbishop Hebda.
    • After considering the Synod recommendations, Archbishop writes a Pastoral Letter (Nov. – Feast of Christ the King), leading to a Pastoral Plan to move our Archdiocese into the future.

    If you do one thing this fall… 

    Help Archbishop determine priorities under each Synod focus area, with Synod Small Groups!

    In his August 13, 2020 article for The Catholic Spirit, Archbishop Hebda announced three focus areas for the Archdiocesan Synod. He then unpacked each of the focus areas with hard-hitting questions, such as:

    1. What can we do to make parishes more welcoming and accessible?
    2. How can we offer meaningful life-long formation for discipleship?
    3. How can we better assist parents in forming children as disciples who know and love Jesus and his Church?

    In Synod Small Groups this fall, you help determine the response of our local Church. In one session per week for six weeks, you will:

    • Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
    • Experience the compelling truth of the Catholic faith in today’s culture context.
    • Examine questions under each focus area, sharing perspectives among a small group of sisters and brothers in Christ.
    • Weigh in on how we as a Church might respond to these questions, to help Archbishop determine priorities.

    To make sure all Catholics have an opportunity to participate, every pastor in the archdiocese has been asked to host Synod Small Groups this fall. If just 100 gather in small groups at each parish, Archbishop Hebda will hear from nearly 20,000 Catholics!

    Be part of this historic moment now, and the future of our local Church. Join in your parish’s Synod Small Groups beginning in September!

    Watch for more to come on Synod Small Groups, plus find all video series from Year 2 of the Synod, at archspm.org/synod.

  • Social Justice Legislative Tracker

    Legislative Tracker – March 23, 2021 – View HERE

    Take part in a survey sharing what social justice issues matter to you most. Download Survey HERE **Send completed survey to Casey Green at cjgreen@stmarys-wbl.org.**

     

  • The House of Mercy
    Confessions Heard Saturdays, 9:00 AM at the House of Mercy
    Thanks to a generous donation, outdoor drive-up confessions will continue this winter with Fr. Talbot sheltered in a fish house, a.k.a. “The House of Mercy.”
    Learn how to use the House of Mercy in this YouTube video.
    See Fr. Talbot and the House of Mercy featured on KSTP, Channel 5 News!
  • Just Books Summer 2021

    This is our fifth summer of reading books attending to justice issues that face our world and our Church.  Each summer we meet to discuss three books which have been chosen by the Social Justice committee at St. Mary’s.  In past years we have explored immigration, the environment, race, and poverty, through fiction and non-fiction.  This summer’s line-up includes two non-fiction books and a novel.  All books are available through both the Ramsey County and Washington County library systems.  In addition, Lake Country Booksellers will order the books and, when you tell them you are part of the St. Mary of the Lake book club, will give you a 10% discount.  We will meet virtually on the second Wednesday of June, July, and August, from 6:30-8:00 pm.  Register by emailing Kathryn Lien at kathrynannlien@gmail.com .  Following is the list of books with a short description from each publisher.

    June 9, 2021.  Somewhere in the Unknown World by Kao Kalia Yang (non-fiction)

    All over this country there are refugees building a new life from the ashes of the old.  But beyond the headlines, often not much is known about who they are, how they live, or what they have lost.  Although Minnesota is not famous for its diversity, the state has welcomed more refugees per capita than any other, coming from Syria, Bosnia, Thailand, Liberia, and many other countries.  In Yang’s exquisite, necessary telling, these fifteen stories of refugee journeys restore history and humanity to America’s strangers and redeem its long tradition of welcome.

    July 14, 2021.  Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (non-fiction)

    In this touching memoir Coates takes readers along on his journey through America’s history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings—moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race.  Framed as a letter to his son, this book is both a prayer for safety and hope for a world that will present itself as a promise fulfilled.

    August 11, 2021.  The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christ Lefteri (fiction)

    Moving, intimate, and beautifully written, this novel is a book for our times that at once reminds us that the most peaceful and ordinary lives can be utterly upended in unimaginable ways and bring a journey in faraway lands close to home, never to be forgotten.

  • Prayer Opportunities

    Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis monthly prayer request for priests:

    June: View Here
    July: View Here

  • Consider Remote Giving to Support Our Parish

    There are currently three ways to give electronically:

    1. Monthly amount transferred from your bank account (click on the DONATE button on our website home page to find a form). It would be better to mail it to us, since you need to include a voided check.
    2. Weekly, monthly, or one-time checks sent by your bank or other financial service organization (contact your bank to set up a plan that works for you). It is helpful to have your envelope number on the check your bank sends to us.
    3. Weekly, monthly, or one-time gifts charged to your credit card (click on the DONATE button on our website home page to set up your gift)

    There is a way to give remotely that is not “high tech”:
    Simply mail us your check. Our address is 4690 Bald Eagle Avenue, White Bear Lake, 55110.

    Thank you so much for your support in this difficult time.

     

     

  • The Church Responds to the Death of George Floyd and Civil Unrest 

    View resources from St. Mary’s, the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops), Archdioceses of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Catholic Spirit HERE, view prayers HERE.

  • Virtual Fair Trade Sales

    Are you running low on your favorite coffee, chocolate bars, or olive oil? Then place your Fair Trade Sales order today. The Social Justice Committee of St. Mary of the Lake is resuming their Fair Trade Sales this week and every week after, virtually! Please follow the steps HERE to place your order. Contact Nick Brady, Coordinator of Mission at nbrady@stmarys-wbl.org if you have any questions or concerns.

    Order Form and Step to Place Your Order

  • Catholic Podcasts – Listen Now
    Looking for Catholic Podcasts to listen to when on the go! We have a few recommendations for you highlighting a variety of timely, inspirational and educational topics.

     

  • Gathering Space Newsletter

    On a regular basis, St. Mary of the Lake publishes The Gathering Space to keep parishioners informed of activities and news from the parish. Click here for the most recent edition.

    Past editions: Lent 2020 | Advent 2019 | Lent 2019 | Advent 2018 | Lent 2018 Part 2 | Lent 2018 Part 1 | Advent December 2017 | November 2017 | Lent 2017 Part 2 | Lent 2017 Part 1 | November 2016 Part 2 | November 2016 Part 1 | Lent 2016 | Advent 2015 | Summer 2015

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