15th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

In today’s Gospel from Matthew, our Lord shares the Parable of the Sower who scatters seed on many different kinds of land.  This is a wonderful analogy for the stewardship way of life, demonstrating the slow and steady, yet powerful effect this lifestyle will have on those who fully embrace it.

In this parable, some of the seeds land on a path where birds carry them off before they can begin to take root.  Other seeds land on rocky ground with little soil. As soon as things begin to heat up, they get scorched and die.  Then there are seeds that land on soil cluttered with thorns which choke the seeds just as they are beginning to grow strong.

Finally, there are seeds that land on deep and healthy soil.  These seeds produce abundant fruit.

This is where the stewardship way of life comes in.  When we give the best of our time, talent and treasure to serve God and others, we create lives filled with that rare “good soil” needed for the Kingdom of God to thrive.

How does this happen?  Stewardship living removes the “rocks” of mistrust from our lives as we develop an unshakeable faith that God will always provide for our needs. It clears away the “thorns” of worldly ambition that make us self-centered, fill us with needless anxiety and stifle our focus on God.  Stewardship living requires a deep reliance on the Word of God and the sacraments which continuously nourish and fertilize the soil of our lives.

Let us deepen our commitment to this way of life, allowing the Sower to do His work in us, slowly and steadily.  The Master Gardner will surely produce miraculous fruits through us.

Tue, July 18 @ 9:00 am          Helen Alexander (INT)

Tue, July 18 @ 11:00 pm        Caitlin Hayes (INT) - Senior Care Centre

Tue, July 18 @ 6:30 pm          Caroline Ferero & Danna & Sara Mateus (INT)
Wed, July 19 @ 9:00 am         Theresa & Faustina (INT)

Wed, Jul 19 @ 10:30 am         Family of Colin Kellner (INT) - Senior Care Centre
Wed, July 19 @ 6:30 pm         Mateus Family (INT)

Thu, July 20 @ 9:00 am          Ron Stoley SR (RIP)

Thu, July 20 @ 6:30 pm          Alexander Fernandes (RIP)

Fri, July 21 @ 9:00 am            Carmen Toole & Family (INT)
Fri, July 21 @ 6:30 pm            Joni Winter (RIP)
Sat, July 22 @ 9:00 am           Faustina & Theresa (INT)

Sat, July 22 @ 5:00 pm           Adolf Smerdely (RIP)
Sun, July 23 @ 9:00 am          Roger Bougie (RIP)

Sun, July 23 @ 11:00 am        St. Albert the Great Community (INT)

Sun, July 23 @ 5:00 pm          Regelio Pineda Martin (RIP)

ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFERS – when making donations by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) please put your full name in the memo line, and your address if it is the first time you are sending an EFT donation.  We are receiving donations that only come in from the bank with a first name, and we do not know who it belongs to, or what it is for; donation, sacrament fee payment, etc.  Also, you may have the same first and last name as another parishioner, and the address helps us correctly record the donation.  Your full name and address ensures that we are recording the donation to the correct person for tax receipts at the end of the year.

DONATION ENVELOPES – we are encouraging parishioners to make donations electronically, however we can provide you with a box of donation envelopes and a sheet of labels to put on them, as the envelopes are not numbered.  Please come to the parish office Monday through Friday 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, and we can provide you with the box of envelopes and labels. If you do not want the labels, when using envelopes, please PRINT your full name and address on the envelope.  If you only put your first name “John”, or your last name “Doe Family”, we do not know who to record the donation to and it gets recorded as loose.

You can find 25th Anniversary merchandise for purchase at this link .

The items are rounded either to the nearest $1, or $5 increment to fundraise for the parish (with the exception on the coffee mugs), with a donation to the parish adder at the checkout page. The first order will be placed on August 16.  After August 16^th, additional orders will be taken on the next run until October 20^th with that next run delivered by November 10^th so people can have a chance to have it for the Feast Day celebration on November 15^th.

St. Albert the Great Parish

CGS is a Montessori based Catholic faith formation program where children can joyfully fall deeply in love with God through contemplation of Scripture and Liturgy.   St. Albert the Great is happy to announce that we are going to be running 5 week programs starting in September until May on Saturday mornings depending on the interest and support of the community.  The program is open to children from the ages of 3 to 6 years old.

To get this program going, we do need a few things.  Some help we need would be:

If you are interested to volunteer or to register, please email: larainne.friesen@gmail.com or schndersa@hotmail.com.  Registration will start in the summer as space is limited to only 12 students maximum.  Thank you for your support and we look forward to growing in faith with you and your child.

A small group of the faithful from St. Albert the Great Parish have taken on the mission to put together some recollections and archives going back to the very beginnings of our parish.  Our history got away from us and we think that while we’re still able, we need to gather up our memories.  We are reaching out to anyone who has been a part of our journey for the past 25 years to help document our past.

We’re not exactly sure of what this is all going to look like, but all stories and memories are important.  Can you help us?

Your participation wouldn’t involve a huge time commitment.  If you do like meetings and such, we’ve decided to gather once a month to add past events to a giant timeline.  But, another way that you might participate is to write down your recollections…events that stick out in your memory or that were really important to your family.  You might want to look through your boxes of photos and contribute those or a scan of those.  There are many ways that your participation might be celebrated.  Whether you walked in the front doors of our church when they first opened 20 years ago, or for the first time a few months ago, you are an important part of our history and we thank you for anything you might do.  If you have something to share, please contact us at  archives@stalbertthegreat.ca  .