It is with hearts full of peace and understanding of the current situation as well as concern for the safety of our parents, volunteers, parishioners, school students, school staff, and our wonderful ANNUAL BOOK SALE supporters that we, the St. Clare of Montefalco PTO, have decided to cancel our Annual Used Book Sale for the 2020-2021 school year. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM DROPPING BOOKS OFF AT THE SCHOOL OR PARISH AS THIS INCREASES RISK FOR OUR SCHOOL AND PARISH STAFF. WE ARE NOT COLLECTING BOOKS AT THIS TIME. The Book Sale is a major fundraiser for our school. Therefore, we are exploring fun ideas to replace the finances lost and will keep you informed of this progress. Please watch for future announcements! If you have fundraising suggestions, please contact Sue Pongratz, PTO President, at monkeys5little@gmail.com.

For those of you who are still holding Bonanza tickets or are able to possibly sell additional tickets this week, a fourth count has been scheduled for next Saturday, April 25 from 10 to 12. Please drop off all sold tickets at the Parish office during that time so we can have them included in the first drawing. The plan is to live stream each drawings after the 9:00 a.m. Sunday Mass on each of the dates as scheduled. Although we have not met our goal of 1500 tickets yet, it may be possible with your help. Even if we do not meet this goal, it will be a successful year thanks to all of you during this difficult time. Any questions or if you need help returning your tickets, please feel to call me at 313-727-3540.

The third Bonanza count will take place this weekend (April 18 and 19). Tickets will be collected at the Parish office on Saturday from 3:00 to 5:00 PM and on Sunday from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. Sunday will be the actual count day. Precautions for collection, counting and drawings as scheduled will be in place. Please return your sold tickets this weekend. If we do not reach our 1500 sold ticket goal this weekend and you sell additional tickets, we will make arrangements to collect them. We still have a ways to go to reach 1500. Thank you for all your help and support during this very difficult and historic time. Be safe and be St. Clare strong. Any questions, please call Tim Kramer at 313-727-3540

If you have a Rice Bowl at home that you are collecting coins or plan to write a check to support, please know you can set it aside and plan to bring back to church whenever we return. Of course, checks may be mailed to my attention at St. Clare or mailed directly to Operation Rice Bowl. It is a great program so I hope we will eventually be able to support it as we usually do.

Holy Triduum - It is an odd-sounding word that comes from the Latin term meaning – three days. We use this term to describe the most scared days of the liturgical calendar: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. Even though we are not going to gather to celebrate these days in our church, we will commemorate them with our Archbishop and pray through them together via electronic media.

How different and how special this Holy Week will be for us all. During these days more than ever we are confronted with the fragility of our lives, and again we are reminded that we are all one family under God. Through our daily prayers, devotions and Sunday Liturgies, we are reminded that God does not abandon us. He stays with us even now in this time of the pandemic. It is important for us to rest our hearts in Jesus Christ through prayers and sacrifices and deeds of charity for one another.