Everyone is invited to attend St. Mary's Lasagna Supper at St. Mary School on Saturday, January 25 from 4:30-7:30 p.m. There will also be a Silent Auction and classroom displays.

THANK YOU to everyone who supported the Scrip Push! The goal was $30,000 and $69,700.00 in Scrip was purchased! The St. Mary's students will enjoy a pizza and movie party hosted by the Home & School Association.

The upcoming Southwest Wisconsin CEW (Christian Experience Weekend) will be held at Immaculate Conception School in Kieler, WI. The women’s weekend will be February 14-16, 2025. The men’s weekend will be February 21-23, 2025. These weekends begin at 7:00 p.m. Friday and end on Sunday at approximately 4:30 pm. If you want to do something special for yourself, attend a CEW weekend. Application forms are available at www.swwicew.org or in some of the church entrances. For more information on the women’s weekend, call Patti Eggers at 608-574-6665. For the men’s weekend, call Jeff Schaefer at 608-778-9321. Weekends fill up fast. Applications will be taken on a first come first serve basis.

We invite you to find help through Retrouvaille, (ret-tro-vi), where husbands and wives are helped to re-discover each other. In Retrouvaille, couples discover they are not alone. There is hope and grace. Madison’s upcoming Retrouvaille program is January 31 – February 2, 2025 at the Green Lake Conference Center. Follow up sessions will be in Madison. Call (920) 369-8836 or check our website at www.helpourmarriage.org Your confidentiality is always respected.

St Mary’s School has teamed up with Hamann’s Helping Hands again this holiday season to help gathering gifts for children that are spending the holidays in the hospital. We will be collecting gifts until December 20.

The start date is December 27 (start noon on Friday)- 29 (ends 3:30 on Sunday). TEC (Together Encountering Christ) is centered on the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Our Shepherd Bishop Donald Hying has also centered his 'Go Make Disciples' initiative on that same theme. TEC is especially designed to help us grow in our love for Christ and our Holy Catholic Church. It is an amazing experience for any age who are young at heart and at least 15 years of age. Regardless of your present walk in our Catholic Faith, you will be rejuvenated. This is also a 'shout out' to those of you who have already experienced a TEC retreat and would like to help out. Fr. Greg Ihm will be our Spiritual Director. Jeff Jackson is the lay Director and can be reached at 608.778.6027 Or [email protected] More information about TEC can be found at www.MadisonDiocese.org/TEC

St. Clement CCW invites women of St. Joseph The Worker Pastorate to an Advent Celebration at the historic L. J. Arthur House, 210 N. Jefferson St, Lancaster, on Thursday, Dec. 12, 6:00-8:00 p.m. A light meal of appetizers, sweet treats and punch will be served. Fr. Mark Miller will give an Advent reflection. All women of our pastorate are members of CCW and welcome to attend. Please let us know by Dec. 9 that you plan to celebrate with us. Call or text Bernadette Schaefer at 608-732-7475, or Marcia Hampton at 608-732-8849.

Operation Santa Claus in the River Ridge area is sponsored by the West Grant Lions Club to help those families and individuals in need to have a Merry Christmas. The club serves the Bagley, Bloomington, Glen Haven, Mt. Hope and Patch Grove areas. The members of the West Grant Lions Club have already been checking the five communities and surrounding areas served by the club for people in need. This has been necessary to provide enough time for the proper ordering of food items and other needed items. If a new situation develops that the club should know about, please contact Lion Mike Farrell at 9143 Kussmaul Rd., Mt. Hope, WI 53816. His phone number is: 608-988-4527. Money donations which are needed for the purchase of food items may be mailed to the West Grant Lions Club Treasurer, Paul Wegmann at 10998 Holly Rd. Bloomington, WI 53804. Be sure to make checks out to the West Grant Lions Club. The deadline for making money donations is Monday, Dec. 2. If you have any nonperishable food items (especially canned goods) please bring them to one of the collection locations which will be announced at a later date. Also please mark the bags or boxes as being for the West Grant Lions Operation Santa Claus. Sometimes there are other organizations or classes who are gathering food items for a different project. The Lions Club cannot distribute home canned foods or home baked items or clothing.

The Council gave $100 to each of the Fall Festivals. It was discussed whether to merge the council or to have the paying members process the Form 100 and mark on the form if they want to transfer to Council 2820 Lancaster. The transfer process is the most efficient way to combine Council 4416 with Council 2820. The members from Council 2820 feel strongly that the transfer process is the best way to move forward. The next Council 4416 meeting will be Tuesday, September 17th at 7:30 P.M. in St. Mary’s Church basement in Bloomington.