Happy Back to School Sunday and Back to School Week! This weekend, we are happy to welcome our school children and school families at our 10:00am Mass for the annual Blessing of the Backpacks. An Open House will follow at the school so that our students and parents can drop off supplies, see their classrooms, and start to get into school rhythm. And there will be ice cream! All parishioners are welcome to visit the school on Sunday until 1:00pm. Many thanks to our maintenance staff, especially Joe and Amira, who have spent this summer deep cleaning, painting, repairing, and organizing the school buildings. As I mentioned last week, many projects have happened on the school campus this summer to make sure that our students and school community have clean and safe school buildings and grounds. Everything looks great and we are ready to welcome our students back! Thanks also to Mr. Holley and Mrs. Villmer, our new assistant principal, and other members of the administration and faculty who have also spent their summer preparing for this school year. The first day of school is this Wednesday, August 14. Please keep our students and staff in your prayers as they begin the 2024-2025 school year.
This week is also the feast of the Assumption of Mary, a holy day of obligation, on Thursday, August 15. This day celebrates that at the end of her earthly life, the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed into heaven and crowned Queen of the Universe, where she continues to intercede for us. Where Mary has gone, we hope to follow! Masses for the holy day will be celebrated at 6:30am and 6:30pm on Thursday. Our school community will also celebrate their first All School Mass together at 8:15am on Thursday, and all are welcome. If these times are not convenient for you, please check other parishes around us for their Mass times.
As we head into the school year and into fall, our parish community has much to look forward to. As you may know, this year is a special year for our parish community as we celebrate the 125th Anniversary of our parish! Our parish was founded in 1899, and the first Mass was celebrated that Christmas. This year, we will be honored to welcome Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski to celebrate Mass at St. Margaret of Scotland on Christmas Eve to mark the 125th Anniversary of the parish. This will be a highlight of our anniversary celebrations, but there will be many other celebrations over the course of the year. Bishop Rivituso will be celebrating Mass with us on Sunday, December 8, and our former Pastors Fr. Brown, Fr. Wyrsch, and Fr. O’Toole have also been invited to return to celebrate with us during our Anniversary year.
A very special event for our Anniversary year will be our first annual (???) Mass In The Grass at 10:00am on Sunday, September 8, at the Stone Shelter in Tower Grove Park. Weather permitting, we will gather for Sunday Mass, lunch, and fellowship outside that day at our beautiful neighborhood park. You are asked to bring chairs and blankets as we gather for Mass, and you are asked to bring your own drinks and a side to share for a potluck meal with our community. The parish will provide hot dogs, brats, and veggie dogs, and we will ask parishioners to bring sides, chips, and desserts to share. The Stone Shelter is reserved all day, so you are invited to stay as long as you want to eat, visit, and play. This will be a great opportunity to give praise to God, revel in nature, celebrate our heritage, and build our community. We will still have the 4:30pm Saturday and 8:00am Sunday Mass in Church that weekend for those who might not want to come to the park, but I hope that many will want to come to this unique celebration. Even if you are not comfortable coming to Mass in the park, you are welcome to join our community for lunch that day. So mark your calendar for our first Mass in the Grass: 10:00am on Sunday, September 8 at the Stone Shelter in Tower Grove Park!