I hope everybody had a beautiful and blessed Mother’s Day weekend surrounded by love, gratitude, faith, and family. We are so grateful for all mothers, grandmothers, aunties, spiritual mothers, godmothers, and all the women who nurture, guide, pray for, and love others so selflessly. We also lovingly remember the mothers who are now in Heaven watching over us and interceding for us before Our Lord.

During this beautiful month of May, dedicated to our Blessed Mother Mary, we are reminded of her humility, her courage, her obedience to God, and her unconditional love. Holy Mary continues to guide us closer to her Son, Jesus Christ. As a Catholic community, we are deeply blessed to walk together in faith, gratitude, and service. The Gospel continually reminds us to love one another, to serve one another, and to give thanks in all things. We are grateful to Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour for the many blessings He continues to pour upon our school community.

This will be a very busy and exciting week at Saint John Paul II Academy as we prepare for our wonderful Golf Tournament on Thursday. So much work has taken place over the past several weeks and months behind the scenes and we are incredibly grateful to everyone who has contributed their time, talent, resources, and love toward making this event possible.

To our sponsors, donors, golfers, volunteers, and families, thank you for believing in our mission and for supporting our bursary program. Because of your generosity, many families and students will continue to be positively impacted through Catholic education. On behalf of all those families, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

A very special thank you to David Fanning for his inspirational leadership and for helping keep the entire team focused and organized throughout this process. We are truly grateful for your commitment and dedication.

To all the volunteers who have worked tirelessly collecting donations, organizing auction items, and reaching out to our community, thank you for your generosity and service.

Holly, thank you for coordinating the class baskets. Corey Pomeroy, thank you for helping assemble and organize them so beautifully. Robin, thank you as well for stepping in to help with the Golf Tournament. Even though you are already serving faithfully on the Carnival committee, you immediately saw that additional support was needed and did not hesitate for a moment to help. Your generosity, kindness, and willingness to serve wherever needed are such a beautiful reflection of Christian love and community. God bless your beautiful heart for always giving so selflessly.

We would also like to thank Melissa Banovich for all of her help and support both with the Carnival and wherever else assistance has been needed. Your willingness to step in with joy, generosity, and dedication is deeply appreciated. We are truly blessed by your support and commitment to our school community.

Italia, thank you for generously sharing your time and support throughout this process. Gen Randle and Ximena, thank you for your tremendous work coordinating Givergy and helping prepare the programs and event materials as we continue final preparations for printing ahead of Thursday’s event.

There are many additional committee members and volunteers who have worked quietly behind the scenes with great love, sacrifice, and dedication. Every detail, every phone call, every donation request, every meeting, and every act of service matters deeply. We are truly blessed to have such an extraordinary community.

We hope to see many of you there on Thursday as we come together in fellowship, gratitude, and support of our students and families.

Today we also welcome guests to the school for tours and conversations relating to the bank centered mortgage process. Important deadlines are approaching and we are very grateful that conversations continue to move positively as organizations seek to align with the vision and future of our Academy. If you see our guests around the school today, please offer them a warm welcome as we continue working diligently on behalf of our school community and future generations.

In addition, we would like to warmly welcome special guests visiting from the Archdiocese this morning on behalf of the Archbishop. We are honoured to welcome Mr. James Borkowski and other members of the Archdiocese who will be spending time with Mr. Tony Walters, Mr. Troy Van Vliet, and myself throughout the morning. Please extend your kindness and hospitality to them as they visit our Academy community.

Tomorrow morning, following Mass, we are blessed to welcome Father Augustine, who will be bringing a representative from NET Ministries to our community.

NET Ministries, which stands for National Evangelization Teams, is a Catholic missionary organization dedicated to evangelizing young people and helping them deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ through retreats, discipleship, prayer, fellowship, and joyful witness to the Gospel. We are truly grateful for these missionaries and the beautiful work they do serving young people across Canada and beyond.

As discussed last week, families who may feel called to support this mission through becoming a host family are encouraged to put their names forward. It would truly be a blessing and a beautiful act of Christian hospitality and service.

We would also like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Father Francis from Good Shepherd Church. Father Francis has served our parish community with tremendous love, kindness, humility, and faithfulness for many years. As many of you already know, he will be retiring at the end of this month.

Father Francis has been such a blessing not only to the parish, but also to our school, our students, our staff, and our families. His love for Christ and his gentle pastoral care have touched many lives. Students, parents, and staff alike have all been blessed by his presence and guidance. We encourage everybody to continue praying for him and to celebrate him this Friday in gratitude for all he has done for our community. Students, we love Father Francis very much and we are deeply grateful for him.

As we reflect on the Gospel and the blessings within our community, we are reminded how much we have to be thankful for. We are grateful for our wonderful teachers who are experts in their fields and true leaders within our community. We are grateful for our dedicated staff, volunteers, families, and students. We are grateful for our incredible Principal, Mr. Tony Walters, and for our Chairs, Mr. Troy Van Vliet and Dr. Joseph King. We are grateful for both the Foundation Board and the Society Board who continue to serve the mission of Catholic education with dedication and care.

Most importantly, we are grateful to Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, because every blessing flows from Him. We are grateful to Our Blessed Mother Mary, whose example of faith, humility, and love continues to guide our school community. The love, generosity, compassion, and service we see throughout our Academy are reflections of God’s goodness and grace working through His people.

May we continue to walk together in faith, unity, gratitude, and love.

God bless you all abundantly.

Heartfelt blessings,

Silveria Roselli