St. Monica's 2024 Annual Catholic Appeal Campaign

One mission, one family – together in Christ is the theme of this year’s Annual Catholic Appeal, and this weekend kicks off the 2024 campaign!

The Annual Catholic Appeal funds ministries and services for your local Catholic community across Western Washington. This combined effort of parishes and the Archdiocese of Seattle ensures the availability of outreach ministries, education, faith formation, administrative services for parishes and much more!

This year, the archdiocese has set our parish ACA goal as $173,971. All gifts received over our archdiocesan goal will be returned to the parish as a rebate. This year's rebate will be used to help pay for work in both the church and our gymnasium. Work in the church will include the repainting of some interior walls and repairing ceiling tiles. Work in the gymnasium will include replacing the gym floor and repainting the wall beams and columns. The sequence and speed of these 2024 Parish Project plans will be managed by the parish staff and will depend on the participation level in this campaign. With that in mind, we hope to reach our parish ACA stretch goal of $250,000 so that the rebate can help offset these costs. Please prayerfully consider how you can participate in helping our parish be a light to others.

Upcoming Events and Opportunities

We've put together a page of our upcoming events and other Catholic events from around the Archdiocese of Seattle. Click here to check out what's going on in our community and discover new ways to engage in parish life!

Official Appointments Announced

On Monday, April 8, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne and the Priest Personnel Board released the Official Appointments including pastors, parochial vicars and other assignments. This was after several months of consultation with priests, deacons, staff and parishioners from around the archdiocese. New assignments will go into effect on July 1, 2024. Parish Family #26 (Consisting of Sacred Heart Parish in Bellevue and St. Monica Parish on Mercer Island) will retain Rev. Kurt W. Nagel as pastor and Rev. Joseph L. Akor as Parochial Vicar.

Click here to see the full list of official appointments.

Click here to read the letter from Archbishop Etienne.

Click here to learn more about the Partners in the Gospel inititative.

CYO Coaches needed for this Fall!

Consider coaching for K-8 CYO soccer or cross country in the fall! Please email Lizzy LaBelle, PE teacher & CYO Director at St. Monica Catholic School, at llabelle@stmonicasea.org if you are interested or have any questions.

Special Request to Pray for Peace

Given the devastating war underway, we encourage everyone to pray for war torn areas. Below is a peace prayer to pray together and share with your communities.

Bearing Witness to Peace

Lord God, we come to you in our need.

Create in us an awareness of the massive forces that threaten our world today.

Give us a sense of urgency to activate the forces of goodness, of justice, of love and of peace.

Where there is armed conflict, let us stretch our arms to our brothers and sisters.

Where there is abundance, let there be simple lifestyle and sharing.

Where there is poverty, let there be dignified living and constant striving for just structures.

Where there are wounds of division, let there be unity and wholeness.

Help us to be committed to the building of your kingdom.

Not seeking to be cared for, but to care.

Not expecting to be served, but to place ourselves in the service of others.

Not aspiring to be materially secure, but to place our security in your love.

Teach us your spirit.

Only in loving imitation of you can we discover the healing springs of life that will bring new birth to our world.

From – Prayer Without Borders, Catholic Relief Services

Sunday Homily Video Recordings

Did you have trouble hearing father's homily at Mass? Or maybe you'd just like to listen to it again? For convenience, we re-upload our Sunday Mass homilies as videos. Each Sunday's homily is typically uploaded by the Wednesday following the weekend Masses. All homily videos are uploaded to youtube, and on our website’s homily page. Looking for a past homily? Our homily page also features an index of our previous Sunday Homilies.

What about weekday Masses? While we don't process separate videos for our daily Mass homilies, they can be watched within the full recordings of our daily Mass livestreams. Browse past livestreams on our Youtube page: www.youtube.com/@stmonicami/streams.

Mass Livestreams? St. Monica livestreams one Mass each day of the week. It can be beneficial to watch weekday Masses via livestream when your schedule does not allow you attend in person. Sunday Mass livestreams are a great resource for parishioners who’s health prevents them from attending Mass. We also recommend watching the livestream if you are unable to attend Mass due to illness. For more information about Mass livestreams, visit our livestream page.

Please note that the general obligation to attend Mass on Sundays (or Saturday Vigil Mass) and Holy Days of Obligation was reinstated (CIC, can. 1247), as of December 8, 2021.

Scam Email Warning

The parish staff wants to warn parishioners that someone has been sending emails pretending to be Father Nagel, parish staff members, and our former pastor, Father Freitag. Scam emails typically say that Father is "in need of help" ask if "you are available for an errand" or just asks the recipient to "please respond concerning a sensitive matter". These emails (or texts) are a scam and should be deleted whenever they are received. Legitimate emails from parish staff members will always be sent from an email address ending with "@stmonicami.org". If you have any questions, feel free to contact the parish office directly at parishoffice@stmonicami.org