St. Edward Catholic Church

05/02/2026

04/17/2026

Annual Benefit Tea, Saturday, April 18, 2026. Doors open at 11 am at the Visitation Parish Hall,
Verboort, OR. Join us for Traditional English Tea, Specialty sandwiches, Homemade scones with lemon
curd and Devonshire cream, and Delectable desserts. There are many Raffle and a few Oral Auction
items.
All proceeds go to a Benevolence Fund, created to support Individuals and Families facing hardships.
Tickets are $30 each or sponsor a table and invite your friends!

03/17/2026

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSck04yw89DXIwx3e0RFUQJdKZWxF9DZA78g7_A-w5Uj6IKqXg/viewform

02/07/2026

08/27/2025

Brothers and sisters,

My heart is heavy in the wake of this morning’s tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. Let us pray for those who have died, for the healing of the injured, and for the consolation of their loved ones. May our Blessed Mother draw near to comfort the families and friends of the departed.

It is especially heartbreaking to know that these students were gathered for Holy Mass at the start of a new school year when tragedy struck. In our grief, we turn to Christ, our hope and our peace, even as we renew our resolve to work for change. We pray that proper action will be taken to help prevent such senseless violence. May Christ guide us out of darkness and into His peace.

+Archbishop Alexander K. Sample

07/01/2025

Day 8
A very smooth morning of travel although we were notified of a 30 minute departure delay. At the Calgary International Airport, the ticketing desks helped us print all the boarding passes and checking in luggage. US Customs was a breeze. Even the baggage claim was timely. As parents and family greeted the teens of Mission Krewe 2025, there were smiles and hugs exchanged, and plenty of stories to be shared. The picture of shoes on the PDX airport carpet has been the traditional sign off to Mission Krewe to signify, boots back on the ground in Oregon. However, in light of the return from Canada with its French roots, I will add this sign off to Mission Krewe 2025 Calgary, Alberta.
À demain!

06/30/2025

Day 7
First, the greatest gift one can give another is the power of prayer. My aunt passed this early morning peacefully surrounded by loved ones and the Divine Mercy chaplet offered last night by the teens assisted in imparting God's mercy. Please continue to pray for my aunt, Catherine, and my cousins, Theresa, Julie, and Elizabeth. Catherine Duong, requiescat in pace.

A later start time meant more sleep or at least recovery for sore feet from yesterday's day long visit to Banff. All the teens were asked to wear their Mission Krewe 2025 T-shirts. When 40+ youth enter the church, people take notice, but when 40+ wearing the same shirts, it is even more noticeable. Fr. Avi, the Cathedral rector, provided a warm welcome to the group as he acknowledged the charitable work that has been done the last few days during Mission Krewe in Calgary.

After Mass, the group went to First Street Market. Shout out of thank you to Ken Cancella who as one of our many donors, each year he sponsors a meal for the group. This meal was a gift card to be used at any one of the 7 food booths. The popular booth was of course pizza, but many visited the Korean BBQ and tacos too. There was such a variety of choices that no one left complaining. A quick lunch and back to St. Mary's Cathedral to receive a quick orientation to prepare us for the food service.

Feed the Hungry has been operating for the last 30 years in which once a week, catered food is brought in from local restaurants except the last Sunday of the month that the volunteers of St. Mary's makes a home cooked meal for their guests. They serve around 350 every Sunday which is incredible. The entire group of 40+ were assigned various tasks whether it was hostess, service of food/drink, table set up/clean up, or garbage and recycle patrol. The guests who partook of the meal and the other volunteers were all appreciative of the help and assistance to make this food/drink service warm, hospitable, and welcoming.

The afternoon of volunteering was the last organized service that we were called to do. We returned back the Retreat Centre for supper and our final reflection on the week long service trip. It was a bittersweet moment as it would be last time our friends from Boston would be together. The Boston group have a very early morning flight at 6:45am which meant they needed to depart for the airport around 3:30am. So goodbyes were exchanged.

The Portland group is set to have breakfast and with a departure time of 8:30am to catch our 12:05pm flight back home. Again, a very manageable less than 90 minute flight home and if all goes well, touch ground at 12:52pm Oregon time. Hopefully, everything will run on time and Mission Krewe 2025 will sign off as we always do with a success until next year.

--Fr. Michael Vuky

06/29/2025

Day 6 - pt2 More Images

06/29/2025

Day 6
Everyone and anyone has shared with me that if you visit Calgary, a must see besides the Calgary Stampede is Banff National Park. Today was a planned all day visit of this natural beauty that was just over an hour away from the Retreat Centre. The first stop provided the teens a Gondola ride up Mount Sulphur in order to get a sense of all the mountain ranges and lakes. It was an overcast morning, but nevertheless, the scenery was still majestic.

Next stop was to Lake Minnewanka for a picnic lunch overlooking the dock launch point for the boats and such. Although there were trails to explore, instead the plan was to return back to Banff and walk the Bow Falls trail which was 1 mile into the heart of the town. The hike was helpful as it allowed the sandwich lunches to digest.

Finally, the trail lead to the main street of the entire town of Banff for some souvenir shopping and of course, food purchases of sweets and treats such as Beavertail pastry which Fr. Chris enjoyed greatly. It is an elephant ear with your choice of toppings and Fr. Chris chose maple, chocolate and caramel. It was a full day of sightseeing, eating, shopping and walking.

Now on a more personal note, the first evening reflection on Tuesday, I invited the teens to join me in praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet for my aunt, Catherine. She had sustained a stroke and was in ICU. Continuing to keep her in prayer, tonight before 10pm lights out, on their own initiative, the teens are meeting in the chapel to continue pray the Divine Mercy chaplet for my aunt. Words cannot express my gratitude as it affirms my belief that when you gather youth together under the four pillars of prayer, worship, fellowship, and catechesis, this is the ingredients for them to love and grow in their faith. I sincerely thank all those parents, parishioners, donors, benefactors, and friends who support the Youth Group program and the Mission Krewe as it is these moments that we see the fruits of the sacrifices we make to give them an opportunity to experience something different and unique.

06/28/2025

Day 5
An early morning, very early morning started with a grab and go breakfast of bagel with egg and ham sandwich, yogurt and juice which many partook to only spend the next 75 minutes on the bus falling back to sleep. We traveled to Sacred Heart Parish in Strathmore. In was such a blessing to celebrate Mass on the Solemnity of Sacred Heart in the church named after Sacred Parish. After Mass, we were given a tour of the church which just marked its 1 year anniversary. As it was explained to us during the tour, the original church flooded which required a new facility. The parish community decided to purchase a grocery store and renovate it into a sacred space. From the pictures taken, the parish community created a very beautiful sacred space that was so thoughtful that the altar where the Eucharist is consecrated was the bread aisle was located. We all had a smile on our faces.

We then moved to the Strathmore Stampede grounds to help with a project to painting bleachers. Like most small tight knit communities, those on the board are Church members. This task would assist in their annual Stampede event that is the 3rd largest in the continent. Of course, the largest is the Calgary Stampede starting next Tuesday, July 1. The teens tackled this project with great zeal and excitement and for some, too much excitement as there were plenty of red and white splattering on clothes.

The hard work was rewarded with a lazy day river raft adventure on the Bow river that runs through the city of Calgary. The launch point was from Bowness park and ended at Peace Bridge. The groups experienced a very rapid current that what was estimated to take 2.5 hours to float from point A to B, our rafts did it in 90 minutes. Of course, there may have been a race and some ferocious paddling. The adventure concluded with a return back to the Retreat Centre. With such a long planned day from 7am to 5pm, we decided to not schedule an evening reflection. However, to our pleasant surprise, Drew Duyck organized one for this evening. Fr. Chris and I and the adult chaperones had a moment in which we all recognized that the seeds that we are planting are bearing fruit when the teens start taking the initiative for spiritual growth. Also, it just makes our lives easier that we don't have to plan it but rather can sit back and observe and perhaps give some pointers along the way.

Tomorrow, Banff awaits and it is another long day ahead.