Parish Feast Day Celebration

Our parish is under the patronage of Our Lady of Lourdes. During her apparitions at Lourdes, the Blessed Mother foretold of miraculous healings that would take place because of the waters that flowed at the site, and because of devotion to her. Each year, on the Saturday closest to her feast day (February 11), we host a Parish Feast Day Celebration. Part of our celebration is to pray for the sick of our parish & our world. Then, we celebrate the wonderful things that are taking place here at St. Mary’s.

The first piece of our Parish Feast Day Celebration is prayer. Each year, we engage in a procession of our Blessed Mother, and we ask her to lead us to Jesus. Here’s a video of the 2020 procession:

After our prayer & worship, we hear musical performances from the choirs of our parish school & the local Catholic high school (Sacred Heart of Jesus High School). We are incredibly blessed that performance arts flourish in our community, & that students are learning to portray God’s beauty in this way.

Musical performance by St. Mary’s School children, under the direction of Mrs. Anne Long.

Musical performance by Sacred Heart of Jesus High School choir, under the direction & accompaniment of Mrs. Carrie Prewitt.

While people enjoy the musical performance, they partake of a pot-luck dinner, which includes food from each of the various cultures represented at St. Mary’s (from six of seven continents!).

The crowning moment of our feast day celebration is the bestowal of the Mater Dei Award for Outstanding Christian Stewardship on certain parishioners. The award recipients have been nominated by fellow parishioners & selected by an anonymous group of parishioners. These Mater Dei recipients reflect the values, initiative, & spirituality of our parish, each & every year.

The recipients of the 2023 Mater Dei award: Derek Rotty, Kathy Jarvis and Manuel Cobian. They are pictured above with our pastor, Father David Graham and associate pastor, Father Jonathan Perez.

2020 Mater Dei Award Recipients:
David Burngasser, Kevin & Tracy Dillon, Kaye Fox, & Mary Jo Howard

Here is a picture that we captured of all the previous & current recipients of the Mater Dei Award who were present at our 2020 celebration.