Fr. Rex officiated at our Annual Blessing of Garden and Gardeners - April 18, 2026

This event marks the beginning of this year’s gardening for many of us. We had two special blessings this year:

• First blessed was a bench fabricated through the donation of hundreds of pounds of plastic collected by the dedicated efforts of Ascension and St. Edmund parishioners, St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy and St. Giles parishioners, and friends of the environment throughout our community. We reflected on the choice to repurpose plastic into this bench rather than discarding it in landfills.
• Then a Little Library was dedicated to the memory of Pete Sluka. Pete was a founder of the Susan Fleming Community garden and an advocate for solar energy through Ascension’s HOME Team, our environmental and spiritual ministry. The roof of the Little Library was customized with a solar panel to power an LED for nighttime lighting. It is hoped that garden and environmental books will always be featured in our Little Library, particularly Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’.

Since it was a little chilly we had our coffee and donuts in the Parish Center dining room.