I found that I could create a block with my introductory text and place it in the "content" region. I set it to only appear on the catalog page.

Now the catalog with images appears at the top and below it is the Introductory text that I need.

How can I change the sort order so that the text block appears above the catalog block?

...

Or,

I can call up the "catalog" page with www.mydomain.com/catalog
Is there a way to call the "catalog" so that it appears in a separate block? I can then sort the blocks that I need.