A Word from Your Pastor March 26 - Fourth Sunday of Lent

Dear Parishioners:

The Fourth Sunday of Lent highlights the themes of Light and Blindness.  As our experience of more hours of daylight begins, we see more of the world illumined by the sun.  The same thing can happen as our eyes open to the power of Faith.  We live in a world that is closed in on itself and we are all part of a pervasive culture that tends to isolate us in our ways of thinking about ourselves and others.  It is an irony that science reveals clearly that we are part of an expanding universe, and our tendency seems to be rather to create limits.  God invites us to see.  He heals our blindness and asks us to be a source of light for others.  The Sacramental Life that we share is our primary means to open us and others to a living relationship with God that has a source of enlightenment available to us at all times.

The Sacrament of Confirmation strengthens our Faith within our hearts and emboldens us to share our Faith with those around us. If we call upon the power of the Holy Spirit and exercise the gifts He has given to us, we will be strong in our Faith.  This requires a commitment to follow where the Lord leads.  This life is a test, a preparation for our entry into the Life that lasts forever.

Now is the time to make plans for participation in the events of Holy Week and Easter.  Be sure to make plans to live that week differently – April 9-16.  I encourage you to make it the “head of your calendar” and to put into practice all the resolutions you have made to live the priorities that we are highlighting this year: Communication, The Sunday Mass, Hospitality and Welcome and Living the Sacramental Life as a Family.  How are you and your family responding to this call?  Do you see the Light?

A Word from Your Pastor March 19 - Third Sunday of Lent

Dear Parishioners:

The Holy Spirit is active among us.  In a short period of time, we have experienced our annual Confirmation for the 8^th Grade class and an amazing day of Retreat for those who have been part of the first Alpha program.  Many have expressed real excitement about what God is doing.  Our Parish Penance Service last week allowed not a few the touch of the Sacrament of Healing.  We are all given something when God works in the hearts of any of our members.  How is God touching your heart?

Lent is always a time to review and renew our commitment to what God asks of us.  This year, we are concentrating on how the Sacraments function among us.  Part of the Examination of Conscience that was used at our Penance service may be useful to you to consider this aspect of your Catholic life.  I invite you to take this to your personal prayer.

How am I living a truly Sacramental Life?

Am I cooperating with the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus?

Is my life a clear witness of the truth revealed in Scripture and in the Sacraments of the Church?

Do I bring the light of the Gospel to those who are part of my life?

The Sacraments of Initiation are Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist.

Do I conform my life to Christ through living in awareness of the power of the Sacraments I have received?  Am I faithful to my baptismal vows?  Do I exercise the Gifts of the Spirit?  Do I proclaim the Gospel?  Am I faithful to the Eucharist by receiving the Lord regularly and feeding the spiritually hungry?

Am I growing in Faith, Hope and Love by striving to put into practice the Gospel values?

Am I allowing the Spirit to lead me to a deeper relationship with Jesus and to open my heart more fully to God’s Will in my life?

The Sacraments of Healing are Penance, Anointing of the Sick.

Do I allow the Lord to heal me, bringing to Him my sins and my weakness?

Am I a means of healing for others?

Do I forgive and bring peace to others?

Do those who are sick find me as a true friend, bringing Christ to them and keeping them in touch with the Church’s ministry of comfort and healing?

The Sacraments of Service are Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders.

Do I live in true communion of life with those entrusted to me on the earthly journey?

Am I concerned about the spiritual wellbeing of others, as well as about their physical and emotional needs?

Am I faithful to my own state in life and to the relationships God has given me?

Do the Sacraments shape my mind and heart, drawing me more into a living relationship with the Lord?

As part of our observance of Pope Francis’ call to celebrate “24 Hours for the Lord” on March 24-25, the Sacrament of Reconciliation will be available.  If you missed the Penance Service or if you need another go at spiritual cleanup, you are most welcome.  The Spirit flows best when our spiritual pipes are open.  Come and let the Lord love you with His grace.

A Word from Your Pastor March 12 - Second Sunday of Lent

Dear Parishioners:

The Second Sunday of Lent highlights the Transfiguration of Jesus, revealing a hint of the glory God has in store for our human nature.  The Sacraments are an invitation to us to live this glory now.

The scene of the Transfiguration offers us a glimpse as to how God works in us.  He prepares us.  He gives us Himself in a very intimate encounter.  Then He invites us to live out and share with others what He has given us when the time is right.

The Sacrament of Confirmation follows just this pattern in our manner of its celebration in the life of our Parish.  Our youth – the 8^th grade class in our School and PSR – have a time of preparation that includes their 7^th grade year and more immediate preparation in the months before the Sacrament is given.  We have classes that are informational.  At the time same time, there are experiences that are “formational,” such as workshops and a retreat.  The wider community of their parents and the parish and school community also share in these.    The Bishop comes to celebrate the Sacrament.  Then, the newly confirmed are invited to take their place in the life of the whole community through service and exercise of the gifts they have received.

All of us who have received the Spirit as an indwelling Presence through Confirmation are called to continue to respond to the Spirit’s promptings.  We are interiorly transformed through the Gifts of the Spirit, deepening the Faith, Hope and Love that have been planted in us through Baptism.  We are sent forth to live the Paschal Mystery and to proclaim the salvation that is given to us in Jesus Christ.

How have you responded to the Gift of the Spirit?  Are you consciously making use of the Spirit’s Gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Knowledge, Fortitude, Piety and Fear of the Lord?  Do you seek out ways to share the Gospel with others?  We are charged by the Great Commission to “go out to all the world.”  Who in the world is waiting for you?

Our Parish Lenten Penance Service will be celebrated on Tuesday, March 14, at 7 p.m. 
Come to share in the Lord’s Gift of Mercy.   Confession is good for the soul.

A Word from Your Pastor March 5 - First Sunday of Lent

Dear Parishioners:

Lent is a time of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.  It is a time of preparation for Easter.  We are invited to seek a conversion, a change of heart and mind, to open ourselves to the action of grace.  God’s Spirit is active, purifying us and freeing us to be who God calls us to be in Jesus Christ.

We discover that Prayer helps us to learn who we are, what God esteems and values in us, what He has made us to be.  We find that Fasting shows us how to enjoy what God gives us through our experience of His Creation in anticipation of the Kingdom.  We see that Almsgiving shows us how to go beyond our selfish wants and desires and to share God’s abundance, giving Him greater room to act in us with His own generosity.

This Lent, I invite you to consider these practices with a glance to three important aspects of our Catholic Faith: the Sacraments, our Mother Mary, and Saint Joseph.  Our School is focusing on the Sacraments this year.  2017 is the hundredth anniversary of Fatima.  And St. Joseph is the Universal Patron of the Church.  If we seek the Wisdom that each of these aspects of our Faith in our choice of how to pray, fast and give alms, we will find a very practical way to live and the witness of our Faith will be clear.

The First Sunday of Lent confronts us with Temptation.  Jesus overcomes the devil’s wiles my putting His Father’s Will first.  We can do the same.  When God is our ideal, and when we are guided by the Sacraments, by our Heavenly Mother, and by St. Joseph, we will grow in holiness and our life becomes a means by which God is made known to others.