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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent is known as
Laetare
Sunday. Laetare is Latin for “rejoice”, which we do today as we are now more
than half-way through our season of Lent. Today we move to a more joyful
anticipation of the Easter mystery. The rose vestments may be worn, as on the
Third Sunday of Advent. Here at St. Maria Goretti, we of course won’t be taking
that option. Once a year is enough.
Our
Lenten Communal Penance Service is this Wednesday evening, March 25th.
If you have not had an opportunity to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation yet
this Lent. Please come and join us this Wednesday evening. We had a large
number of Confessions during our Lenten Mission. And in the past two weeks
we’ve also had Confessions at the RCIA retreat and at last weekend’s Men’s
Christ Renews His Parish, and our Saturday Confessions have been quite busy.
Thankfully, we are taking advantage of the opportunities that we have to make
things right with God. These communal penance services are extremely important
to parishes like ours, where we have a lot of people and not so many priests. I
highly encourage you to take advantage of this Wednesday’s Lenten penance
service. A number of other priests will be here to help out. It doesn’t matter
if it’s been thirty or forty years since you last went to Confession, or if it’s
been thirty or forty days since you went, all of us need reconciliation with God
and His healing power!
In
addition, when we sin, we not only hurt God and let Him down, but we also damage
our relationship with the Church. Remember, our Baptismal promises that we are
preparing to renew on Easter, are promises to live the Catholic Christian life
not only to God, but also to the Church! When we sin, we also need the Church’s
forgiveness also. The priest hearing your Confession is there not only as God’s
representative,
in persona Christi,
but he is also there as the Church’s representative. When we go to Confession
we get God’s forgiveness assured to us by the priest, and we also get the
Church’s forgiveness. What a great deal! Two for the price of one! It is
always good to pray to God for the forgiveness of our sins. We should pray the
Act of Contrition every night before we go to bed, and every day before we go to
Communion. Asking God for the forgiveness of our sins is important. And yet,
what we can do directly with God pales in comparison to what is offered us in
the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In the Sacrament, we are assured of God’s
forgiveness, we are given the Church’s forgiveness also, we get grace and
strength beyond compare to get back out there and keep living the Christian
life, we get a penance to show our love and gratitude to God for His mercy, and
most of the time we get some pretty good advice on what we need to do to be
better. I pray for the forgiveness of my sins every night beside my bed. And I
know God hears those prayers. That’s still NOT a substitute for the Sacrament
of Reconciliation. Sometimes, we’ve just got to get ourselves into church for
Confession. There is no substitute. And yeah, I stole those last words from
Porsche. If they can say it about an over-priced sports car, then I can say it
about the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The
last of our Holy Name Society’s Lenten Fish Fries is this coming Friday evening,
from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. I’d like to thank the men of the Holy Name Society for
putting these on again this year. These dinners have become very popular in our
local community, and the guys have served more people this year than ever! It
takes a huge amount of work, volunteers, time, and energy to make these happen.
The guys start in the middle of the afternoon, long before most of us get here.
And they are still here hours after the event, cleaning up and putting things
away. It is a lot of work! Thanks to Tim Anderson, Brian Jones, Mick Mirande,
Steve Supan, Joe Domina, and everybody who’s helped make these dinners happen
this year! You guys are the greatest! And you sure can make some really
delicious fish!
Thanks also to the St. Philip Neri Oratorio for sponsoring last Thursday night’s
Seder Meal. I think everyone enjoyed the traditional dinner and learned more
about the connection between the Jewish Passover and our own Faith! Thanks to
all who helped out and all who participated!
We
pray for our Confirmation candidates who are on their retreat this weekend down
at Bradford Woods. We have many outstanding young men and women in this year’s
class. We pray for all them as they make their final decisions about
Confirmation.
Have a great week! Lent is going fast. Take advantage of all of it!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Heaven is
real. Don’t myth it! |
