Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

Welcome to our celebration of the Second Sunday of our Lenten Season! How are you doing on those Lenten commitments? Have you been to Adoration yet? Have you prayed the Rosary? Have you been to Daily Mass? The possibilities this Lent are endless.

I am gone this weekend with our RCIA Elect, who are on their retreat at St. Meinrad in final preparations for the Sacraments this Easter. I’d like to thank Fr. Paul Peterson, S.J. who is helping us out this weekend with our Sunday morning Masses. Fr. Peterson is most kind and generous and I am sure that you will enjoy praying with him.

You may have noticed on your way into church today, a new display, or stand, in the church narthex, with several different CD’s and pamphlets on it. They call this a “Defending Your Faith Kiosk”, and it is part of a new ministry here at St. Maria Goretti, to help all of us know and understand our Faith better. Calling the wooden stand a “kiosk” is a little bit hard to get used to. When I hear the word “kiosk”, I think of a telephone booth-sized building with a little Russian man selling cigarettes and smoked herring in downtown Moscow. This is a little smaller kiosk. And what you can find at our “kiosk” is some of the hottest Catholic Defending Your Faith CD’s and brochures available today. These CD’s and pamphlets that were prepared by Catholic priests and eminent Catholic laypersons are guaranteed to deepen your appreciation and understanding of your Catholic Faith. Some of the current topics available are: “Why Do We Have A Pope?”, “How To Keep Your Kids Catholic”, “Anger and Forgiveness”, “How To Make A Good Confession” and “The Top Ten Questions Catholics Are Asked”. Sound intriguing? Check out the kiosk, stand, display or whatever it is. These CD’s are perfect for listening to in the car on the drive in for work. Maybe we can’t make it to a Bible Study on Wednesday evening or a meeting of the St. Philip Neri Oratorio on the first Thursday of the month, but all of us spend a good deal of time in the car. Why waste this time? Pick up a new Defending Your Faith CD. This new ministry will be supported solely by your donation but the recommended donation is only $2.50 per CD and .50 per brochure. Where else can you buy any CD for $2.50, let alone one that can really help someone to see the beauty and fullness of what we have in the Catholic Faith. Please take the time to stop by the new kiosk. It may not be the CD or the brochure that you need, but perhaps it could make a great impact on somebody else you know. Please take advantage of this opportunity to share our Faith with friends and family members. Approximately every three months, we will rotate in a new set of eight C.D.’s and three brochures, all dealing with current issues facing us as Catholics. Let’s try this. Hopefully it will help all of us keep growing in our Faith.

Next weekend we will be welcoming the Redemptorist priests who will be giving our 2006 Lenten Mission. They will be at all of our Masses next weekend and, of course, the mission begins next Sunday night at 7:00 PM. We have never begun a Lenten mission on Sunday night before, but this is the way that the Redemptorist order run their missions all over the world. I sincerely hope that all of us can come and enjoy as much of the mission as we can. I know it is a very busy time of the year. Yet, so many of us don’t get the chance to go on a retreat each year. Parish Lenten missions allow the retreat to come to us. Please plan now to attend.

In addition, our Parish Lenten Penance Service will be conducted on Tuesday evening, March 21 st, during the Lenten mission. Once again, I cannot tell you how important it is for all of us to take advantage of these communal Penance services when we are bringing in several additional priests. We should ALL go to Confession during Lent. Because of the number of us, and the shortage of priests, we have to take advantage of these penance service opportunities, like the one on Tuesday, during the mission, to receive this Sacrament.

We continue to pray for the ladies who will be making their Christ Renews His Parish weekend next weekend. The men’s weekend last weekend was truly awesome. Congratulations, guys! Let us pray for an equally successful weekend for the ladies next weekend!

We are so very blessed! God is doing great things in our midst. Hang on and let Him drive!

In Christ,

Fr. Kevin

Is prayer your steering wheel, or your spare tire?