Prayer for Mothers
Heavenly Father,
from the beginning you have chosen to entrust
the human person to mothers in a special way.
We thank and praise you for the gift of mothers;
for their tenderness, care, and compassion,
for their intuition and encouragement,
for commitment and sacrifice.
Bless all mothers this day.
Keep, strengthen, and refresh them
in your loving care.
May they be blessed by our open-hearted
love and gratitude. Amen.
Feast of the Ascension of the Lord
On this Feast of Ascension, Jesus is commissioning the disciples to go and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. A ‘commission’ means a task or matter entrusted to one as an agent for another. We are entrusted with a mission that Jesus himself wanted to do.
“After speaking to them, the Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven and took his place at the right hand of God” (Mk 16:19). After the incident of Ascension, Jesus is no more present in this world in the physical human form. Today we are the ones who represent Jesus in this world. We are the ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor 5:20). We are to continue the ministry and mission of Jesus. In Luke 10:1, we read “the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go”. Whenever we preach the Good News to someone, we are continuing the Ascension experience that disciples had two thousand years ago and is making Jesus manifest in this world. Remember that “we are the aroma of Christ” (2 Cor 2:15).
They will cast out demons, they will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything poisonous they will be unharmed, they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be healed” (Mk 16:17,18). As Christians who are sent out to represent Jesus in this world, we are given the share of his power too and are offered victory over demons, sickness, and harmful objects and so on. We must live in this awareness that we are given the victory by the Lord already. We are a victorious people.
“The Eleven went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the wonders that accompanied it” (Mk 16:20).Wherever disciples preached the Good News, there were miracles too. By a word Peter cured the crippled beggar who was at the gate of the Temple (Act 3:1-10). But always remember that these wonders happened in the life of the disciples only after they started to preach the Good News. We too will be able to perform miracles if we begin to preach, not any time before that. Therefore, start to Act Now.
The Feast of Ascension of our Lord is giving us the responsibility of representing Jesus in this world. Let us ask ourselves whether, in this life, have given Jesus to at least one person who was ignorant of Jesus; may be a shop keeper, or a car driver, or our co-worker in the office, or may be a student in our class. Let us be ‘proud of being a Christ-ian.
Let’s make Jesus Christ visible in this world!
Rummage Sale
Our Spring Rummage Sale is just around the corner Saturday, May19th, from 9am to 2pm. PLEASE we need volunteers in order to make this a success. There is no experience necessary. If you are a high school or college student that needs community service hours or if you are new to the parish and would like to volunteer please call me, we would love for you to join us. You may drop off your items on Friday May 18th from 7 am to 7 pm. All proceeds go to St. Valentine Parish. Thank you.
Cecilia Gallagher –
Rummage Sale Coordinator
Spring Clean Up, Come One, Come All
We will be setting aside Saturday, May 26th, from 9am to 12 pm, for Spring clean up inside and around the church.
A heartfelt THANK YOU!! Our parish grounds look so beautiful this Spring thanks to the all the dedicated helping hands who have responded to the call at previous spring and fall round ups.
We will again be planting flowers and sprucing up the beds for summer beauty. The inside of church needs some extra hands to help clean those beautiful stained glass windows and a few other lighter housework tasks.
If you can spare some time, please bring your tools and talents and join a fun group of folks while making our grounds look beautiful!!
If there is a Funeral that morning, the inside work will have to be postponed.
Thank you in advance for YOUR dedication to our parish.
Please call Eileen MacDonell if you have any questions: 313-592-0481.
On Monday, April 29th the Faith Formation year came to an end with a Prayer Service in the Chapel with Fr. Henry. Children, teachers, staff and parents were on hand for the Prayer Service. Fr. Henry thanked everyone for their volunteering, as well as the children and parents for attending this year. We concluded the gathering with our own Thank You to Fr. Henry. We thanked him for his leadership these past 5 years and wished him well in his new assignment.