RCIA—Rite of Election

Kathy Uncategorized

This past Saturday, the Candidates from St. Valentine and their Sponsors took part in the Rite of Election at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament which was presided over by Bishop Donald Hanchon.

 Best Lenten Practices

· The entire season of Lent is a penitential season.

The liturgical color for Lent is purple (just like Advent) to show that it is a special time of penance. Taking up additional practices, such as self-imposed fasting outside of the obligatory times, Lenten devotions and spiritual reading, Stations of the Dross, a daily rosary, serving the poor, etc. all enhance the penitential and spiritual aspect of Lent.

· Make the Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession)

an important part of your Lenten penitential practice. Many parishes have special times of confession during Lent. One traditional devotion towards this sacrament is to make a general confession of your whole life using an examination of conscience.

· Attend Mass on Ash Wednesday. While it is not a Holy Day of Obligation, all are encouraged to attend to receive ashes on the forehead.

· Attend Mass on Holy Thursday to commemorate the institution of the Eucharist, called the “Mass of the Lord’s Supper.”

· At 3 o’clock on Good Friday, pause and make a special effort to keep this hour sacred. This is the our of Christ’s death on the cross, after which redemption for mankind was completed. Praying the Divine Mercy chaplet is ideal at this time (it just takes five minutes.)

· If possible, try to clear your schedule in order to participate in the traditional Veneration of the Cross service on Good Friday.

· Continue your Good Friday fast up to the start of the Easter Vigil to correspond to the entire time from Christ’s death on the cross until his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

· Attend the Easter Vigil at sundown on Holy Saturday to welcome the Easter Sunday feast. Pray for those being received into full communion with the Catholic Church at this Mass, that they will remain faithful to Christ and his Church, grow in holiness, and become saints.

· On Easter Sunday and through out the Easter season, fully celebrate the joy of Christ’s Resurrection and the conquering of sin and death he merited for us. Greet one another with the Paschal Greeting/Easter Acclamation, “Christ is risen! And the response,  “He is risen indeed!”    

IDEAS FOR LENTEN RESOLUTIONS

Kathy From Pastoral Council

The 2018 Lenten season has begun; and people are considering what they can do to make this Lenten season more meaningful in their daily lives. As you may know, the theme our parish selected for 2018 is a traditional one – “Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving”.

And to help parishioners decide on their Lenten resolution(s), a “Preparation Guide For Lent 2018” was inserted in our church bulletin dated 2/11/18. If you missed the bulletin, or misplaced the Guide, simply click here to view it online .

– St Valentine Worship Commission

Enter Lent with LOVE

Kathy Weekly message

As we begin the Lenten season this year on Valentine’s Day it could be the best opportunity for us to enter into it with LOVE. Few days back I received a message on the phone it read, “If you are expecting a romantic dinner or date this year on Valentine’s Day, just forget about it. That day is for the Lord or you want to compete with Him? I think not…instead of carrying flowers around…have ashes applied on your forehead. So let us begin our Lent with LOVE.

Every Lent the Church invites us to the three traditional practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. And this being the theme for Lent 2018, here’s an excerpt from Holy Father, Pope Francis’ message for Lent 2018.

“The church, our Mother and Teacher, along with the often bitter medicine of the truth, offers us in the Lenten season the soothing remedy of prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

By devoting more time to prayer, we enable our hearts to root out our secret lies and forms of self-deception, and then to find the consolation God offers. He is our Father and he wants us to live life well.

 Almsgiving sets us free from greed and helps us to regard our neighbor as a brother or sister. What I possess is never mine alone. How I would like almsgiving to become a genuine style of life for each of us! How I would like us, as Christians, to follow the example of  the Apostles and see in the sharing of our possessions a tangible witness of the communion that is ours in the Church! For this reason, I echo Saint Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians to take up a collection for the community of Jerusalem as something from which they themselves would benefit (2Cor.8:10). This is all the more fitting during the Lenten season, when many groups take up collections to assist Churches and peoples in need. Yet I would also hope that, even in our daily encounters with those who beg for our assistance we would see such requests coming from God himself. When we give alms, we share in God’s providential care for each of his children. If through me God helps someone today, will he not tomorrow provide for my own needs? For no one is more generous than God?

Fasting weakens our tendency to violence; it disarms us and becomes an important opportunity for growth. On the one hand, it allows us to experience what the destitute and the starving have to endure. On the other hand, it expresses our own spiritual hunger and thirst for life in God. Fasting wakes us up. It makes us more attentive to God and our neighbor. It revives our desire to obey God, who alone is capable of satisfying our hunger.”

 

Whatever we do, let us do it with love.

 Blessings,

Fr. Socorro


Shared Lenten Penance Service – February 27 at 7:00 pm

A Lenten Penance Service will be held on Tuesday February 27 at 7:00 pm at Our Lady of Loretto Church. You are invited to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation – a sign of God’s merciful and loving forgiveness. We will have five priests available: Fr. Pat Brennan, Fr. Sal Briffa and Fr. Rick Hartmann will be available to hear confessions, including Fr. Henry and Fr. Socorro. We encourage you to take this opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation in preparation for Easter.