Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

News and Notes:  If you have not yet made a pledge to the 2014 Catholic Appeal, please consider doing so this weekend.  Your donation will help our local Catholic Church move “Forward in Hope” by supporting the fifty plus Central Ministries that no parish could sponsor on its own.  The Archdiocesan diaconal formation program, through which our own Deacon Tom O’Shea prepared for his ministry in our parishes, is one beneficiary of the Catholic Appeal. 

Lent begins this Wednesday, March 5.  The schedule for Ash Wednesday liturgies is as follows:

7AM Mass with distribution of ashes at SMG
9AM Mass with distribution of ashes at OLA
4PM Liturgy of the Word with distribution of ashes at SMG
7PM Liturgy of the Word with distribution of ashes at OLA

The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be offered in both parishes on six consecutive Wednesday evenings beginning March 12 from 6:30 to 7:30PM.  During Lent, Eucharistic Adoration will take place at SMG on First Fridays (March 7 and April 4) from 7:30AM to Noon; and every Wednesday evening beginning March 12 from 6:30PM-10PM.  Eucharistic Adoration will take place in the OLA Chapel every Tuesday morning beginning March 11 from 9:30AM to Noon.   Stations of the Cross will be prayed at OLA every Friday afternoon from March 7-April 11 at 3PM.  Stations of the Cross will be prayed at SMG on Good Friday at 3PM.  In addition, a special Stations of the Cross led by Father Tony will take place during the 10AM Family Mass at SMG on Palm Sunday, April 13.

Lent has a twofold purpose: to foster repentance and conversion of heart among the faithful; and to dispose catechumens and those already baptized to celebrate the mystery of the Lord’s dying and rising with a clean heart and renewed spirit.  Through our observance of the traditional disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, may we all grow closer to the Lord and one another in Christ’s love during these forty days of Lent…and blessings to all of you in the season before us!