One of the best ways to keep a holy and profitable Lent is to come to the parish Lenten Mission. The Mission will begin on Sunday 4 March at 7:30 p.m. and will continue on the following Monday and Tuesday. We are blessed to have Father Michael Novajosky as the preacher of the Mission. The theme of the Mission will be: “The Pilgrim’s Manual: The Vision and Destination of Man in Dante’s Commedia”.
This promises to be a feast for the spirit, the heart and the mind. Each evening will close with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. This is an opportunity not only for our own parishioners to deepen their faith. This is also an opportunity to bring family and friends to introduce them to St. Mary’s in the context of our Lenten program. Our Catholic people are starving for good preaching that is faithful to the teaching of the Church and that is meant to challenge the mind and warm the heart. Please make the time to come and make this a Lenten priority.
Fr. Kloster and I have begun singing the Office of Lauds before the 7:30 am Mass. Lauds is the Morning Prayer of the Church. We are using a simple chant that can be sung by most people. It would be wonderful if others would join us in this act of praise and thanksgiving. Perhaps some of the Viri Galilei would be interested in this. But this is open to all men and women and teenagers in the parish. One does not have to have the best voice to sing chant. All one needs is a heart that is open to the spiritual beauty of singing the Office. Anyone interested should come to the church at 7:00 am to see and hear what we are doing, after which I hope that you will join us on as many mornings as you can. Right now we are focusing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. But if we get enough people we can include the whole week. Remember St. Augustine’s words: He who sings prays twice.
Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla
