At this time, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be no public mass. The church is available however for adoration and prayer. Please contact Father Sid for more information.
There is a very popular hymn used at funerals, “Here I Am Lord.” I am sure you are all familiar with it. To a casual listener, it sounds very appropriate. Here are the lyrics:
Lenten Brown Bag Talks will again be held at St. Mary’s Cathedral Square for five Wednesdays during Lent, beginning March 4 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Guests are invited to bring their sack lunches; drinks will be provided. Click here to view more.
Say “yes” to God’s unfailing love – Beginning March 5th, Armando Chavarria, Diocesan Director for the Office of Faith Formation and Evangelization will be presenting a Lenten program that helps each of us reflect on our lives and how to recognize God’s unfailing love within it. This program will meet each Thursday of Lent from 6:30-8:00 pm in the parish hall. Join us and prepare yourself for the Paschal Mystery.
This coming Wednesday is our Lenten Penance service. Like previous services, we will begin at 6:45 pm and you can leave when you have completed your confession. Youth who are in the company of their parent(s) may leave with them.
Wow, can you believe it? It’s almost Lent! This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Lent is a particularly important season for us Catholics. The attendance of the faithful at Ash Wednesday rivals Easter and Christmas. That’s good, very good!
I would like to use this space to say thank you to a couple areas. First, the Diocesan Appeal. I am very pleased and proud to say we have achieved and surpassed both our goals. We surpassed our financial goal and our goal for the number of participants. It is my understanding that an Appeal progress report will be coming out in the next Western Register. We will be listed among those who have exceeded their assigned goals. God be praised! Thank you, thank you very much for your generous participation!
When I was the associate priest in Greeley, they decided to do some renovation to the rectory. It had beautiful oak floors they wanted to restore. There was a big problem on the second floor. At some time in the past, an electrician took a rip saw and cut a channel from the middle of the hall to the middle of the rooms so they could conveniently install new wire. It was then covered with carpet. As an amateur carpenter and electrician who loves old workmanship, I was appalled. But I was also very curious to see how the floor was going to be restored. All I could imagine was a huge tear up of old flooring. So, when the flooring specialist came, I was there to see how this was going to be done. It turned out he had the small power tool called an “oscillating saw”. With it he carefully removed small sections of flooring to facilitate the replacement in an orderly weaved fashion. When it was sanded, stained and finished, all signs of the barbarous, hack job by the electrician disappeared. Needless to say, I wanted to know where I could get one of those saws. I have two, a cored one and a cordless. They are the handiest power tool I have every owned. I use them all the time.
Last week I brought to your attention the reality that every Christian has a calling or vocation. It’s a calling from the Lord that has the best path for your life and the most effective application of God’s will.
This past week, after the observance of the Baptism of the Lord, we moved into the observance of Ordinary Time. Our contemporary understanding of the word “ordinary” skews the meaning for us. The Latin translated for us as “ordinary time”, literally means, “time through the year”. It’s a way to identify the time that connects all the various observances throughout the Church year.
Today we observe the Baptism of the Lord. We are baptized for the forgiveness of sin and given a new birth as the children of Father. Given this understanding of the purpose of baptism, it prompts a question from many as to why Jesus was baptized? He had no sin and was already the Son of the Father. Even John the Baptist objected when Jesus came to him for baptism saying, “I should be baptized by you!”
Today is a special Mass, the Epiphany, at which our youth will offer an elaborate processional, reenacting the events of the Nativity and the visits by the wisemen. Epiphany means to “be revealed.”