March 26th

Dear Friends,


Congratulations to the young people from our parish who recently received the sacrament of Confirmation. Thirty-four of them were
confirmed by Bishop Lombardo today/yesterday, and an additional three were recently confirmed at other parishes. They are now considered fully initiated into the Catholic Church. Please pray for them as they take their next step towards religious maturity and accepting ownership for their practice of the faith. As you know, in too many cases Confirmation seems more like graduation from the Church rather than a fortification of the bond with the Church. Our confirmandi need our support and encouragement, along with our prayers, to continue on the path of discipleship. In other sacramental news, our children preparing for First Communion went to Confession for the first time this past week. Please pray for them as they prepare for their first encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist in May.


We are heading into the home stretch of Lent. Holy Week begins next Sunday, which is Palm Sunday. The schedule of Holy Week services is in the bulletin and on the web site. To prepare for this we’ve got extra confession times scheduled: This Tuesday evening, the 28th, we will have our second “Night of Mercy” from 6 – 8 pm. This time it will be at our St. Gabriel church, where the Eucharist will be exposed in the monstrance for adoration and confessions will be available. Next Saturday is the first Saturday of the month, and as usual, confessions will be available at Nativity from 11 to noon.


If your Holy Week preparation could be aided by engaging in a Corporal Work of Mercy, why not sign up to help out with the Mega PB&J, at which sandwiches and meal packages are assembled to provide hunger relief? Information on signing up for this, which will be Tues evening the 28th, is also in the bulletin.


Finally, I could use some volunteers: If you would be willing to participate in the Foot Washing on Holy Thursday, could you let me know? Also, I have two tickets available for the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral on Tuesday, April 4th, at 2:30pm. It is a beautiful Mass, with all the bishops and many of the priests of the Archdiocese concelebrating. At the end of Mass you can pick up our parish’s supply of the freshly consecrated Holy Oils that will be used for baptism and anointing the sick over the next year. Let me know if you would like to attend.




May your week reflect the encounter with Christ
we experienced at Mass today!