Author Archives: stpeters

Coalition for HealthCARE & Conscience Call for Conscience Campaign

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Join the “Call for Conscience” – February 6 – March 31, 2017

In the coming weeks, members of Ontario’s Provincial Parliament will review Bill 84 which deals with legal issues related to euthanasia/assisted suicide. At present, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is forcing doctors to participate, despite their objections, when a patient decides to end their life. No other country does this. Please visit www.CanadiansforConscience.ca to learn more, join the “Call for Conscience” and write directly to your elected MPP asking them to amend Bill 84 to add conscience protection.

Click here to download the letter and send it to your MPP

Lent – The Season of Vocational Awareness and for the Renewal of Baptismal Promises

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lentThis coming Wednesday, March 1st is an important day in the life of our Church. It is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the forty day season of preparation for the celebration of Easter. For that reason, I would like to speak a little bit about Lent and its importance in the spiritual life of each one of us.

In the history of the Church, Lent began as that season when the Catechumens who were preparing for baptism would enter into their final stages of preparation before being baptized at Easter. In the first few centuries of the Church’s history, many adults prepared to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. However, as by the ninth and tenth centuries most adults were baptized, Lent became a season not just for baptism but also for the repentance of those Christians who were already baptized and would prepare for the renewal of their baptismal promises at Easter. This is also now what the majority of us are called to do in the approaching season of Lent. Because most of us are already baptized, Lent is a time for us to prepare to renew our baptismal promises by turning away from what prevents us from living our baptisms and being the people that God has called each one of us to be as a result of our baptisms. At Easter, our community will celebrate the baptisms of those joining the Church at Easter, but each one of us is also called to renew our baptismal promises at the Easter Sunday Mass that we will attend this year. For that reason, I would like to say just a few words about what it means for each of us to be baptized. Continue reading →

Lecture: Traitors to Rome or Friends of the Empire?

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Lecture-Feb-28-17

Join us on February 28th, 2017 at 7 pm in the Parish Centre, St. Paul’s Classroom, for a lecture by Fr. Séamus Hogan on the persecution of Christians in the Early Church.

Fr. Séamus HoganFr. Séamus Hogan

Born into a large Catholic family, Fr. Séamus heard a call to the priesthood while at university, and was eventually ordained by Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic at St. Michael’s Cathedral, Toronto in 2002. After ordination he served at Blessed Trinity parish in North York until 2005 when he was moved to Merciful Redeemer in Mississauga. In both parishes he was intensely involved with youth and young adult ministries. After a couple of years, he undertook further studies in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in Church History in 2011. At present he is assistant professor of history at St. Augustine’s Seminary, where he also teaches priestly spirituality and assists in priestly formation and spiritual direction. One of his great joys is to share his love of history and spirituality with parish groups throughout the city.

The Liturgical Season of Lent

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lent-prayer-fasting-giving-works-of-loveLENT IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER (Ash Wednesday is on March 1st)

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. The celebration of Easter, of being reborn in the Risen Lord to a new life, will only have meaning to the degree that we ‘die to the old self”. Thus, the Church asks us to live this period of Lent, with Christ in the desert, as period of forty days devoted to inward renewal through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Let us prayerfully consider before Lent how we might make best use of this time to imitate the Lord in His dedication to the Father so that His resurrection may take deep root in our thoughts, words and actions throughout Lent and forever.

  • Ash Wednesday Masses: 8:00 AM, 12:10 PM, and 7:00 PM in the Church
  • Ash Wednesday Confessions: 5:30 – 6:30 PM
  • Stations of the Cross: A great Lenten Spiritual Devotion held on Friday evenings during Lent at 7:00 PM., or after 7:00 PM Mass on the First and Last Friday of the month in the Church.
  • Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast (one full meal, and two lighter meals a day with no eating between meals), and abstinence (no eating of meat). The law of abstinence obliges those 14 years of age and older, and the law of fast obliges all those from ages 18 through 59 years of age.
  • Parish Lenten Retreat: April 4, 5, 6 at 7:00 PM conducted by Rev. Zachary Romanowsky of Madonna House

The Church recommends that we observe not only Good Friday, but the other Fridays of Lent as days of abstinence, or that we perform some act of charity as an alternative – the choice is yours. Lenten penance should be external and social, as well as internal and individual.

The highest point in the Church’s year of prayer is the Easter Triduum of the dying and rising of the Lord Jesus. We prepare for this three-day period by the season of Lent, and prolong it for the great 50 days of the Easter season.

LENTEN RECONCILIATION SERVICES

  • Saturday, April 1 : 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM. There will be several priests hearing Confessions.
  • Good Friday, April 14, after 3:00 PM service commemorating the Passion of our Lord.
  • Private reconciliation every Saturday from 3:45 – 4:30 PM