First Sunday of Lent – February 14, 2016

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sharelife2Together we are continuing to work wonders…

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” Matthew 5:7 (NRSVCE)

Our Lord encourages us with a timely reminder about what our actions truly should be – to show mercy to others. Does showing mercy mean to take the time delivering food for the local food bank in our neighbourhood? Do we have time to help by serving on a weekend in the soup kitchen in our city or praying for a family who is dealing with a personal crisis? Or maybe the refugee family who needs some volunteer help resettling their family to a new life here in Canada. In essence, ShareLife becomes that connective bridge between the pulpit and the street. When we are called to action in the Catholic community, we know of so many ways we can make a difference by working together in the lives of those in need. Annually, we share in helping over 114,000 individuals, thanks to the support received through our collective efforts.

Please help us celebrate our ShareLife’s 40th anniversary by supporting our annual Archdiocesan appeal during this Lenten season! —Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto.

Sunday March 13, 2016 is ShareLife Sunday
Please give generously. You can work wonders!

The Year of Mercy— An Invitation to Discipleship!

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jesus gpsOver the past two weeks, I was away visiting my parents at what has become their home in the United States. Now because I was born and grew up here in Toronto, and they did not move to the United States until I was finished university, I always feel like I am a visitor when I go down to visit them. In fact, I have never gotten used to the streets in the city where they live and the constant development in the area makes me feel like each visit is a visit to a new place. For that reason, I am very happy that they have GPS in their cars. Whenever I go anywhere on my own, I always set the GPS to my desired destination and rely on the good assistance of the person who speaks to me from that tiny little devise. Now as hard as I try to follow the good directions that I am given by the GPS, my parents live in a place where there are lots of fancy bridges and over-passes. I usually miss a turn here and there and inevitably go the wrong way. In fact, on occasion I am actually convinced that I actually know the correct way to go and ignore the GPS and head off on my own route. Continue reading →

The Liturgical Season of Lent

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lent-prayer-fasting-giving-works-of-loveAsh Wednesday, February 10, 2016, marks the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. The highest point of the Church’s year is the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday evening through Easter Sunday) during which we recount the death and resurrection of Jesus the Lord. We prepare for this three-day period by the season of Lent, and prolong it for the great 50 days of the Easter Season. 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 a period of forty days devoted to inward renewal through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Let us prayerfully consider before Lent how we might make the 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 a.m. and 12:10 p.m. in the Centre Chapel and 7:00 p.m. in the parish church.

Stations of the Cross:      
A great Lenten spiritual devotion held on Friday evenings during Lent after the 7:00 p.m. Mass on the First and Last Friday of the month and at 7:00 p.m. every other Friday.

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fasting (one meal and two lighter meals 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 fasting obliges all those from 18 through 59 years of age. 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 penances should be external and social, as well as internal and individual; meaning they should help us grow in our relationship with God and in charity for our brothers and sisters.

Lenten Reconciliation Services:

  • Day of Confessions: Saturday, March 12, 2016 in the church from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
  • Saturday, March 19, 2016 from 1:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. in the church
  • Good Friday, March 25, 2016 from after the 3:00 p.m. Good Friday Service until 6:30 p.m.

During the season of Lent, the parish will begin Eucharistic Adoration in the Centre Chapel. Please consider signing up for an hour of prayer each week to spend time with the Lord.

World Day for Consecrated Life

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World Day for Consecrated Life will be celebrated in the Church on Tuesday, February 2, 2016 and in parishes on the weekend of January 30/31, 2016. Please pray for all those who have made commitments in the consecrated life, and be sure to thank them on their special day. May they continue to be inspired by Jesus Christ and respond generously to God’s gift of their vocation.

All are welcome to come to a special Mass presided by Bishop Wayne Kirkpatrick this Sunday, January 31 at 3:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Basilica, Toronto to close the Jubilee Year for Consecrated Life and to celebrate with and pray for these men and women religious who are such a vital and important part of the life and ministry of the Church in our Archdiocese.