From the desk Monsignor Bride 

We have begun the second week of Lent. We opened this wonderful penitential season with wonderful crowds on Ash Wednesday.  Deacon Ron and I were truly inspired by the great showing of people at both Masses. We had our Mass of Anointing last Sunday and our Mini Mission on Reconciliation on (Monday cancelled due to weather), Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. Now we enter into the second week of Lent and our theme must be, “Let us continue.” This is such a special time for all of us. It is a time of grace, of opportunity. This is the time for us to use the opportunities available to us. I write here to reiterate two very important themes of Lent.
The First is daily Mass. I cannot tell you how important, how wonderful, how deepening attendance at daily Mass is. There is absolutely no substitute for this.  Sometime ago I read an article about a man who felt drawn to the Catholic Church. He visited one priest and the priest welcomed him, spoke kindly to him, and outlined for him the steps necessary to become a Catholic. He agreed to meet the priest again in the future and set up an appointment.  He was driving on a highway in our diocese and decided to stop and visit a Church he had seen many times that looked interesting to him.  When he entered the Church, he found the pastor there and he spoke to him and told him of his plans for the future, to become a Catholic. The priest said to him, “I am so pleased for you to learn of your desire. I strongly suggest you try to attend daily Mass.”  The priest explained that even if he did not yet fully understand, the best path was to go to the Church. Following along with the people, watching and praying, and soon he would become absorbed in the Mass.  The man was so enticed, his imagination was so electrified, that he began going to Mass the next day… in the Church. He said he felt like he was in left field, out of it. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was overwhelmed by the sacredness of the action, the reverence of the people, their responding.  HE SAID THAT IT ALMOST BECAME A COMPULSION.  He could not wait for the next time he would attend. Well, you know the ending. He went to that priest, received instruction, and became a Catholic.  He is still attending daily Mass. He said it is the rock, the center, the foundation of his faith.  He knows so much more than he did on that first day.  But he relates that he will never forget that first day, because when he left the Church that morning, he felt like the Lord had come to him personally….. He had, you know.
The second is Confession. This, too, is a gift of the Lord.  While we had good crowds during the Mini- Mission on Reconciliation, there are still many who need to get to confession. This is the gift of peace and forgiveness to our souls, and the opportunity to make a good examination of conscience.
The mercy we receive in the Sacrament of Penance is a gift from the Lord who merited this gift for us on the Cross. What happens following reception of that mercy involves the human person and the efforts of that person.  The internal expression of the grace of forgiveness is an inner peace. It is a desire to not repeat the sins of the past; to do better with our lives; to enter into a fuller union with the Lord, and to make plans to perform penitential acts which remove the temporal punishment from our forgiven sins.  This is the purpose of the Lenten season and the gift the Lord is giving to us.  Let us not refuse this gift. Let us embrace it, let us welcome it, let us receive it, let us rejoice in the forgiveness of our sins; and let us become the Christian man and woman the Lord is calling us to be, so that our world, our family, our parish, our community will be better places, because the grace of forgiveness from Jesus Christ is active and alive within us.
                                       Monsignor Bride

SPECIAL PARISH LENTEN SUPPER

Next Saturday NIGHT, March 10th –turn clocks ahead one hour.
 SUNDAY – ALL MASSES ON DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME.

OPERATION RICE BOWL

Outside the Parish
In support of St. Patrick Cathedral School, they will hold their 3rd Wine and Roses Auction.  Mark you calendar!!!  March 24, 2007   6:00 – 10:00 PM at Mohegan Sun Casino.  For ticket information, call Lynn Karam 887-5120 or Tim Ouellet 887-9503.
 
 Monsignor Bride’s 40th Anniversary of Ordination  --  May 4, 2007 --
Monsignor  will celebrate a Special Mass on Saturday, May 5th, at 5:00 P.M.
followed by Pot Luck Supper in Hall.
All will be invited!

                          
CRUSADE OF PRAYER ON fRIDAYS
7:30A.M.   Morning Mass
8:00A.M.   Exposition of  the Blessed Sacrament
                 followed by   Morning Prayer             
8:15 A.M.  to  4:45 P.M. Individual Adoration and
                  Praying for Vocations  all day in  Church
4:45 P.M.   Evening Prayer /Benediction/Closing

Choir practice: 
This Thursday, March 8th, at 6:30 P.M.

                 
    TRUE LOVE WAITS…         For High School Young Adults – 4-Part Series on March 4, 11, 18, 25th from 2:00 to 4:00 PM – At. St. Bernard’s High School, 1593 Norwich-New London Tpke. (Rt. 32), Uncasville. (Meet in the cafeteria.)  A straight forward presentation on love, sex, consistent with Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.  Includes 3 seminars and a closing Mass.  At the closing Mass, participants have the opportunity to make their own commitment to God to integrate their sexuality and their spirituality as adult men and women.  Parents and friends are welcome to attend.  To register, or for more information, call the Office of Family Life at (860) 889-8346, ext. 283 or 282.
  
 

                       Announced Masses

Monday, March 5th    Lenten Weekday                        
7:30 A.M. Intention of Ileana & John Dunn
                                          (Chris Schuh) 

Tuesday, March 6th     Lenten Weekday                        
7:30 A.M. Intention of Celebrant
Wednesday, March 7th    Lenten Weekday  
 7:30 A.M.  Intention of Jacqueline Keller (Peggy)
 Thursday, March 8th     Lenten Weekday                                   
 7:30 A.M.  Parishioners of OLPH   
Every pastor is required by Canon Law to have a Mass offered for the parishioners of his parishioners once a week.  This is called the   “Pro Populo Mass.”        
Friday, March 9th   Lenten Weekday  
7:30 A.M.  Marcelina Lombardi 
                                 (Alton & Eileen Button)
6:30 P.M.   Stations of the Cross