Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Folks,
Palm Sunday begins the great celebrations of our faith.  Let his merciful enduring love be the lens through which you see everything celebrated this week. Jesus loves you so much that he did all this so that you might know His mercy.
Consider Adam’s reaction to the original sin, and how it is reflected in our own reactions. When God comes looking for us like Adam, we can either resent or repent. Do we blame the Lord, or accept his mercy. I made an observation that when the movie “The Passion of the Christ” came out folks reacted with either: “look what they say I did to Him” (resent) or “look what I did to him” (repent)! I think even a third option is better:  “look what he did for me!” Keep your eyes on Him, and know that He gave his life freely for you.
And speaking of the seat of Mercy…. confessions: available at 12:30 pm and 6:30 pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week.  Your parish priests will be serving up big helpings of mercy.  Those who are really observant may note that the 12:30 pm confessions don’t appear in the calendar we have been publishing all lent. Yep, they are your bonus for reading this column!  Lines always get longer all week, so have mercy on your parish priests and get there Monday!
Also Italy, you see the small ad here on this page for the parish trip to Italy this October 8th to 18th!  It will be a trip to some of the more hidden spots in Italy, focusing especially on Catholic Saints of Central Italy:  St. Padre Pio, St. Philomena, Blessed Margaret of Castello, St. Maria Goretti, St. Benedict, Blessed Bartolo Longo, the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, the monastery at Nursia, the Amalfi Coast, and Rome too!
pax,
fr m

St Mary’s will host this week’s Micah’s Ecumenical Lenten Prayer Service at 12pm on Wednesday in the church, followed by a soup lunch in the PLC.  The regularly scheduled 12pm Mass is moved to 1pm.

 

 

The Wednesday noon Mass will be moved to 1pm in order to host in the Micah Ecumenical Lenten Prayer Service at 12pm.

Dear Folks,

This week we took two busses to the first Virginia March for Life.  It was inspiring to see the great crowd at the state capital!  Now to just continue that momentum into the elections this fall.  It is so important that we are kind and vocal in letting candidates for office know that it is viable run a Pro Life platform.

And how is your Lent going?   If you answer “oops!” then I have a quote for you:  “The Lord measures out perfection neither by the multitude nor the magnitude of our deeds, but by the manner in which we perform them.”  – St. John of the Cross

Two weeks remain.  To use a sports analogy, it is the 4th quarter.  Champions and saints are made are made now.

Have a blessed Lent.

pax et bonum,
Fr Mosimann