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February 19, 2010
Holy Comforter Parish eNewsletter |
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This Week The First Week in Lent
During this first full week of Lent, the Church celebrates the feasts of the Chair of St. Peter and St. Polycarp (February 23). Bulletin The following are highlights from this Sunday's bulletin. To read the entire parish bulletin for February 21, 2010, view the attached PDF file or click here. NEED FOR ALTAR SERVERS: There is a need for Altar Servers for the 5:00 p.m. Saturday Mass. Individuals should be willing to serve 1-2 times per month. Anyone from 9 to 90 should consider this important ministry. Training will be provided. Please call Jim Morrisard at 973-6570 if you are interested.
STATIONS OF THE CROSS: The Stations of the Cross will begin on February 26th at 6:30 p.m. and will be followed by a simple soup supper. Stations will be held Friday February 26th, March 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th. Your participation is needed. Each Friday two readers, a Cross bearer and two candle bearers are needed. Sign-up is on the credenza. Families are urged to sign up and no experience is needed. Training will be provided. If you have any questions, call Jim Morrisard at 973-6570. CANTORS NEEDED: We are in need of additional singers to serve as cantors for the 5:00 p.m. Saturday mass and the 8:30 a.m. Sunday mass. Any interested persons should speak to Bill Polhill, Minister of Music or contact him at gwpolh3@yahoo.com.
ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS: Charlottesville Catholic School is accepting applications for enrollment for the 2010-2011 school year. Applications may be downloaded from our website at www.cvillecatholic.org. If you have questions, would like to schedule a tour or have an admissions packet mailed to you, please contact Ann Michel, Admissions Coordinator, at a.michel@cvillecatholic.org or at 964-0400.
PASTORAL CARE MINISTRY MEETING: The Pastoral Care Ministry Committee will hold its next meeting Tuesday, February 16th at 1:00 p.m. at Holy Comforter. New members are always welcome. If you are interested sharing some time with our sick and our shut-ins, please join us. For questions, please call Carole Ingenthron at 973-6836.
BI-PARISH HAITI COMMITTEE: The committee’s next meeting will be announced shortly. Please contact Laurie Duncan for more information. Prayer Intentions The Holy Father's Intentions for February
Missionary: That the Church, aware of its own missionary identity, may strive to follow Christ faithfully and to proclaim His Gospel to all peoples. Pro-Life Prayer Intention For the full conversion of abortion providers who are considering leaving the abortion industry. Liturgy Calendar
Devotion
The Church exhorts the faithful to frequent personal and community reading of the Word of God. Undoubtedly, the account of the Lord's Passion is among the most important pastoral passages in the New Testament. Hence, for the Christian in his last agony, the Ordo untionis informorum eorumque pastoralis curae suggests the reading of the Lord's Passion either in its entirety, or at least some pericopes from it. During Lent, especially on Wednesdays and Fridays, love for our Crucified Savior should move the Christian community to read the account of the Lord's Passion. Such reading, which is doctrinally significant, attracts the attention of the faithful because of its content and because of its narrative form, and inspires true devotion: repentance for sins, since the faithful see that Christ died for the sins of the entire human race, including their own; compassion and solidarity for the Innocent who was unjustly condemned; gratitude for the infinite love of Jesus for all the brethren, which was shown by Jesus, the first born Son, in his Passion; commitment to imitating his example of meekness, patience, mercy, forgiveness of offenses, abandonment to the Father, which Jesus did willingly and efficaciously in his Passion. Outside of the liturgical celebration of the Passion, the Gospel narrative can be "dramatized", giving the various parts of the narrative to different persons; or by interspersing it with hymns or moments of silent reflection. From Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (130) One resource for Scripture-based daily Lenten meditations is available from EWTN. Lenten Fast and Abstinence Rules Each Catholic is asked to preserve Lent's penitential purpose and character, which begins Ash Wednesday. Therefore:
 Excerpt from the Catechism "Teacher, what must I do . . .?" The Catechism begins its teaching on the Ten Commandments by recalling the rich young man's question to Jesus on what he must do to inherit eternal life. 2052 "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" To the young man who asked this question, Jesus answers first by invoking the necessity to recognize God as the "One there is who is good," as the supreme Good and the source of all good. Then Jesus tells him: "If you would enter life, keep the commandments." and he cites for his questioner the precepts that concern love of neighbor: "You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother." Finally Jesus sums up these commandments positively: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 2053 To this first reply Jesus adds a second: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." This reply does not do away with the first: following Jesus Christ involves keeping the Commandments. the Law has not been abolished, but rather man is invited to rediscover it in the person of his Master who is its perfect fulfillment. In the three synoptic Gospels, Jesus' call to the rich young man to follow him, in the obedience of a disciple and in the observance of the Commandments, is joined to the call to poverty and chastity. The evangelical counsels are inseparable from the Commandments. 2054 Jesus acknowledged the Ten Commandments, but he also showed the power of the Spirit at work in their letter. He preached a "righteousness [which] exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees" as well as that of the Gentiles.6 He unfolded all the demands of the Commandments. "You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill.' . . . But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment." 2055 When someone asks him, "Which commandment in the Law is the greatest?" Jesus replies: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. and a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets." The Decalogue must be interpreted in light of this twofold yet single commandment of love, the fullness of the Law: The commandments: "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Church History
The feast day of St. Gabriel is February 27th. On a summer day a little over a hundred years ago, a slim figure in a black cassock stood facing a gang of mercenaries in a small town in Piedmont, Italy. He had just disarmed one of the soldiers who was attacking a young girl, had faced the rest of the band fearlessly, then drove them all out of the village at the point of a gun. The young man was Francesco Possenti, whose father was lawyer for the Papal States and who had recently joined the Passionist Order, taking the name of Brother Gabriel. He became very sick during his school years and had promised that if he got better, he would dedicate his life to God. St. Gabriel Possenti got better and forgot about it. He got sick again and made the same promise, but again got well and forgot his promise. Once, during a church procession in which a great banner of Our Lady, Help of Christians, was being carried, the eyes of Our Lady looked straight at him and he heard the words: "Keep your promise." Shaken, he remembered his promise, changed his life completely, and entered the Passionists. He hoped to be sent to the missions after his ordination to the priesthood, but at the young age of twenty-four, he died. Canonized in 1920, he is, along with St. Aloysius, one of the patrons of youth. He was very fond of his family and is particularly remembered as a remarkable young man who, at the age of twenty, threw all aside for God, determined to become a saint. From EWTN Link of the Week Salvation is from the Jews
From Catholic Culture. |
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BOOK CLUB: Are you looking for a chance to deepen your understanding of your faith? To share your views with other parishioners? If you are, we invite you to read the book "A Key to The Doctrine of The Eucharist" by Abbot Vonier and to come to the next meeting of the book club on Tuesday, March 2nd from 4:00-5:30 p.m. at 150 Bennington Road. For questions or to get directions, contact Therese Stong at 296-9961 or 
IMPACT: There are many disadvantaged 3 and 4-year-olds in the area for whom preschool education is unavailable. These children will start kindergarten lagging behind, and may never catch up, and so are doomed to a lifetime of underachievement. One of the issues 
PANTRY: While all donations to the food pantry are useful, giant economy sizes of canned goods are problematic. Many of the people who come to us for help are single individuals who use public transportation. We can give multiples of an item to an especially large family, but we cannot undo super sizes for single individuals. When shopping for the pantry, if you have a choice between larger and smaller sizes, please choose the smaller.
EARTHQUAKE UPDATE: Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Several parishioners will be visiting Saltadère this week. Please keep them in your prayers as well. Watch for updates and recent pictures at the Haiti table when they return. Updates on relief efforts are being posted on the Saltadère website, 
General: For all scholars and intellectuals, that by means of sincere search for the truth they may arrive at an understanding of the one true God.
