FINANCE COMMITTEE CORNER
Last Sunday $3,964 was received in the offertory baskets at Mass and $435 was received through WeShare, for a total of $4,399. Thank you for so generously giving to our regular collection.
CRS Rice Bowl: This Lent, our parish community joins nearly 14,000 Catholic communities
across the United States to participate in a life-changing Lenten journey with CRS Rice Bowl.
CRS Rice Bowl is a faith-in-action Lenten program for families, individuals and faith communities with family activities, meatless meals, prayers and reflections. Rice Bowl invites Catholics to live in solidarity with our most vulnerable brothers and sisters through the Lenten pillars of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. Pick up a flyer at the church entrance. Also, join CRS Rice Bowl’s on-line community at crsricebowl.org.
Place your cardboard Rice Bowl, or a family bowl, in a prominent place to collect the money you save from what you give up for Lent. We will collect Rice Bowls with your sacrificial donations on Palm Sunday.
Remember, what you give up for Lent changes lives.
MNYCCM Lenten Reflection
InLaudato Si, Pope Francis writes that “The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume”(204) This is why the Pope exhorts us to ”to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom”(#206).One way to do this is to consider your shopping habits. Become a conscious consumer, asking yourself, “Do I really need this?” For instance, try alternatives like re-using old clothing, choosing locally handmade garments, buying vintage, or participating in clothing swaps with family and friends. Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15
Lockdown by Brother Richard:
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.