The First Sunday in Lent

Thoughts from Fr. Bill…….

Dear friends, our Lenten season has begun. We have washed the
ashes from our foreheads and now prepare to go into the desert with
Jesus. Let us make the coming 40 days truly a time to reform our
lives and resolve to resist temptation, so that when Easter comes we
may be fortified to continue our new way of life into the Easter season
and beyond. Happy Lent!

This Friday February 22nd is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the
Apostle. This feast commemorates a particular “chair”: that of Saint
Peter and the authority Jesus gave him to be the primary leader of
the early church. Peter was martyred in Rome, and so the
“see” (sedes – “place to sit”) of Peter became the Holy See, the seat
of the pope as the first among bishops and the leader of the Roman
Catholic Church. As you may have heard this past week, our Holy
Father, Pope Benedict XVI will resign from the Papacy this Thursday
February 28, 2013. He is the first Pope to resign in over 700
years. And so we pray: Lord, be with us-members of our faithful-as
we go through this unprecedented time in our generation. Renew us
in your Holy Spirit and guide your Church in these coming days;
send forth your Holy Spirit and continue to guide and inspire our
Holy Father Benedict XVI during these final days of his papacy. Be
with the College of Cardinals for the next conclave and fill them
with your grace. We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

This First Sunday of Lent is the day for the Rite of Election of catechumens
who will be baptized at Easter and the Call to Continuing
to Conversion of baptized but uncatechized adults – called candidates
– who will complete their initiation at Easter. I invite you to
pray for our candidates: Nyla Barlow, Geone Barlow, Crystal
Colinear, Sebastian Colinear, Christianna Deaner, Christopher
Deaner, Abigal Farlow, Zachary Farlow, Enrico Mucci, Helen
Mucci and Janine Peterson. This Sunday many of them will gather
with others from the Diocese of Greensburg at the Blessed Sacrament
Cathedral. They will all be received into the Church at the
Easter Vigil on March 30.

During this first week of Lent, our psalm response, Be with me,
Lord, when I am in trouble, reminds us to call upon God to be our
help.

LET’S GO PENS!

Fr. Bill
Peace

Trying to live a full life in the service of the Lord,
failing frequently and falling on the mercy of God each time….