I will not be joining you in worship this weekend as I am heading south in search of some sunshine before Lent begins. But I ask you to welcome Father Bob Lorkowski who is kind enough to celebrate the 10am & 12pm Masses on Sunday. And he was willing to step in without much notice since Father Ned Weist was going to cover for me but he is recovering from acute bronchitis. Father Lorkowski is the Parochial Vicar (what we used to call “Associate Pastor”) at St. Anthony of Padua, one of our good neighbors. I am sure you will enjoy his kind disposition. I’ll have to work at getting one of those myself.
This Wednesday begins the Lenten Time of the year when we, along with the catechumens and candidates who are preparing to enter the Church at the Easter Vigil, try to step back and ask ourselves where we are in our journey of faith. We will distribute ashes this Ash Wednesday at all the Masses: 8:30am (which is also our school Mass), Noon & 7pm. Just a reminder…if you normally receive Communion on your tongue, you don’t want to stick out your tongue when you come up for your ashes! I actually had a person do that once but gratefully they realized what they were doing before I had a chance to give them their ashes. I just thought they were looking for more penance…
During Lent I ask you to pray in a special way for our catechumen who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil, Angelique Arroyo, and for our candidate (already baptized) who will be receiving Confirmation and his first Communion, Mike Jodon. Pray too for the children who will be baptized at the Vigil. Let us support them all in this important journey.
Last year we had three priests give a talk for our Lenten Mission. One of them was Father Robert Cole, pastor of Sacred Heart in Oberlin. Father Cole will be with us for all three nights of our Mission this Lent which will take place on March 1-3, beginning at 7pm each night. His talks will be a reflection on the Questions Jesus Asked. I remember him saying last year that Jesus asked people over a hundred questions! So I’m looking forward to hearing more about that.
In last week’s column I mistakenly said that we choose a new Sweepstakes winner every day. Actually it’s every week. Forgive the error but I must have been thinking too much about our Fish Fry that will start this Friday. I wish those were every day too.