Special Announcements/Cancellations

Bulletin Insert - On Lent - from the Pastor

Conscience Protection

The Pastor's Column....... ..............Fr. Henry Dorsch

The Scriptures of this Mass of the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time can serve as a motivating prelude to the season of Lent which begins this Wednesday. Lent is a penitential season. On Ash Wednesday we acknowledge our mortality with the imposition of ashes. We acknowledge that we will all one day have to give an account of our stewardship. We are encouraged to be reconciled with God that our lives in this world may end being in God's friendship. In the reading from Isaiah, we hear the words, "I am doing something new!" Yes, our God will be doing something new in us if we humble ourselves before Him, confess our sins, and rely on his grace to keep our journey of life in harmony with his love. The second reading from St. Paul to the Corinthians reminds us that we need to say an unconditional "Yes" to our God who calls us to faithfulness and to respond affirmatively to the spirit of penance to which Lent invites us. The gospel powerfully demonstrates Jesus' deeper reason for coming into the world, not just for the healing of the infirmities of the body, but more importantly for the sins of the soul. "Which is easier to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven or to say, "Rise, pick up your mat and walk?" But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth," Jesus says to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, pick up your mat and go home." To the astonishment of all, the paralytic does get up and walk. Yes, Jesus is eager to do something new in each one of us. We need to humble, ourselves, confess our sins, receive his forgiveness and be free. May the Sarament of Reconcilliation particularly be on the top of the list in the Lenten progarm we carve out for ourselves this year.