Today, with the First Sunday of Lent, we will celebrate the Rite and Sending and Enrollment of those candidates will either be received into the Church through the Sacraments of Initiation (baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist) or through a Profession of Faith at the Easter Vigil, April 23. On Monday, March 28, they will travel to St. Anthony of Padua, Fresno, for the Rite of Election with Monsignor Myron Cotta, Diocesan Administrator, who will officially welcome and others as the Elect for this year. We continue to keep them in prayer as they journey these last weeks to becoming Catholics.
As we begin this sacred time of Lent, I really invite all our parishioners to enter a period of prayer and reflection on our journey as disciples of Jesus. This Lent we will strive to be more reflective during our Masses and prayer services to engage God's presence in us as we struggle to lead better lives with one another in the Church and in the larger world. With so much pain and devastation all around us, with war still raging in the Middle East, with revolutions occurring in northern Africa, death, destruction, and human displacement calls us to somehow respond peacefully. We can, and often do, get so caught up with our own lives and struggles, that compared to what is going on around us, we forget to see how lucky so many of us are, and how those who lives are caught up by circumstance and geography, are not so lucky.
This week our Irish brothers and sisters will celebrate St. Patrick's Day. In a particular way, we pray for the Irish Catholics who are struggling, trying to live faithfully to their Catholic faith, recently so tested by the child abuse scandal that has wrecked the Church in Ireland.
St. Patrick's Day in Ireland in 2012 I have been approached to lead a pilgrimage tour of Ireland next year in 2012. The tour would leave California March 14 for eleven days. We would be Ireland for ST. PATRICK'S DAY, March 17, 2012. Nawas Travel is offering this trip for the cost of around $2399, inclusive of airfare, hotels, meals, ground transportation and the like. A brochure will be made available. We need at least thirty (30) people to be interested in the trip for the price offered. A deposit of $400 will keep the reservation. We will start taking reservation immediately in our parish office. Katie or Nancy can give anyone interested more information.
Next weekend, March 17 to March 20, 2011 is the annual Los Angeles Religious Congress in Anaheim. Deacon Ernie and I will be attending the congress once again. Welcome, Fr. Paul Walsman, O.F.M. Fr. Paul joins us next weekend as our guest Presider and Preacher. He will be preaching on a ministry providing direct relief to the poor throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Fr. Paul will share what he has witnessed about Food for the Poors' mission to care for the destitute as a means of living out the Gospel mandate: "Love one another as I have loved you." Please join us in welcoming Fr. Paul into our wonderful mountain community.
A reminder that the Women's Retreat is being held on April 8-10 at St. Clare's Retreat House in Soquel, California. It is open to all women. For more information please call either Linda Lynch or Barbara Vasconcellos.
The Women's Guild is hosting their Fifth Annual Tea on Saturday, April 30, 2011 at Our Lady of the Sierra Parish Hall. The tea begins at 11:00 a.m. and while there is no charge, donations are accepted. Please RSVP by April 18th to Linda Robison at 559-777-4111. If you would like to host a table, please call Linda as well.
Fr. Mike
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