Well Lent has begun again. This is a time in our Liturgical year when we are focusing on the tremendous gift that we have been given in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This gift is one that we first receive in our Initiation into the Body of Christ via the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist and then is reinforced by our reception of the other Sacraments. The Gift is of course freedom from the awful consequences of the Original Sin of Adam; eternal death. We also consider the means by which this salvation was achieved; the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
In order to enable us to reflect on this gift and its cost more readily we Catholics (and many other Christians) try to perform some different actions during the season of Lent. For example, many of us will perform some type of Fasting during this time like giving up candy, Facebook or some other pleasure. This is to allow us to experience a bit of what it means to offer sacrifice. In addition we will also try to find a particular charity to donate the extra funds that come about as a result of our not buying bags and bags of candy for 6 weeks.
I would like to suggest a charity to you that we as a parish have donated to for many years now and that is our twin parish in Haiti, Saint Eugene de Mazenod.. We must know that the economic, social and medical conditions in Haiti were extremely strained before the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the recent earthquakes in Haiti. We must also know that we were not able to collect Haiti donations via the usual “Haiti Bowls” the past two years and that resulted in a substantially lower collection of funds for the Haiti Fund. For this reason it is even more urgent for each of us to consider making a generous donation to our Parish Haiti Fund. We will again be collecting these donations in our “Haiti Bowls” which you could have received at the masses on Ash Wednesday, or at the Sunday Masses. You may also get them in the parish office. I want to thank you all for your many years of dedicated sacrificial giving to support our Parish and also the parish of Saint Eugene de Mazenod. You and all the people of Haiti will all be in my prayers as I offer the masses this Lent. I ask you to keep me and, more importantly, the people of Haiti in yours!
Peace and God Bless!! Fr. Rob