The 2021 Mass Book is now open, for your Mass Intention requests (living or deceased). The Parish Office is open Monday to Friday from 9am till 4pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 9am till 3pm.
Please note, we have limited the amount of names that can be listed as the intention and if there is a middle name, only the middle initial will be used.
Today we celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy. What exactly is “mercy”? Depending on what source you use, you will find different shades of meaning that have been given to the word depending upon its usage. Of course we know that mercy encompasses, in almost all its various meaning, compassion.
Yet, when Sister Faustina Kowalska encounters Jesus, in a series of private revelations, throughout her entire life, He orders her to make His mercy known throughout the world. Now, how would a religious sister, living in a convent, be able to do it? Well, first of all, you should know that her name in the convent was, Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament. Her birth name was Helena. She had grown up in poverty and she was rejected by any number of religious communities because her education was limited and some of them considered her to be more suited to be a maid. Yet, the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy took her in and she remained with them for the rest of her short life, dying at the age of 33 in 1938.
Jesus chose this wonderful woman to make known His mercy. Why is the mercy that Jesus shows different than what we have already mentioned above? Because Jesus goes beyond compassion, to restoration. He is not only concerned with being compassionate but He wants to restore each and every single one of us to our original innocence, to the way that God sees us.
The world, many times, sees compassion as a weakness. Society many times only sees forgiveness as a last resort, if at all. At the present moment we live in a time of cancel culture. Look how many people get caught having written something on social media years ago that showed their prejudice and ignorance. All of a sudden it is brought up again (remember, anything you write on social media is there for the rest of your life and beyond). That person is then ridiculed and disgraced publicly. Many time that person receives death threats. The Lord is not like that. God sees mercy as strength, forgiveness as a right and restoration as vitally necessary in order to live life fully. Thank God we have a God who sees us differently than the world does. Pick up a copy of Sister Faustina’s diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul. You will see life, and faith, in a new way.
The work always continues
As we have all struggled during this pandemic to maintain our liturgical life here at Blessed Sacrament, we are blest to have so many wonderful and dedicated clergy, employees and volunteers who have helped us maintain the presence of Christ here in our Parish. Our Rectory never closed during the past year due to the pandemic. Over the last number of months we have enhanced our liturgical life by adding Novenas, after the 12:10pm Mass, on Tuesdays to Saint Anthony, Wednesdays to Saint Joseph, First Fridays to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and on First Saturdays to The Immaculate Heart of Mary. Of course we still continue to pray the Miraculous Medal Novena on Monday’s after the 12:10pm Mass.
Over the last number of months we have: 1) purchased a number of new vestments to enhance our worship of God during the Mass. There is nothing worse than worshipping God (giving Him the best) in torn, dirty or faded vestments. 2) The inside lobby doors have been restored to the way they looked in 1898. 3) The Statue of Saint Joseph is back home in the Church. It was placed in the Church around the year 1903, In 1975 it was moved out of the main body of the Church into the lobby and in 1984 was then moved into the parking lot behind the Rectory. After almost 40 years it has been cleaned and moved back into Church by the altar dedicated to Saint Joseph. People think it is brand new. Nope, it is over 110 years old. 4) Did you notice the new windows over the altar of Mary and the altar of Saint Joseph? They are not new either. They are over 120 years old but were plastered over more than 100 years ago. We just allowed them to be seen once again. 5) New windows in the Rectory and the old Brothers House. They make quite a difference. Right away we noticed that it was no longer a wind tunnel in the priests rooms and the amount of noise coming in from the outside was greatly reduced.
What’s next? There are a few projects that we hope to have work done on soon: 1) New front doors for the Church. They should be arriving soon, we hope. 2) The restoration of the windows above the altars of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. 3) The restoration of the side entrance into the Sacristy from the area of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s altar.