A Celebration and Thanks for the Success of Forty Hours
What a joy and blessing the last week has been to be able to come together as a parish and gaze upon our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament – the Eucharist.
We would like to thank all those involved in the success of our Lenten Parish Retreat:
Fr. Carbonaro
Fr. Kennedy
Deacon Chris
Deacon Bill
Deacon Don
Kris Van Hees
Lusea, Jordan, & Aydan Paradis
Peter & Santo Baumeister
Mary & Peter Stelacio
Luke Ellison
Maddie Cole
Katie Kelly
Joe & Christine Leonardi
Barb Aughtmon
Kathleen Piselli
Choir Members
Maureen Karns
Terry Rutherford
Kelly Pelicano
Paula & Gary Warnalis
Meg & Mike Stelacio
Monica & Skip Marlin
Julia Marlin
Pat Weatherford
Kathy Dugan
Jo Ann & Fran Schluckebier
Mary Anne Dempsey
Maddi Cartlidge
Sr. Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Sr. Mary St. Mark
Queen of Angels Students
PREP Students
Our biggest thank you is FOR Christ who called us to be in His presence those forty hours. We thank all those who signed up to spend an hour with our Lord and those who stopped by just to say hello to Him. Christ will always be our closest friend even when we don’t acknowledge Him or recognize His presence in our lives. God is never far. He is there waiting to accept us – ever reaching out to us with loving, open arms. It is in Christ that we can build a firm foundation in our faith. Start by spending 15 minutes before the Blessed Sacrament – He is patiently waiting for you. Christ is the Divine Physician waiting to heal your aching heart.
Fr. Dennis Carbonaro had three main points for us to continually reflect on throughout the season of Lent:
We must remember that God is FOR us. He sent His only Son to be a loving sacrifice repairing what we cannot repair. God sees and God provides all that we need to live a holy life. Alone, none of us can handle the fires of life, but we are not alone, especially in the presence of the Eucharist. God speaks unceasingly, “I love you and I am with you.” It begs a response of love from us on our part.
In response and in imitation of a God who is FOR us, we must learn to live FOR one another and to give FOR the other. We are called by God to grow deeper in holiness. He asks the best from us because he gives the best to us. It is in the Eucharist that we can find all the grace that we need to respond to all that God requires of us. We are all called to the perfection of Love, using the strength delt out to us by Christ in his Holy Sacrifice – the Eucharist.
As the reflection of Christ’s love in the world, we are called to be an example to others. From the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila, “Christ has no body but yours…” We are meant to be Christ’s light in a world where the devil lurks on the streets of our everyday lives. These Forty Hours have been a time to become renewed and refreshed, strengthened in our Christian faith, to be His beacon of hope to others in the secular world. With our eyes fixed on Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament, we grow in hope for what is to come, bringing that message to all those we encounter in our lives.