1St Sunday of Lent February 21, 2021
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PASTOR 1st Sunday Rev. Thadeus Aravindathu [email protected] PARISH OFFICE of Lent (914) 273-9724 Email: [email protected] Hours: Monday - Thursday 10am-5pm February 21, 2021 Office Manager: Fiona Finnan Webmaster: John Erickson Bulletin Editor: Tina Puttre WEEEKEND ASSISTANTS [email protected] Rev. John Christ Rev. Thomas Collins RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Moderator: Allanna Hasselgren M ASSES Saturday: 5:30 pm Tel: (914) 273-8226 Sunday: 8:30 am 10:30 am, 12:30pm Email: [email protected] Weekdays: 8:30 am Saturday: 8:30 am Parish Committees Holy Days: as announced Parish Council President: Parish Council Secretary: Lori Schiliro LAUDS MORNING PRAYER Finance Committee Chairman: Sunday: 8:00am Jeff Sprague Monday - Friday: 8:15am Trustees: Faith Lorenzo, Robert Hasselgren Music Director: John Failla DEVOTIONS First Fridays: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 9am - 8pm, Parish Organizations Benediction 8pm Contemplative Prayer: Gina Shea First Saturdays: Confessions 8 - 8:20am, Youth Ministry Coordinators: 8:30am Mass, Rosary & 15 minute guided Melissa Gordon meditation on the Rosary CYO Basketball: Elvis Grgurovic, Mike Corelli CONFESSION Gym Schedule & Rentals: Mike Corelli Saturday 4:30 -5:15pm and Respect Life Society: Patricia Cummings by appointment Walking with Purpose: BAPTISMS AND MARRIAGES Jo Golden, Fiona Finnan Please check our website or Food First Program: Danielle Caravetta Call the Parish Office Masses: Feb 20 – Feb 28 Calendar Sat 2/20 8:30 Marylou Swiencicki (D) 5:30 Pro Populo SUNDAY, February 21 - 1st Sunday of Lent Sun 2/21 8:30 Edward Reeves Elliot (D) Mon, February 22 - St. Peter the Apostle 10:30 Jean Schiliro (D) 12:30 Eleanor & Alfred Bennett (D) Tue, February 23 - St. Polycarp Mon 2/22 8:30 Virginia Giordano (D) Tue 2/23 8:30 Kevin Smith (D) Wed, February 24 - Lenten Weekday Bible Study Wed 2/24 8:30 Guy Magrone (D) Thurs, February 25 - Lenten Weekday Thu 2/25 8:30 Mario Guiliano (D) Rosary by Candlelight Fri 2/26 8:30 John & Catherine Daly & Fri, February 26 - Lenten W eekday Maureen Hollingsworth (D) Stations of the Cross 7pm in Church Sat 2/27 8:30 Vincent E. McDonnell (L) 5:30 Fred Henning (D) Sat, February 27 - Lenten W eekday Stations of the Cross 7:30am outside gym Sun 2/28 8:30 Peter Benzie (D) 10:30 Jean Schiliro (D) SUNDAY, February 28 - 2nd Sunday of Lent 12:30 Pro Populo Our Weekly Offering Please keep the following in your Prayers February 13 - 14 Regular Collection: $3,743 in 42 envelopes Barbara A. Stella Kielb Peter’s Pence : $364 in 14 envelopes Jon Adam Michael Lage Maria Cannato Amanda Ross WeShare Regular Collection - December: $19,683 Enza Dattero Perinna Ruggerio WeShare Regular Collection - January: $14,465 Elaine Fitzpatrick John Scrocca Barbara Grasso Rose Shallo WeShare Christmas Gifts: $10,040 Gloria Guiliano Thank You for your Generosity Upcoming 2nd Collections February 21 - Energy February 28 - Catholic New York Newspaper March 14 - Catholic Relief Services The Sanctuary Lamp burns in Loving Memory of Kristin Vuksanaj GOSPEL MEDITATION - ENCOURAGE DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF SCRIPTURE February 21, 2021 1st Sunday in Lent St. Oscar Romero said, “Aspire not to have more, but to be more.” These powerful words provide the perfect framework for a conversion oriented Lenten experience. God is giving us this Lenten sign to stop being concerned about what you have and focus on who you are. This requires that we create a desert space and listen more attentively for God to reveal His presence. It is all so wonderfully simple on the one hand and so incredibly challenging on the other. The message is simple: love God, neighbor, and self. Those simple words make great sense, but we struggle translating them into reality. Our attachments, compulsions, obsessions, addictions, routines, and busyness all anchor us to the “idol of the self,” keeping us mired in our compulsive need for self-aggrandizement. It’s not about us! God vowed, long ago, to nurture, sustain and protect the relationship He has with His people. He called us into being, nurtures us in being, and sustains us in being. Without the Loving Divine Presence, all life would cease. Once we slow down a bit and clear away some of the clutter, we can see how the journey of our life is unfolding. We can see what brings us in and out of tune with God’s love and how we can better imitate God’s loving fidelity in our relationship with Him. In short, we will see our myopic short sightedness and figure out how we can better share the Divine Fire within with others. Lent isn’t just about giving stuff up for forty days and indulging again at Easter. We need to push things much farther and wrestle with the question of how we can be more. “Being more” means becoming more fully alive and in touch with the holiness of life and the divinity that lives in and empowers all beings and things. It is realizing that the “quality” of our presence is crucial to being an effective witness and herald of God’s unconditional love. The illusion we have bought into causes us to believe that the wrong things and systems matter. We tirelessly fight to keep things the way they are, to return to the former ways of doing things or restore some nostalgic fantasy memory of “life in the good old days.” Lent isn’t about maintaining what we have or returning to something that is gone. It’s about becoming something new. It’s about being more focused, centered, convicted, and grounded so that we can be a person who truly loves and treasures being made in the image of God. The secret to Gospel living is not found in accumulating anything for ourselves, even merit points for heaven. Gospel living means learning how to live with less so that others can live with more. The thought of permanently giving something up makes us feel uncomfortable. Truth often does. ©LPi From My Heart to Yours LENT IS THE TIME OF SELF REALIZATION Welcome to the season of Lent! My spiritual readings this morning were centered on two books: ‘Lent – 2021’ from Magnificat Publications and ‘Return of the Prodigal Son’ by Henry J. M. Nouwen. The editor of Magnificat Father Sebastian White, O. P. reflects on Lent on the same level as I do. “Ash Wednesday always hits me like a ton of bricks. When Mother Church marks our forehead with ashes, therefore, she responds to a deep human need. We long to be told that the death we know awaits us is not an awful collapse into nothingness. That’s why Ash Wednesday is in truth a very hopeful day. The church does not just remind us we are dust and then send us packing. She calls us to repentance, to renew the practice of our faith so that death will actually be the greatest moment of our lives, the moment we meet our heavenly Father. We remain for the time being in the valley of death. But the grace and mercy of Jesus, especially in this holy season of Lent, assure us that life looms on the horizon. If that’s not a crowd pleaser, I don’t know what is.” In the ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son’ by Henri Nouwen, Nouwen bases his thoughts on the painting of the same image by the famous Rembrandt. “The Father in the picture is portrayed as the man who has trans- cended the ways of his children. His own loneliness and anger may have been there, but they have been transformed by suffering and tears. His loneliness has become endless solitude, his anger boundless grati- tude. This is who I need to become. I have to see it as clearly as I see the immense beauty of the father’s emptiness and compassion. Can I let the younger and elder son grow in me to the maturity of the compas- sionate father?” A reminder that our book selection for the Lenten Book Discussion this year is Henri Nouwen’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son’. The program will take place via Zoom on March 1st, 8th, and 15th from 7pm—8:30pm. You may register at www.stpatrickinarmonk.org or call the parish office (914) 273-9724. Have a blessed Lent! Fr. Thadeus, your Pastor. Food First Program Food should be dropped off in the classroom in Wallace Hall. It will be distributed to the Mt. Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry on a weekly basis. Items in most demand are: ♦ Cans of Corn ♦ Applesauce ♦ Cans of Black Beans ♦ 2 pound bags of rice ♦ Cans of Tuna ♦ Cans of Salmon ♦ Peanut Butter and Jelly Lenten Liturgical Initiatives ♦ Non Sugar Cereal or Oatmeal During this time, we want to help all parish family members to connect with each other and our Lord Please reach out to through our new [email protected] with questions or if you are interested in serving. - Bible Study, - Book Discussion and OUTSIDE THE PARISH - Rosary by Candlelight 2021 Virtual Friendly Gathering Sign up for these programs & Annual Fundraiser for for additional details use the website link The RDC Center for Counseling & Human Development 52 N. Broadway in White Plains Honorees this year are THE DEDICATED STAFF OF www.stpatrickinarmonk.org WHITE PLAINS HOSPITAL and HON. NITA M. LOWEY. Join us in thanking them for their dedicated and compassionate care of all of us. Let us prepare our hearts for the journey through Lent to reach Reserve a ticket to the event Easter Sunday and at www.rdccenter.org or the Resurrection of our Lord.