5th Sunday of Lent March 29, 2020 Our Lady Most Admirable give us a right understanding of the essential and a hunger for it! Amen. From the Gusset “Rejoicing in this annual celebration of our Lenten observance, we pray, O Lord, that, with our hearts set on the Paschal Mysteries, we may be gladdened by their full effects.” This was the opening prayer for the Saturday morning Mass of the 3rd week of Lent (March 22nd). With the Coronavirus scare, we are unable to attend Mass, and so we were unable to hear this prayer offered (though for us in Sublette, West Brooklyn, and Maytown, the Saturday morning Mass is always prayed in private by your priest). But I believe it was perfectly prayed for the situation we now find ourselves in. It is always hard to rejoice during Lent, what with all our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and Jesus Christ knows this. That is why our Lord told us on Ash Wednesday: pray in secret, do not look gloomy, but wash your face when you fast, and when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing. Even after we have celebrated Laetare Sunday (and we know that Lent is over half finished), we have trouble rejoicing at the eminent approach of Easter, because the pandemic has imposed a quarantine that has removed us from our usual work day (do you see how therapeutic it is for the man to work in a fallen world M God knew what He was doing when He gave Adam work to do), secluded from public interaction, and now we can’t even attend Mass at our beautiful Churches. But God the Father is telling us: “despite sin, despite the virus, despite all of Satan’s snares M My Son is carrying the Cross of your sins, and My Son will die on that Cross and the graces of the Paschal Mystery will come to you. Don’t worry, don’t become despondent, don’t become depressed M your Lord and Savior’s death and resurrection will bring to you the fullness of His love, and He will affect in you, your salvation.” Easter is coming M nothing can stop God’s love M not the penances of Lent, nor the Coronavirus, not even Satan can prevent Jesus Christ from making you a part of His Body. Please, go to our parish website, watch the Mass, and make a spiritual Communion with Fr. Randy as he continues to raise the chalice above the altar for you and your intentions. The Catholic Church is being guided by an eternal design, and God will not deprive Her of His help in the present age! Our Lady Most Admirable ...pray for us ! Yours on the Path Fr. Randy Our Parishes’ Website olphmarystpatrick.com Be able to access YouTube Videos of the Sunday Mass Messages from the Pastor WEBSITE and much more The Holy Catholic Church tells us that the venerable exercises of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving will shape our hearts, and prepare us to worthily celebrate the Paschal Mystery! You must be smart during this pandemic. Ask our Lady Most Admirable to help you to see not just the trickery of Satan as the evil one prevents us from gathering at Mass, but ask our Lady to help you to see that the graces of the Mass are still coming to us, because your parish priest is every day celebrating the Holy Mass for you just as he did last Lent, and the Lent before that, and the Lent back in 1876 when the first Church of St. Patrick was built in Maytown. Here are some things each of us can do in the categories of the ageold disciple of Lent. Prayer Pray the Bishop Sheen ProLife prayer every day. Now (March 25th) until Christmas (9 months), we pray for a baby that we have spiritually adopted. Jesus would love to brag to His Father that you are praying for the salvation of someone else’s soul even amidst your own struggle with sin. Fasting Continue to offer up your fasting, especially for an elderly person, who has contracted the virus, and is not able to fast themselves; and fast for the strength of our medical professionals, our President, and our Bishop. Almsgiving Don’t forget to continue to tithe 6% of your income to your Church. Send your Sunday envelope each week through the mail to OLPH Church, PO Box 80, Sublette, Ill. 61367 (even if you are from Maytown or West Brooklyn). Also tithe to NICE food pantry in Lee and I hear that Hesed House, 659 S. River St., Aurora, Ill. 60506 (in opening a new dorm in a warehouse without plumbing) is in need of bottled water. Heroes of God; Feast Days of the Saints St. Francis of Paola April 2nd St. Francis was born on March 27, 1416, and it was because his parents had such a devotion to St. Francis of Assisi that he took the name of this great Saint. When Francis was still a baby, he developed trouble with his eye, and his parents made a vowNthat should St. Francis intercede for the boy, he would spend a year of his life wearing the cowl (the little habit) of the Franciscan Order. This was a common practice in the Middle Ages, where a lay person would enter a Friary and live the vows of the Order for a time before returning to the world. Well, the baby Francis recovered full vision in his eye, and so at the age of 13, he entered a Friary to fulfill the vow his parents had made. Following that year, the young man made several pilgrimages with his parents to Assisi and Rome, and upon returning to his home in Paola, he selected a cave on his Dad’s estate to live in solitude. Later on he moved his hermitage to the sea coast, where a few other men joined him in a life of prayer, poverty, chastity, obedience, and abstinence from meat (Francis turns out to be one of the first vegans M as his diet was restricted from all animal products M no milk (can you believe no Milk!) or eggs). It was Pope Alexander VI, who in the year 1492, formally approved the Order of the Hermits of St. Francis (which is what Francis called his Order) M changing their name to “the Minims.” This word “minims” in Italian hints at the “least of all the faithful” or “extreme humility” or “only a drop.” In 1493, King Louis XI of France sent for St. Francis to be by his bedside when he died, but the great Saint would not leave Italy until he was ordered to do so by the Holy Father. An interesting thing happened on his way to France M a boatman refused his services to Francis M whereupon, he laid his cloak on the water, tied one end to his staff as a sail, and set sail for France. Franz Liszt’s Legendes (solo piano #2) describes this story in music, and this is the reason St. Francis is the patron of mariners and naval officers. Taking a page from St. Francis of Assisi’s spirituality, Francis had a friendship with a trout, which he named Antonella. St. Francis of Paola is also the patron Saint of Trout Fishermen M but only if you throw the fish back after you catch it! He died in 1507 on April 2nd M the day we now celebrate as his Feast Day. St. Francis of Paola...pray for us! If you would like to watch the Pro Populo Mass of Sunday, please see our Parish Website for the YouTube video. Simply go to www.olphmarystpatrick.com, scroll down to the video of the 5th Sunday of Lent, and click on the play button. To get uptodate reports on how the Coronavirus is affecting the Catholics of the Rockford Diocese or to watch the Bishop’s Sunday Mass visit the Diocesan Website at: www.rockforddiocese.org As of the time of publication of this bulletin, all Masses have been suspended through Easter Sunday (April 12th) from public participation. Fr. Randy will celebrate the Triduum Masses of Holy Thursday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the veneration of the Cross liturgy on Good Friday, the Easter Vigil Mass, and Easter Sunday without a congregation. These Holy Day Masses and liturgies will be available as a YouTube video on our Parish Website. Please participate as fully as you are able. All Catholics within the Diocese have been given a dispensation from the obligation of attending Mass on Sundays and Holy days of obligation by Bishop Malloy. Mass Schedule Saturday, March 28th OLPH (+) Madge King/ Mr. & Mrs. Greg Henkel Sunday, March 29th 5th Sunday of Lent St. Patrick (+) Annette Bickett Nettleton/ Family SMA (+) Pro Populo/ Fr. Randy Monday, March 30th (+) Donna Vaessen/ Bernie Karlock Tuesday, March 31st SMA (+) Geraldine Fronek/ Mr. & Mrs. Richard Benson Wednesday, April 1st OLPH (+) Loleta Mathesius/ Velma Qeust & (+) June Stephenitch/ Ana Gutierrez Thursday, April 2nd SMA (+) Quin & Josephine Torri/ Torri family OLPH (+) Shirley Malach & Elroy Lauer/ Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Vaessen Friday, April 3rd St. Patrick (+) Alvin Montavon/ Mr. & Mrs. Donald King St. Patrick (+) LeRoy Klein & Mary Ann Cardot/ Fr. Randy Saturday, April 4th OLPH (+) Faye Leffelman/ Gene Leffelman & (+) Joseph McNally, Sr./ McNally family SMA (+) Pro Populo/ Fr. Randy Sunday, April 5th 6th Sunday of Lent St. Patrick (+) Mary Ann Cardot/ Mr. & Mrs. Richard Cardot OLPH (+) Roland Schuhler/ Mr. & Mrs. William Joerger .