Blessed Sacrament Church15 Shea Place New Rochelle, NY 10801 914-632-3700 Fax: 914-632-0732 www.blessedsacramentnr.com Email: [email protected] Pastor: Rev. William Luciano Parish Registration: All Catholics living in the Rev. Biju Peter, C.M.I., Parochial Vicar Parish should be registered. Parents with children in our school religion program must be registered and using envelopes. Deacon Rudy Babor Kindly inform us if you are moving. Organist & Music Director: Religious Education Program: Mr. Jonathan Mercado Thomas Aquinas Center [email protected] 24 Shea Place • 914-235-7311 Ms. Gladis Kann, Secretary The Sacrament of Baptism: Call the rectory to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery make an appointment with a priest. Cemetery located at 95 Kings Highway No date will be given until the necessary Cemetery Office at 15 Shea Place • 914-636-6343 paperwork is received and verified. Devotions: The Sacrament of Marriage: Miraculous Medal Novena: Arrangements should be made at least (6) six Monday, after 12:10pm Mass months to a year in advance. Call the Rectory to First Friday of the Month: Exposition of the Blessed make an appointment with the Pastor. No dates Sacrament after 12:10pm Mass till 3:00pm with are given over the phone. Prayers to the Divine Mercy to follow. Sunday Mass: Sat. 5:00pm in English, 7:00pm in Spanish, Sun. 7:30, 9:00, 10:30am & 12:10pm All Masses on Sunday in English • 1st Sunday of the Month at 1:30pm Mass in French Weekday Mass: Monday to Friday: 7:00am, 12:10pm • Saturday: 8:00am, 12:10pm Holy Day Mass: Vigil 5:00pm • Feast itself: 7:00am & 12:10pm & 7:00pm (Unless noted in the Bulletin) Sacrament of Confession: Mon. to Fri. 6:45 to 6:55am and 11:30am to 12 noon Sat. 11:30am to 12:00 noon; 4:00pm to 4:55pm; and in Spanish at 6:30pm to 6:50pm Tਈਅ Fਉ਒ਓਔ Sਕ਎਄ਁਙ ਏਆ Lਅ਎ਔ Pਁਇਅ Tਗਏ From the Pastor’s Desk Regulations for Lent Have you ever heard the expression: “You had All Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from better get back on track!” Perhaps, that has meat. Good Friday, April 2nd is a day of been said to us at various times in our life. fasting and a day of abstinence from meat. Perhaps, this can be our motto for Lent: Let’s What does it mean to fast? It means that on get back on track with Jesus, with the Church Good Friday only one full meal (either: and in our lives. Doesn’t that seem to breakfast, lunch or dinner) is eaten. There encompass what Lent is all about? Isn't Lent can be two smaller meals eaten, at the other about putting our spiritual, physical, and our times, but together they cannot equal another family, life in order? This seems like an full meal. Remember, even a snack between impossible task. We have to prioritize the list. meals, on Good Friday, would be to break the Which has to be first in order for the others to fast. Fasting is done by everyone between the fall into place? Of course it is the spiritual! If ages of 18 and 60. Abstaining from meat we begin with putting our spiritual life in means no meat (beef, chicken, pork, lamb or order, in getting back on track with God, then any other meat) can be eaten on any Friday everything that follows (on our list) will be during the Season of Lent. All who are 14 made a little bit easier. years or older are obligated to follow this Many times, in the Bible, we see that Lenten directive of no meat. physical illness comes about because of spiritual illness. Jesus refers to this fact any number of times when He cures those who Stations of the Cross come to Him. Jesus cures the person and then tells them to sin no more. When our Stations of the Cross will take place this spiritual life suffers, then everything in our life Friday, February 19th at 3:00pm. It is at the begins to suffer. Nothing really seems to work 3:00 o’clock hour when the Church remembers out the way it should, when we are spiritually the death of the Lord. ill. We are off kilter, we are off track. Perhaps this Lent, we need to give God more time out of our busy lives. Yes, there Go to Confession are always things to do: work, laundry, cleaning, study, losing weight, eating better, Lent is a great time to get it right with God. spending time with loved ones, and the list During the Season of Lent we will have, here could go on and on. Rarely would anyone say: at Blessed Sacrament, over two thousand one “I need to give God more of my time.” Let’s hundred minutes dedicated to the Sacrament face it, for most people God is somewhere on of Confession. That is like having thirty-five the low end of our priorities. We kind of take hours in which the Sacrament of Confession Him for granted. When we need Him, we run will be heard. Of course, these minutes and to Him but when we don't, we just put Him to hours will be spread, over the next five weeks, the side (only needed in emergencies). When but with such an abundance of time, there is do we encounter God? Yes, on Sundays, if we really no excuse for not going to Confession can spare sixty minutes, but not really at any before Easter. Of course the greatest excuse, other time. Then, all of a sudden, when God that people use, is that they really don't do does not answer our beck and call, when He anything wrong. It seems as though some doesn't jump to our demands, we feel people might have brain freeze. If anyone discouraged and wonder if He really does care would think that they really don't do anything about us. wrong, they have to run to the Sacrament of If I knew someone who only used me, Confession because the devil has seduced showed up when they wanted something, them into thinking they don't need God’s rarely called, wrote, texted, e-mailed, no real Sacramental forgiveness. That person, with interaction at all: would I consider that person this wrong thinking, is doomed. a friend? Thank God, God is not like us. He We have a great examination of waits for us. He is always willing to listen, to conscience on our website. Go to it and take a talk, to interact. This Lent give God more of look. You might have more to confess than you time. It will change you. you think. The First Sunday of Lent Pਁਇਅ Tਈ਒ਅਅ Music Notes for this Weekend Please join us for our Lenten discipline of By Mr. Jonathan Mercado, Organist and Music Director praying the Stations of the Cross with options for prayer in the afternoon. A TIME OF HOPE AND RENEWAL February 19th and 26th at 3pm March 12th and 19th at 3pm “You will not find many Catholics who could say that Lent is their “favorite time of year.” In And, there are three opportunities to attend fact, most American Catholics shy away from Stations of the Cross in the evening. the simplicity, somber colors and reflective March 5th at 7pm readings and music that we experience in our March 26th at 7pm parishes during this time of year, yet this new March 26th are Choral Stations of the Cross Season of Lent is a time of hope and renewal. with the parish Schola Cantorum (bilingual) The readings for today may offer only a April 2nd at 7pm discussion on sin and temptation at first Solemn Good Friday Stations of the Cross with glance, though a deeper examination unpacks the parish Schola Cantorum the compassion of a forgiving God who loves us unconditionally. It’s hard not to feel hopeful May our Lenten Discipline of attending and about that! praying the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross), and the disciplines of Prayer, Fasting, and Throughout Lent we are asked to open Almsgiving during this penitent season of the ourselves to God through practices of prayer, church year truly prepare us for the great fasting and celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection this Almsgiving. Why not begin today by Easter. prayerfully re-reading the Gospel and reflecting on its meaning in your life? Praying the Scriptures is a way to renew The Cardinal’s your faith and strengthen your relationship Annual Stewardship Appeal with God. The Gospel tells of Jesus alone praying and fasting in the desert, hungry, The Cardinal’s Appeal ensures that parishes exhausted and being that are in need have the resources they tempted by the devil. When were you at the require to minister to the faithful. This came to moment of lost hope in your life and where did the fore during the first and second waves of you find strength to resist temptation and the pandemic. Many of the parishes most move forward? In the last lines we hear that affected by Covid-19 and the financial Jesus finds strength and hope in a loving aftermath are in area that are relationship with God. As Baptized Catholics disproportionately underserved. The parish we can also claim our place as sons and become the main artery of financial support and daughters of God the Father and through food distribution in times of crisis.