Jan 11, 2024

Greetings,
The makeup of the rectory is in flux at the moment. Our two seminarians, Christopher Villarreal and John Scantling will very soon be returning to their studies at the seminary. I would like to thank them for all the assistance they provided over the Christmas holidays. You might have noticed that Ryan Arto has been missing from our sanctuary for the past week. He is with the rest of his class on a required canonical retreat in preparation for his ordination into the transitional deaconate. At the end of this academic year, you will be invited to join him and his class at the Cathedral of St. John for the ordination Mass. A man must be ordained a transitional deacon and serve in that role for a minimum of six months before he can be ordained a priest. The following May of 2025, if all things going well, this class will be become priests. Please keep them and all of our seminarians in your prayers.

I will not be available for most of this week. Joan of b’Arc and I will be joining another priest and his dog to spend a few days in the woods. It is a very short ordinary time period before we enter right into lent. Ash Wednesday is going to fall on, of all days, St. Valentine’s Day this year! The Christmas decorations have just come down and already it is time to consider what one might do for spiritual exercises during lent!

Plan your St. Valentine Day well! It is a day of fast and abstinence. On that day we are called to only have one regular meal and no meat and so many people give up chocolate or desserts so you will need to be mindful and creative!

IN OTHER NEWS:

ST. SEBASTIAN DAY: Next weekend we will be celebrating St. Sebastian Day. We have permission to move our feast day celebration from Saturday to Sunday so that the entire parish may celebrate our patronal feast day.

SPAGHETTI DINNER: We will have our annual St. Sebastian Day Pasta Dinner on Saturday night, January 20 following the 4:30pm Mass. Come one, come all but be aware that it is pre-purchase only!- Tickets are on sale after all Masses this weekend.

CONCERT: For those of you who read the bulletin early online, on Friday of this week, January 12 at 7pm, Mr. Ralph Holtzhauser will be performing “Fabulous French Music” on our organ. Admission is free and the concert is open to the general public. Bring the kids, bring a friend and enjoy the evening out.

THANK YOU: Thank you to all of our volunteers and staff who helped “put Christmas away.” It is far more fun getting it all out of boxes than it is carefully putting it all back.

LIFE: Every January we focus on praying for a greater respect of all human life. The annual diocesan Mass for Life will be celebrated Friday, January 19, at the Cathedral at 10:00am. The Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children is Monday, January 22. On this anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade (1973), all dioceses of the United States observe a "day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of
the human person committed through acts of abortion".

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck