RESPONSORIAL PSALM: If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
TODAY’S MASS INTENTION: Magda Wood, by Stephen & Elizabeth Palko
MASS SCHEDULE & INTENTIONS FOR THE COMING WEEK:
| March | 18 | Saturday | 9:00 AM | Traditional Latin Mass |
| March | 19 | Sunday | 9:15 AM | Eleanor Rusnacik, by the Harmat Family |
FROM THE DESK OF FR. BONA: In this season of Lent we focus on our spiritual lives. Here I would like to offer some tips and basic practices that anyone can use daily to get started in living or deepening a life of prayer. In the future, I will complete this series with the weekly, monthly and yearly practices.
(1) Morning offering: Since the activities of the day lead to our sanctification, it is important to dedicate the day to the Lord, right at the very moment we get up. We can say a prayer like this: “O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father.”
(2) Mental prayer: Let us try to have a goal to set some silent time aside to be with the Lord. We can use what we read in Scripture or other writings as a source for meditation. We can also take this time to speak with God about our life and ask for His help. If possible, we should try to do this in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament or before an image of Our Lord, especially the Crucifix.
(3) Daily Mass: if we are able to come, it is a great boon for our spiritual lives – there is no more perfect prayer than Mass.
(4) Spiritual reading: It is extremely beneficial to spend 10-15 minutes reading from the Bible or other spiritual books.
(5) Devotion to the Blessed Mother: The best way to thank her and continuously ask for her intercession is to pray the Rosary every day.
(6) Practice of the Presence of God: Let us make a habit throughout the day of turning our eyes toward God through quick words of prayer. We can fix certain times of day or places to trigger these prayers.
(7) Examination of conscience: At the end of the day, let us evaluate our actions (or omissions) of the day. It helps us to be humble and shows our love of God in the desire to rid ourselves of everything that separates us from Him, and thus we seek closer union with Him.
A Review of Lenten Regulations for Latin Catholics: 1. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of abstinence from meat and also days of fast, that is, only one full meal is allowed. Two other meatless meals, sufficient to maintain strength, may be taken according to one’s needs, but together they should not equal another full meal. 2. All Fridays during Lent are days of abstinence from meat. 3. The obligation to abstain from meat commences at 14 years old. 4. The obligation to fast commences at 18 years of age and ends at 59 years of age. 5. The laws on abstinence and fast bind under the pain of mortal sin.
DOM PROSPER GUERANGER (1805-1875), a liturgist, commented in his work The Liturgical Year on the need to strictly observe Lent: “How few Christians do we meet who are strict observers of Lent, even in its present mild form! And must there not result from this ever-growing spirit of immortification, a general effeminacy of character, which will lead, at last, to frightful social disorders?… Those nations, among whose people the spirit and practice of penance are extinct, are heaping against themselves the wrath of God, and provoking His justice to destroy them by one or other of these scourges—civil discord, or conquest.… The word of God is unmistakable: unless we do penance, we shall perish. But if our ease-loving and sensual generation were to return, like the Ninevites, to the long- neglected way of penance and expiation, who knows but that the arm of God, which is already raised to strike us, may give us blessing and not chastisement?”
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY in supporting our parish: Sun. 3/5: collection: $795. Thank you for sending in your offertory donation through the mail, or through the PayPal option found on the website: https://www.stelizabethcleveland.org/donations/
PLEASE PRAY FOR THE SICK, especially, Kathy Szabó, Kamilla Szabó, Anna Melega, Dorothy Fromhercz, Alex Szaday, and Virginia Kachmar.
THIS SUNDAY the 11:15 AM Mass from St. Emeric will be livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/saintemeric and on the website, https://stemeric.com/
LET US PRAY THREE HAIL MARYS FOR OUR PARISH EVERY DAY!
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