Archive: Father Simon Sez

Happy Mother’s Day!

In thanksgiving, we wish all mothers a blessed and happy day. We also pray for our deceased mothers. We remember and give thanks for our spiritual mothers - Holy Mother Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church as well as Holy Mother Church! People who have a personal relationship with the Blessed Mother are blessed themselves! Consider praying for this gift and foster it with Maria devotions.

Are we going to have the River Mass? Of course, this has been a concern of many people since I arrived. I took my time to listen to various concerns. I plan on always having the 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening Sunday Vigil Mass available in Sacred Heart Church as a parish Mass. Since the Catholic Church requires weekend Mass attendance, I believe every parish priest should provide one Saturday evening Sunday Vigil option as consistently as possible in a parish church. The River Mass is a Mass of convenience and accommodation for people of various parishes in that area which is larger than many towns during the summer. This Mass was originally at 8:15 p.m. I would like to go back to that and try it. The timing might be tight at times, but it should generally work and the wind should go down by then. I will provide as much notification that I can if there has to be a time change or cancellation. One possibility is when there is a substitute priest. It will be up to that priest as to whether they can do it. We will start Memorial Weekend, Saturday evening, May 28 th at 8:15 p.m. The ending date is generally the beginning of August. The specific date is to be determined.

The Catholic Home Missions Appeal is an annual collection to benefit Catholic dioceses in the United States that cannot afford their annual needs. It is normally taken at the end of April. I have giving envelopes available in our church pews and gathering spaces. Please use them the next couple weeks and place your contribution in the regular Sunday collections. Thank you.

Holy Week & Easter Thank You!: I thank all of you for helping with the Holy Week and Easter liturgies in both parishes, and everyone who came to participate to make it a truly blessed week with wonderful celebrations! I thank you for your cards, gifts, and Easter well wishes!

Divine Mercy Sunday Thanks: I thank those of you who were able to come to help celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, holy hours, and confessions. We had the best turnout I have ever had for Divine Mercy weekend confessions, about 1.5 hours constant stream in total. The last time penitents went to confession was from one-half day to 50 years! It was so wonderful to see God’s Mercy at work when you took advantage of this one weekend to go to confession and receive Holy Communion a removal of all sin and all punishment due to sin, “a second baptism” only available this one weekend per year. I look forward to celebrating it next year with you! Pray for Ordinations!: Our diocese ordination to the priesthood is May 27 at 11:00 am. Join us via livestream to watch three men be ordained by Bishop Donald DeGrood. You can find the link to the livestream at www.sfcatholic.org.

Blessing & Conferral of the Brown Scapular: Traditionally, priests have enrolled First Communicants in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I do this after the Final Blessing of the First Communion Mass. You can search information online about this Catholic sacramental. Nobody has to wear one, but if they so choose later in life and in order to benefit from the private revelation promises, they have to have been enrolled.

“BISHOP’S CHARITY FISHING TOURNAMENTS” Don’t fish? Join usfor Mass celebrated byBishop DeGrood), social hour and prime rib dinner following the above mentioned tournaments. Call us at 605-988-3765 or go to https://ccfesd.org/events.

 Divine Mercy Sunday Promise: Divine Mercy Sunday is this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter, every year. This is the ONLY Sunday throughout the year that this is available to you to receive the removal of all sin and all punishment due to sin, similar to Baptism, and so, it is called “a second baptism.” You receive this by going to confession and receiving Holy Communion worthily on this weekend ONLY, starting on this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. when the Divine Mercy Sunday Vigil starts.

The risen Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Mercy made this promise to the faithful people through St. Faustina during a series of private revelations starting February 1931 in Poland. These private revelations have been approved by the Roman Catholic Church as worthy of belief; although, no one is required to believe in it. What we are required to believe in is God’s unconditional, infinite love and mercy for us! Therefore, our prayer is the prayer this devotion teaches us, “Jesus, I trust in you!”

This devotion includes the promise by Jesus that He removes all punishment due to sin. This means that there will not be any punishment in purgatory required for all past sins forgiven in the Sacrament of Penance, a.k.a. confession). Obviously, the usual conditions apply for receiving these two sacraments. The most commonly known conditions are that we must be sorry for all of our sins in confession and we cannot be guilty of any mortal sin while receiving communion.

If you are not able to go to confession and receive communion using the regular weekend schedule, you can request to do this immediately following the Divine Mercy Holy Hours scheduled for this Sunday afternoon at SHC in Gettysburg 3:00 p.m. (about 4:00 p.m.) and SPX Church in Onida at 5:30 p.m. (about 6:30 p.m.).

I am providing additional information on a single-sheet bulletin insert this Sunday similar to one of the pages last Sunday explaining this devotion in more detail. The “second baptism” handout from last Sunday with the single sheet handout is available in our church gathering spaces. If you have any extra Divine Mercy materials, you can leave them in our church entries to share as long as they have been formally approved by a bishop in union with the Pope or myself. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy has many promises attached to it as well.

Blessing & Conferral of the Brown Scapular: Traditionally, priests have enrolled First Communicants in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I do this after the Final Blessing of the First Communion Mass. I will have more room in my bulletin column to explain this next Sunday. You can search information online about this Catholic sacramental. Nobody has to wear one, but if they so choose later in life and in order to benefit from the private revelation promises, they have to have been enrolled.