Today's Reading | Exodus 32.7-14 |
Psalm | Psalm 106 |
Gospel | John 5.18-47 |
This Saturday April 5.
On the first Saturday of each month, Mass is celebrated at 10:00 a.m., followed by Adoration and Marian devotions.
“I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months will go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the rosary, and keep company with me during a quarter of an hour, meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the rosary, with the intention of making reparation to my Immaculate Heart for all the offences and outrages it receives from ungrateful men.”
Lent is a sacred season of penance and spiritual preparation, leading us to the celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. During this holy time, the faithful are called to seek the Lord through fervent prayer and meditation on Sacred Scripture, to practice charity through almsgiving, and to embrace self-discipline through fasting and acts of penance.
"Salvation came through the Cross."
During Lent, we will follow the Stations of the Cross on each Friday evening. Exceptionally, on Friday April 4, at 6 p.m.
In today’s First Reading, God forgives “the reproach” of the generations who grumbled against Him after the Exodus. On the threshold of the promised land, Israel can with a clean heart celebrate the Passover, the feast of God’s firstborn son (see Joshua 5:6–7; Exodus 4:22; 12:12–13).
Reconciliation is also at the heart of the story Jesus tells in today’s Gospel. The story of the Prodigal Son is the story of Israel and of the human race. But it is also the story of every believer.
In Baptism, we’re given a divine birthright, made “a new creation,” as Paul puts it in today’s Epistle. But when we sin, we’re like the Prodigal Son, quitting our Father’s house, squandering our inheritance in trying to live without Him.
Lost in sin, we cut ourselves off from the grace of sonship lavished upon us in Baptism. It is still possible for us to come to our senses, make our way back to the Father, as the prodigal does.
But only He can remove the reproach and restore the divine sonship we have spurned. Only He can free us from the slavery to sin that causes us—like the Prodigal Son—to see God not as our Father but as our master, One we serve as slaves.
God wants not slaves but children. Like the father in today’s Gospel, He longs to call each of us “My son,” to share His life with us, to tell us: “Everything I have is yours.”
The Father’s words of longing and compassion still come to His prodigal children in the Sacrament of Penance. This is part of what Paul today calls “the ministry of reconciliation” entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles and the Church.
Reconciled like Israel, we take our place at the table of the Eucharist, the homecoming banquet the Father calls for His lost sons, the new Passover we celebrate this side of heaven. We taste the goodness of the Lord, as we sing in today’s Psalm, rejoicing that we who were dead are found alive again.
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Cost: $65.00 per child to a maximum of $195.00 per family. Payable by cash or by cheque to Our Lady of Fatima – Be My Disciples.
Deadline: The completed form with payment must be received by June 16, 2024.
New registrants: For children registering for the first time, please submit a copy of the baptism certificate.
Additional forms: Please complete the following two forms. If you don't have access to a printer, the printed copies are available at the Church.
Parent/Student Agreement
and
Pick-Up Autorization Form