December 31 (New Year's Eve)
Holy Hour begins at 11 p.m..
Benediction at Midnight and social to follow.
January 1 (Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God)
Mass at 10 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Christmas and New Year's Mass Schedule
Christmas Eve (December 24)
5 p.m. Mass with Children's Procession
and
Midnight Mass
Christmas Day
10 a.m.
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (January 1)
10 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
Friday, December 4, 2015
Friday, November 27, 2015
Friday, November 20, 2015
Friday, November 13, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
Friday, October 30, 2015
Friday, October 23, 2015
Friday, October 16, 2015
Friday, October 9, 2015
Friday, October 2, 2015
Friday, September 25, 2015
Friday, September 18, 2015
Friday, September 11, 2015
Friday, September 4, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Friday, July 24, 2015
Friday, July 10, 2015
Friday, June 26, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Friday, June 12, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
Friday, May 29, 2015
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Rosary of Intercession
Rosary of Intercession for Priests
St. Peter's Church
Sunday, May 31, 2015 at 7 p.m.
Join us in Prayer for all our Priests.
Reception to follow in church hall will feature an "edible rosary."
All are welcome!
Friday, May 22, 2015
Friday, May 15, 2015
Friday, May 1, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Our Easter Weekend Liturgy Schedule
Holy Thursday
(April 2)
Mass of the Lord’s Supper 7 p.m.
(Adoration and personal prayer continues after Mass in the basement "chapel" until 6 a.m.)
Good Friday (April
3)
Solemn Liturgy with Holy Communion 3 p.m.
Stations of the Cross at 7 p.m.
Holy Saturday (April
4)
Easter Vigil at 8 p.m.
(with blessing of Easter Bread and New Water)
Easter Sunday
(April 5)
Mass at 10 a.m.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
Friday, March 6, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
Friday, February 20, 2015
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for Lent 2015
Message of His Holiness Pope Francis
for Lent 2015
"Make your hearts
firm"
(Jas
5:9)
February 9, 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each communities and every believer. Above all it is a “time of grace” (2 Cor 6:2). God does not ask of us anything that he himself has not first given us. “We love because he first has loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). He is not aloof from us. Each one of us has a place in his heart. He knows us by name, he cares for us and he seeks us out whenever we turn away from him. He is interested in each of us; his love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us. Usually, when we are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others (something God the Father never does): we are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the injustices they endure… Our heart grows cold. As long as I am relatively healthy and comfortable, I don’t think about those less well off. Today, this selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can speak of a globalization of indifference. It is a problem which we, as Christians, need to confront.
When the people of God are converted to his love, they find answers to the questions that history continually raises. One of the most urgent challenges which I would like to address in this Message is precisely the globalization of indifference.
Indifference to our neighbour and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.
God is not indifferent to our world; he so loves it that he gave his Son for our salvation. In the Incarnation, in the earthly life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the gate between God and man, between heaven and earth, opens once for all. The Church is like the hand holding open this gate, thanks to her proclamation of God’s word, her celebration of the sacraments and her witness of the faith which works through love (cf. Gal 5:6). But the world tends to withdraw into itself and shut that door through which God comes into the world and the world comes to him. Hence the hand, which is the Church, must never be surprised if it is rejected, crushed and wounded.
God’s people, then, need this interior renewal, lest we become indifferent and withdraw into ourselves. To further this renewal, I would like to propose for our reflection three biblical texts.
1. “If one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Cor 12:26) – The Church
The love of God breaks through that fatal withdrawal into ourselves which is indifference. The Church offers us this love of God by her teaching and especially by her witness. But we can only bear witness to what we ourselves have experienced. Christians are those who let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become, like Christ, servants of God and others. This is clearly seen in the liturgy of Holy Thursday, with its rite of the washing of feet. Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet, but he came to realize that Jesus does not wish to be just an example of how we should wash one another’s feet. Only those who have first allowed Jesus to wash their own feet can then offer this service to others. Only they have “a part” with him (Jn 13:8) and thus can serve others.
Lent is a favourable time for letting Christ serve us so that we in turn may become more like him. This happens whenever we hear the word of God and receive the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. There we become what we receive: the Body of Christ. In this body there is no room for the indifference which so often seems to possess our hearts. For whoever is of Christ, belongs to one body, and in him we cannot be indifferent to one another. “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honoured, all the parts share its joy” (1 Cor 12:26).
The Church is the communio sanctorum not only because of her saints, but also because she is a communion in holy things: the love of God revealed to us in Christ and all his gifts. Among these gifts there is also the response of those who let themselves be touched by this love. In this communion of saints, in this sharing in holy things, no one possesses anything alone, but shares everything with others. And since we are united in God, we can do something for those who are far distant, those whom we could never reach on our own, because with them and for them, we ask God that all of us may be open to his plan of salvation.
2. “Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9) – Parishes and Communities
All that we have been saying about the universal Church must now be applied to the life of our parishes and communities. Do these ecclesial structures enable us to experience being part of one body? A body which receives and shares what God wishes to give? A body which acknowledges and cares for its weakest, poorest and most insignificant members? Or do we take refuge in a universal love that would embrace the whole world, while failing to see the Lazarus sitting before our closed doors (Lk 16:19-31)?
In order to receive what God gives us and to make it bear abundant fruit, we need to press beyond the boundaries of the visible Church in two ways.
In the first place, by uniting ourselves in prayer with the Church in heaven. The prayers of the Church on earth establish a communion of mutual service and goodness which reaches up into the sight of God. Together with the saints who have found their fulfilment in God, we form part of that communion in which indifference is conquered by love. The Church in heaven is not triumphant because she has turned her back on the sufferings of the world and rejoices in splendid isolation. Rather, the saints already joyfully contemplate the fact that, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, they have triumphed once and for all over indifference, hardness of heart and hatred. Until this victory of love penetrates the whole world, the saints continue to accompany us on our pilgrim way. Saint Therese of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, expressed her conviction that the joy in heaven for the victory of crucified love remains incomplete as long as there is still a single man or woman on earth who suffers and cries out in pain: “I trust fully that I shall not remain idle in heaven; my desire is to continue to work for the Church and for souls” (Letter 254, July 14, 1897).
We share in the merits and joy of the saints, even as they share in our struggles and our longing for peace and reconciliation. Their joy in the victory of the Risen Christ gives us strength as we strive to overcome our indifference and hardness of heart.
In the second place, every Christian community is called to go out of itself and to be engaged in the life of the greater society of which it is a part, especially with the poor and those who are far away. The Church is missionary by her very nature; she is not self-enclosed but sent out to every nation and people.
Her mission is to bear patient witness to the One who desires to draw all creation and every man and woman to the Father. Her mission is to bring to all a love which cannot remain silent. The Church follows Jesus Christ along the paths that lead to every man and woman, to the very ends of the earth (cf. Acts 1:8). In each of our neighbours, then, we must see a brother or sister for whom Christ died and rose again. What we ourselves have received, we have received for them as well. Similarly, all that our brothers and sisters possess is a gift for the Church and for all humanity.
Dear brothers and sisters, how greatly I desire that all those places where the Church is present, especially our parishes and our communities, may become islands of mercy in the midst of the sea of indifference!
3. “Make your hearts firm!” (James 5:8) – Individual Christians
As individuals too, we have are tempted by indifference. Flooded with news reports and troubling images of human suffering, we often feel our complete inability to help. What can we do to avoid being caught up in this spiral of distress and powerlessness?
First, we can pray in communion with the Church on earth and in heaven. Let us not underestimate the power of so many voices united in prayer! The 24 Hours for the Lord initiative, which I hope will be observed on 13-14 March throughout the Church, also at the diocesan level, is meant to be a sign of this need for prayer.
Second, we can help by acts of charity, reaching out to both those near and far through the Church’s many charitable organizations. Lent is a favourable time for showing this concern for others by small yet concrete signs of our belonging to the one human family.
Third, the suffering of others is a call to conversion, since their need reminds me of the uncertainty of my own life and my dependence on God and my brothers and sisters. If we humbly implore God’s grace and accept our own limitations, we will trust in the infinite possibilities which God’s love holds out to us. We will also be able to resist the diabolical temptation of thinking that by our own efforts we can save the world and ourselves.
As a way of overcoming indifference and our pretensions to self-sufficiency, I would invite everyone to live this Lent as an opportunity for engaging in what Benedict XVI called a formation of the heart (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 31). A merciful heart does not mean a weak heart. Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart, closed to the tempter but open to God. A heart which lets itself be pierced by the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters. And, ultimately, a poor heart, one which realizes its own poverty and gives itself freely for others.
During this Lent, then, brothers and sisters, let us all ask the Lord: “Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum”: Make our hearts like yours (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference.
It is my prayerful hope that this Lent will prove spiritually fruitful for each believer and every ecclesial community. I ask all of you to pray for me. May the Lord bless you and Our Lady keep you.
From the Vatican, 4 October 2014,
Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi
FRANCIS
Bishop Colli's 2015 Lenten Message
Lent 2015
"Have Mercy O Lord, for We
Have Sinned"
This is the response to the psalm we sing on Ash Wednesday and it sets the tone for us as we begin the important period of Lent. This time is given to us by the Church to help us reflect with prayer, on our journey of faith and on our relationship with God and with one another. These forty days are days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving or outreach to the poor. These forty days are special for us, as we prepare our hearts for the joy of Easter.
As believers, we enter this time of penance and prayer with humility. We know that it is a unique time of prayer, and in the busyness of our hectic lives, we seek to find some time, a little extra time, to spend with the Lord. Lent is a time for change or conversion. Not only do we decorate our churches in purple and cease to proclaim alleluia, but we know that within our hearts we seek a deeper link to the Lord. We desire to know Him more intimately and to discover Him, especially in the difficult moments of our lives. Our prayer, our Masses and our sacrifices help us to link ourselves to the cross of Jesus which we share as his followers.
Pope Francis has asked us to seek a change within our hearts for a renewal of spirit and a deeper conversion to love. The Pope asks us to reflect on our relationship with our neighbour, especially our neighbour in need. He reminds us that the temptation to indifference towards our neighbour is always present in our world. He notes that as our brothers and sisters suffer, we as a Church also suffer with them. We are to unite our prayers with the saints in
heaven, and as a community, to go out and to be engaged in the life of society, to be missionaries to the poor and needy in particular.
We are given many opportunities during Lent to increase our prayer life, to seek a more simpler lifestyle, and to reach out to our bothers and sisters in need. We do this in a concrete way through our support of Development of Peace which reaches out to counties in our world to help others rebuild their lives. Your continued support to this cause is encouraged again this year.
As humble sinners, who at times have seen worldly issues more important than our spiritual growth, we use this holy time to see a conversion in our hearts, and to grow more in the image of Jesus. May our prayers, our sacrifices and our generous outreach to others, help us to better understand the Paschal Mystery in which we believe and live, and may this time help us to see ourselves as “ambassadors of Jesus” to a world that needs the message of Jesus so badly today.
Let us journey together during this holy time, in order that we might share in the glory of new life in Christ on the great feast of Easter.
+ Fred Colli
Bishop of Thunder Bay
Ash Wednesday 2015
Our observance of the holy season of Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday.
Two Masses are scheduled: 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Ashes will be distributed at both.
Pray. Fast. Give alms.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Friday, February 6, 2015
Friday, January 30, 2015
Friday, January 23, 2015
Friday, January 16, 2015
Friday, January 9, 2015
Friday, January 2, 2015
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