The Annual Blessings of Age Retreat will take place on March 11, 2020 at Our Lady of Fatima Church. This year the theme is: “Sweetness and Serenity of Spirit Grows with Age”. Cost is $15.00 per person. For more info or to RSVP please contact Josephine in the Office of Pastoral Outreach—505-831-8174. Sponsored by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe Office of Pastoral Outreach, Senior Ministry.
Students at Our Lady of Fatima School and public school students in the Catechism program will be receiving cardboard “Rice Bowls” to use during Lent as we participate in Operation Rice Bowl. Rice bowls will also be available in the church and parish office for other parishioners who would like to participate. The Rice Bowls will be collected during Holy Week. 75% of our Rice Bowl donations go to support the programs of Catholic Relief Services throughout the world, and 25% of our Rice Bowl donations support local projects to alleviate hunger and poverty here in our own Archdiocese.
Wednesday of this week is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. There are some people who seem to have a mistaken understanding of the reception of ashes and assign more importance to receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday than they do to attending Sunday Mass. Do not be misled. The ashes are NOT a Sacrament. They are what is called a “sacramental” and are no different than blessing yourself with Holy Water when you enter or leave the church. What is exceptional about the reception of ashes is that it normally occurs only one day a year (on Ash Wednesday), and that it is an outward sign – a public declaration, if you will – that one is a sinner and is in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. If we receive the ashes and then do not follow it up with a Sacramental Confession at some point during Lent, we have done nothing but condemn ourselves as hypocrites.
Today’s First Reading comes from the Book of Sirach in the Old Testament (Sirach 15:15-20), and it offers the Jewish people advice on how to live their lives in a manner worthy of God, and make the choice between good and evil. This same principal would later be stated multiple times by Saint Paul when he would encourage the early Christian communities to live in a manner worthy of the call (Baptism) they have received.
This weekend is the beginning of our Annual Catholic Appeal campaign for 2020 and we will have the opportunity to complete pledge cards. The theme for this year’s campaign is “His Mercy Endures Forever… Proclaim the Gospel!” Parishioners recently received a letter, pamphlet, and pledge card from Archbishop John Wester regarding the importance of the Annual Catholic Appeal (ACA). Unlike the tithing renewal that we do each November in which we commit ourselves to a weekly tithe to the support of our local parish, the Annual Catholic Appeal is our opportunity to consider the needs not just of our own parish, but of Catholics across the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 26, 2020. There will be four Masses with distribution of Ashes that day at 6:30 AM, 8:15 AM, 12:10 PM, and 5:30 PM. The distribution of ashes will take place after the homily.
On Friday, January 24th, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe mailed out a letter from Archbishop Wester and a pledge form for the 2020 Annual Catholic Appeal (ACA) Campaign. This mail-out went to every family in a parish in the Archdiocese who has made an ACA pledge in the past three years. If you have received the pledge form by mail, you may fill it out and return it in the envelope provided. If you did not receive a pledge form by mail, additional copies are located at the doors of the church.
The Parish Office and Fatima School will be closed on Monday, February 17, 2020, in observance of the President’s Day holiday. Daily Mass will still be held at 6:30 AM and 8:15 AM.
At first glance, today’s celebration (The Presentation of the Lord; Luke 2:22-40) may seem rather strange and out of sequence. The Christmas decorations came down a few weeks ago and three Sundays of Ordinary Time have passed during which the adult Jesus has been baptized, begun his public ministry, and called his first disciples. But the Law of Moses called for a 40-day period of purification after the birth of a male child – and today is 40 days, inclusive, after Christmas.