May: The Month of Mary

05-06-2018From Fr. Antony's DeskFr. John J. Barbella

Our Parish Carnival wraps up this weekend. If you can stop by – perhaps after Mass on Saturday evening or this afternoon (Sunday) – please do. It's a great place to have some fun, see other parishioners, and enjoy great Carnival Food! (From last year, my favorites were the meatballs and the Deep Fried Twinkies). Hope to see you there!

May is, of course, the Month of Mary. With that in mind, try to do some little things to honor Mary this month. If you don't already pray the Rosary daily, this would be a good time to start. If you can't pray a whole Rosary, why not pray at least a decade of it a day? It is a powerful prayer – one of my favorites – and is recommended by countless saints. For those who may not know, pamphlets on how to pray the Rosary will be placed around the Church.

As a parish, we will honor Mary by setting up a special statue of her near the side Altar. This statue will be crowned by our First Communion children and left in place throughout the month of May. My hope is that it will inspire us to think of Mary's good example and strive to follow it in our lives.

Next Sunday is Mother's Day! It is so appropriate that we honor our own mothers in this month dedicated to the Holy Mother of God. We will include a special prayer for mothers at Mass next weekend.

Additionally, Mother's Day envelopes have been placed in your packets and in the Church. You can list the names of your mother and grandmothers on them if you like. They will be placed near the Altar for the remainder of May – and the names on them will be included in all the Masses offered. These prayers will be a special spiritual gift to all our mothers and grandmothers – living and deceased!

On a different note, I've been finding a lot of gum in the Church lately. I hate to use this column for something like this, but I would like to respectfully remind everyone that it is not appropriate to chew gum in Church – especially at Holy Mass! Not only does it make a mess – but swallowing it less than an hour before Mass would break your Communion Fast. (I really hate to sound picky – but please give this some thought!)

Parents – please remind your children about this and make sure they don't come to Church with gum. I don't think they mean to do this – and know they don't mean any disrespect – but probably just forget. Let's do them a favor by gently reminding them about this and other ways to show respect for God at Holy Mass!

As always, I would ask you to pray for me today and every day. I know many of you take very seriously my request to pray a Hail Mary for me each day – and I thank you. You are all in my daily prayers – especially my Rosary. Let's also pray for our mothers and for peace.

Have a great week!
Fr. John

P.S. The Carnival is held up at the School on Roseberry Street.

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