We welcome with joy and thanks Father Donald Kloster to St. Mary’s parish as our curate (parochial vicar). Please make yourself known to Father Kloster and welcome him personally. As I have previously said about myself, a wonderful way to get to know a priest is to invite him to your house for dinner. I hope many of you will extend him an invitation.
Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. This is the time to think and pray about how you will make this season not only a preparation for Easter but how you will use this time to deepen your own faith and spirituality. The three traditional ways of fasting, prayer and alms giving should be in everyone’s Lenten practice. How these are incorporated into your Lenten observance is up to each individual. Try to include spiritual reading during Lent, both reading of the Bible and the writings of the great Catholic spiritual masters. I recommend two such works to read this Lent: Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales, and The Last Conversations of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Both of these works had a special impact on me as a priest and family man. Encourage each of your children to have a Lenten rule and support them in this spiritual task by speaking to them about it all through Lent.
I am very happy to let you know that this year our Lenten Missioner will be Father Michael Novajosky, the chaplain of St. Joseph’s High School in Trumbull. The Lenten Mission will begin on Sunday 4 March at 7:30 p.m. and will conclude on Tuesday 6 March. The talks will conclude each evening with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Fr Novajosky is a most enthusiastic celebrant of the Wednesday Missa Cantata here at St. Mary’s. He is intelligent and faithful and is a fine example of the young priests who love the Tradition and who will transform the Church in the future by their love of Christ and by their love of the Traditional Roman Mass.
A note about the sacristy. The word “sacristy” comes from the Latin word “sacrum” which means something set apart as holy. The sacristy is where the sacred vestments are kept, where salt and water are blessed for holy water, where all those things that are used in the Mass are stored, like incense and candles, these things that are part of the sacredness of the Mass. I would ask everyone to respect the privacy of the sacristy. It is a wonderful thing that so many parishioners want to speak to the priest after Mass or bring objects to be blessed. But these conversations should not be in the sacristy. After Mass the priest must take off his vestments and tidy up things in the sacristy. Please do not knock on the sacristy door at this time. Please wait until the priest comes out of the sacristy to have a conversation with him. Our priests are here to serve you and part of that service is talking to you our parishioners. But not in the sacristy. Many thanks.
Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla
