Fortnight for Freedom 2015

Again this year, we will have extra times of prayer for our country and religious freedom for two weeks leading up to July 4th. It all begins on Sunday (June 21st) after the 5:00 p.m. Mass and finished at 8 p.m. with Benediction. It all finished on July 4th with Mass at 9:00 a.m.

Come and Pray for the Defense of Marriage 

and the Right of Religious Freedom!

• Morning Holy Hours begin with the end of the 8:15 am Mass.
• Evening Holy Hours include a Reflection on freedom and Night Prayer.
• Saturday Evening Holy Hours begin with the end of the 6:30 pm Mass.
• Sunday Evening Holy Hours begin with the end of the 5 pm Mass; adoration time includes Evening Prayer, Reflection and Night prayer.
• On July 4 the Fortnight ends with a morning Holy Hour and Mass.

Weekdays

1. The Fortnight for Freedom on Weekdays begins at 9 am with a Holy Hour and Benediction in the main Church. After benediction, the Eucharist will be returned to the tabernacle and exposed in the chapel. That means a parishioner MUST be with the Eucharist while it is exposed. 
2. The Eucharist will remain exposed in the chapel until the 9 pm Holy Hour, when the tabernacle in the chapel would be closed and the Eucharist exposed in the main church. The Evening Holy Hour will include a reflection on freedom and Night Prayer. After the 9 p.m. Holy Hour the Eucharist will be returned to the chapel and reposed in the closed tabernacle.
3. When Mass is taking place in the Church, the Eucharist would be reposed just before Mass and then exposed again after the end of Mass. 

Weekends

1. On Saturday, June 27, the Eucharist will reposed in the closed tabernacle starting with the 5:00 pm mass and through the 6:30 pm Mass. There will be a Holy Hour beginning at 7:30 p.m.
2. On Sunday, June 21 & 28,, the Eucharist will reposed in the closed tabernacle starting with the 7:30 am Mass through the Noon Mass. It will be exposed again in the chapel after the Noon Mass. There will be a Holy Hour from 6 to 8 pm.
3. Adoration for the Fortnight ends on July 4 with a Holy Hour at 8 am followed by Mass at 9 am.
4. All parishioners and adorers are welcome to attend any of the Holy Hours. 

It is likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on four cases concerning the legal definition of marriage in the United States some time during the Fortnight. 

If you are interested in taking a holy hour, please contact Anthony. If your parish is not participating in the Fortnight For Freedom, you are welcome to sign up and pray with us.

About the Immaculate Conception on Saturday

The Immaculate Conception is considered such a blessed event that it is considered a Holy Day of Obligation. Because the Immaculate Conception is the patron of the United States, this feast day (like Christmas) is an obligation even when it falls on a Saturday or Monday. However, the Saturday evening Masses (5 and 6:30 p.m.) celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent rather than the Immaculate Conception. As Fr. Steve says, you can't get a twofer by attending Saturday night.

When we celebrate the Immaculate Conception, it is a common mistake to think we are celebrating the Immaculate Conception of Jesus. At Mass on the Immaculate Conception the Gospel is always the Annunciation. Because the Archangel Gabrial appears to Mary to tell her about the child she would have, sometimes people think that is the conception which is called immaculate. But the Immaculate Conception is about her conception which prepared Mary for the Annunciation; the time where she would choose whether or not to participate in God's plan for salvation.

In the Gospel, the angel Gabriel says, "Hail Mary full of Grace." In Greek the word used, κεχαριτωμένη, is a perfect passive participle of χαριτοω meaning "to fill or endow with grace." The tense indicates that Mary was graced from the instant she first existed in her mother's (Anne's) womb (well before Gabriel visited) and ever since. It might be best understood as her being so full of grace that sin can not enter her.

The first Mass celebrating the Immaculate Conception will be Friday at 5:30 p.m. There will also be Masses Saturday at 6:20, 8:15, and 12:10 p.m.
Saturday night, starting at 8 p.m., there will be two hours of Eucharistic Adoration and prayer for the end of abortion as well.

Faith of our Fathers

On this date in 1776 our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence saying:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

In other words, that when the government does not allow the rights given to us by our creator, people have a right to alter that government. When the Constitution of the United States of America was adopted, the first amendment guaranteed religious liberty.

Those were the decisions of our Founding Fathers. Today it is our time to choose. We can either validate or invalidate their decisions with what we decide in our day. How important is religious liberty to us today?

Religious Liberty (From the US Bishops' site)

Is Following Our Conscience Important?

Wow, This Must Matter

The Ham Sandwich Parable