4th Sunday in Lent - March 14, 2010 - Thursday, March 11, 2010

Father Greg's Reflection

Dear Immaculate Heart of Mary Family,

As you all know Lent means springtime. It is a time of changing seasons and changing lives! This past week it was incredible to experience the large lines of people coming to confession every night. I am deeply grateful to you and to the priests who offered this sacrament. It was a true moment of “tilling the soil” to encourage a change of life, and a true renewal in our community. With every confession that was heard there was a vast outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our parish and our members. It was like a spring rain and I look forward to the growth in holiness which I am sure will follow this wonderful week of Confessions!

Now, we are about to enter into the deepest mysteries of our Catholic Christian faith. The coming weeks will be filled with beautiful liturgies and moving prayers. They will allow us to enter into the heart of the paschal mystery and the heart of Jesus. I am glad so many of you tilled the soil! In the next couple of weeks the seeds of a deeper love for Jesus and the gift of the cross will begin to germinate, if we care for our spiritual lives! How do we do that? First, we must continue to make the deep investment in faith which always is demanded of those who wish to experience a profound change of life. Therefore, I strongly encourage you to join us this Wednesday evening on St. Patrick's Day, March 17^th, for “OUR CATHOLIC JOURNEY.” I know many of you come often and many of you have joined us for years. This Wednesday evening, beginning at 6:00 pm, with Vespers and then at 6:30 pm with our one-hour presentation, you will once again be invited to experience the fullness of Holy Week and especially the Triduum. Many of you already have experienced these liturgies in their fullness, and yet many of you continue to miss this truly inspiring moment in the life of the Church. Like many Catholics there is a tendency to continue to do what we have always done. This year, however, I encourage you to do something different. Beginning with this coming Wednesday, how about making the decision to change, to till the soil of your daily Catholic experience, come on Wednesday to “Our Catholic Journey” and discover what these next few days truly mean! For those of you who already have an idea, or have experienced Holy Week and the Triduum at IHM, come anyway, who knows what new ideas or challenges God might have in store for you this year!

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, March 28^th. The first thing you will notice is that mass begins outside! At the large masses that weekend we will invite all of you to walk around the parking lot in a long and beautiful procession. The world is turned upside down that day. The Messiah is entering our lives on the humble back of a donkey. So, too, we are invited to truly change everything in our own religious experience. This is so HARD for so many people. You will see them on display at Palm Sunday. Many who don’t read the bulletin or attend mass very often will look lost and confused. Many will feel angry, they have to walk in procession, and some will be upset they can’t have their normal pews! However, if you take the time to learn about these moments, it will all make sense. The same is true for the remaining days of Holy Week: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday’s Vigil. These three great days form the sacred days of the Triduum. They are the most sacred days of our lives. On Wednesday this coming week we will remind you of the many ways you can live these days to their fullest. Plan early to take off from work on Good Friday, to take your children out of school and to work your schedules’ around the holiness of these days; sleep well on Holy Saturday and join us at 4:00 am, long before the sunrise. In doing so you will discover the rich power of your faith and the gift of the cross. See you Wednesday, March 17^th as we remember St. Patrick and we discover how to complete our Lenten journey!

In Jesus, Fr. Greg

To view this weeks bulletin, click HERE

3rd Sunday in Lent - March 7, 2010 - Sunday, March 07, 2010

Father Greg's Reflection

Dear Family of Immaculate Heart of Mary,

When I was a child, being the second oldest of my siblings, I had the wonderful opportunity of welcoming a new member into my family, five times! Every time my Mom and Dad had a new baby, I remember both the excitement and the challenge of making room for another child in our home. It was a challenge because it meant that all of us had to change our routine, we had to move over a little, and we had to find a way to accommodate the needs of a new member.

You all may have noticed that I always refer to Immaculate Heart as a family. As a parish family, we also must welcome our newest members. Parishes are living, growing, thriving communities of people. They are never static and closed, at least not if they truly are communities formed and shaped by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because we always open our doors to new members, we too, must accommodate and welcome many new faces. Sometimes it’s not easy. We become comfortable with the old friends we know. We recognize the familiar families, some who have prayed with us for a lifetime. We don’t always want to invite or embrace new faces. Who are these strangers among us? Why are they changing everything? Why are they sitting in MY pew? Sound familiar? It certainly happens and sometimes it disrupts the whole comfortable world we want to surround ourselves in. Yet, it is so important. Without these new members and faces we risk becoming a stagnant and fiercely unchanging or elite group of people. We called this a clique. In a faith that teaches that God is always new and that we must look for Him to reveal Himself in every new and life-giving way, this is very dangerous. In a closed and rigid world, we risk never truly seeing the unbelievably new and exciting ways of God.

Lent is a journey in which we are challenged to encounter God in new ways. One of the most perfect ways we do this is through the people who we call Catechumens or Candidates. Those who are seeking to join our faith through baptism or their profession of faith. These members are called the Elect. They are “elected” to become new members of our communities thus blessing us with new faces, new enthusiasm and new found joy; they are the yeast in the Body of Christ, making us ever new and growing.

Last weekend at 10:30 mass we celebrated the Rite of Election. This is a beautiful ritual where these members are introduced to us, then in a very formal way are invited to sign their names in the Book of the Elect. This symbolically shows they are now counted among God’s chosen ones, an invitation extended to all but accepted by few. Finally, they were formally “sent” to the cathedral in Denver to meet Archbishop Chaput who represents the unity of the Church. They joined thousands of others who will be received into the Catholic Church at Easter!

Today, I believe each of us have a God-given responsibility to embrace and welcome our newest members. We do this by praying for them during the scrutines these next few weeks and joining them at the Easter Vigil at 3:30 am on Easter Sunday! I said it’s not always easy. Our parish will never be the same. These newest members may someday take over leadership in our parish family. They will have different ideas and new insights. They will not always want to do everything the same as it’s always been done, and guess what, they may even sit in YOUR pew! But they are welcomed here and they are essential to the life of our parish family, for they are a sign of hope to all of us! Lent is a new “springtime” that is the meaning of Lent, and our new members are certainly a sign of springtime, and therefore our willingness to welcome them and embrace them is a perfect opportunity for us to continue on the long road to Lent in a very meaningful way!

In Jesus, Fr. Greg

To view this weeks bulletin, click HERE

Father Greg's Reflection

Father Greg's Reflection

New Reconciliation Times

Saturday 8:00AM-10:00AM