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The Needs of the Church in the Holy Land
Each year on Good Friday, dioceses and parishes in Canada and around the world hold a collection for the needs of the Church in the Holy Land. In the celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Catholics pray for the needs of all the world and they remember in a special way the Holy Land and its people. Christians living in the Holy Land today are descendants to those who first believed and lived the Christian faith. The funds collected are used to support the work of the Catholic Church - providing Christian formation and education, conducting parish ministry, offering housing and food to the poor and maintaining the shrines of the Holy Land.
The Easter Triduum
The Easter Triduum - from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday - is the summit of the Liturgical Year of the Church. Though chronologically three days, they are liturgically one day, unfolding for us the unity of Christ's Paschal Mystery.
The single celebration of the Triduum marks the end of the Lenten season, and leads to the Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord at the Easter Vigil.
The liturgical services that take place during the Triduum are :
Mass of the Lord's Supper
Good Friday of the Lord's Passion
the Easter Vigil and the Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord
The Sacrament of Reconciliation
The Sacrament of Reconciliation, also known as Confession and the Sacrament of Penance, is a Sacrament of Healing in which we encounter and celebrate in a very special way the merciful love of God. While it is especially important that we bring to this sacrament mortal sins, it is a precept of our Church that we celebrate this sacrament at least once a year. Speaking of the beauty and benefits of this sacrament, even when we have no serious sins to confess, St. Francis de Sales, a patron saint of Confessors, said: “By confession, you not only receive absolution from the venial sins you confess, but likewise strength to avoid them, light to discern them well and grace to repair all the damage you may have sustained by them. You will also practice the virtues of humility, obedience, sincerity and charity: in a word, in this one act of confession, you shall exercise more virtues than in any other whatsoever.” Lent is a wonderful time to celebrate this sacrament. Please check your parish’s confession times and consider celebrating this sacrament soon.
2019 Grant from Ex Corde Foundation
The diocese is very grateful to the Ex Corde Foundation of the Diocese of Hamilton for the recent grant to assist in the funding of the pastoral ministry of the Innu Aboriginal Parishes of Our Lady of the Snows in Sheshatshui and Tshukuminu St. Anne in Natuashish for 2019.
The Ex Corde Foundation focuses on finding ways to help parishes, organizations and communities to prosper.
Easter Message from the President of the CCCB
2019 Easter Message
by the Most Rev. Lionel Gendron, P.S.S.,
Bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil and
President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Risen Christ.
On 21-24 February 2019, I attended a Meeting on the Protection of Minors in Rome which was called for by Pope Francis for all of the Presidents of Bishops' Conferences across the world. It was likewise suggested that prior to the event, the Bishops could meet with persons who had been abused by clergy. Some asked to meet with me here in Canada and others in Rome. I thanked all of them wholeheartedly for their stories. I was deeply moved at hearing their pain and how it continues to affect their lives, their familes and their communities. Their suffering reflects the mystery of the Cross of Christ that makes itself present today in many varied ways.
In addition, during the Meeting, we listened to other testimonies of victims of those traumatic abuses. One testimony touched me deeply, that of a mother who, abused as a child, had managed to rebuild the best life possible. She described how, at the birth of her first child, the pain experienced at the time of the abuse resurfaced, a pain more intimate and more intense than the very pain of giving birth. While acknowledging the suffering, she nonetheless also spoke of the experience of giving birth with the beautiful Spanish expression "dar a luz" (to give to light). As I considered the joy she felt at her newborn as well as the expression “to give to light,” I was led to consider the Pascal Mystery in a new way.
The Mass of Chrism
The Mass of Chrism will take place at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Redeemer and of the Immaculate Conception , 15 Mount Bernard Avenue, Corner Brook, on Wednesday, April 10 at 7pm.
Feast of Saint Joseph
March 19th is the Feast of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Joseph is the patron saint of the universal Church, the patron saint of Canada and one of two patron saints of the Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador.
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday, which is celebrated this year on March 6, marks the beginning of the season of Lent, a season of prayer, fasting and alms-giving which prepares us to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
While Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day of Obligation, all Catholics are encouraged to participate in the Eucharist on this day in order to mark the beginning of the Lenten season.
Catholic Missions In Canada
Each year, during Mass on Ash Wednesday, a special collection is taken up in support of Catholic Missions In Canada. The stated mission of this group is to sustain and extend the Catholic Faith in isolated, poor and hard-to-reach areas in Canada. Many parishes in our diocese have received financial assistance from this group in the past and continue to receive funding from them. You are encouraged to be as generous as possible in supporting this special group.
Message of Pope Francis for Lent 2019
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR LENT 2019
“For the creation waits with eager longing
for the revealing of the children of God” (Rm 8: 19)
Dear Brothers and Sisters
Each year, through Mother Church, God “gives us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed… as we recall the great events that gave us new life in Christ” (Preface of Lent I). We can thus journey from Easter to Easter towards the fulfilment of the salvation we have already received as a result of Christ’s paschal mystery – “for in hope we were saved” (Rom 8:24). This mystery of salvation, already at work in us during our earthly lives, is a dynamic process that also embraces history and all of creation. As Saint Paul says, “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (Rom 8:19). In this perspective, I would like to offer a few reflections to accompany our journey of conversion this coming Lent.
1. The redemption of creation
The celebration of the Paschal Triduum of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, the culmination of the liturgical year, calls us yearly to undertake a journey of preparation, in the knowledge that our being conformed to Christ (cf. Rom 8:29) is a priceless gift of God’s mercy.
When we live as children of God, redeemed, led by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:14) and capable of acknowledging and obeying God’s law, beginning with the law written on our hearts and in nature, we also benefit creation by cooperating in its redemption. That is why Saint Paul says that creation eagerly longs for the revelation of the children of God; in other words, that all those who enjoy the grace of Jesus’ paschal mystery may experience its fulfilment in the redemption of the human body itself. When the love of Christ transfigures the lives of the saints in spirit, body and soul, they give praise to God. Through prayer, contemplation and art, they also include other creatures in that praise, as we see admirably expressed in the “Canticle of the Creatures” by Saint Francis of Assisi (cf. Laudato Si’, 87). Yet in this world, the harmony generated by redemption is constantly threatened by the negative power of sin and death.