Catholic Ministries Appeal (CMA)

With the elimination of Masses, we will curtail news on our participation in the CMA until we are operational again.  Please pray for a quick resolution of this quarantine situation.

Healthy Practices regarding the Coronavirus  

The following is an excerpt from the decree: After serious consideration of the grave health risk involved in public gatherings and in order to curb the spread of the Coronavirus, the bishops of Ohio have decided, effective immediately, to suspend temporarily all publicly celebrated Masses/liturgies, at least through the celebrations of Holy Week and Easter. The bishops of Ohio dispense the Catholic faithful who reside in their respective dioceses and all other Catholics currently in Ohio from the obligation of attending Sunday Mass through Easter Sunday. 

Confessions

For the time being, we will have individual confessions at the published times.

Lenten Stations of the Cross

We are prohibited from public Stations of the Cross until the quarantine situation is resolved.

Reflection on Scripture for the Fourth Sunday of Lent  Laetare Sunday   

The story of the man born blind asks the proverbial question: “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?”  Jesus makes clear in the story that the man born blind is not being punished for parents or grandparents’ sins! Neither is he being punished for something he has done.  God does not condition us like Pavlovian dogs offering positive and negative reinforcement in the hope of coercing obedience. Rather, God allows nature to throw curve balls at humanity.  God then also gives humanity the blessing of intellect so we can eventually understand nature and control outcomes. If humanity were to use its intellect in the fashion God intends, we would have conquered most diseases, tamed natural disasters, and be in control of the physical universe by following God’s infinite rules to bring about finite results.  Instead, we tend to spend more time and resources on means of mass destruction than we will commit to healing disease and despair. Until we seek to conform ourselves to God, we will never crack the secrets that lead to temporal wellbeing or eternal parousia.  

Next Week:  The Fifth Sunday of Lent   

Ez 37:12-14

Rom 8:8-11

Jn 11:1-45

Theme: The raising of Lazarus