Friday Five - May 1

First Holy Communion Mass and Pot Luck

There will be a Traditional Latin High Mass on  Sunday, May 3rd  at 10:00 am (preceded by  Confessions from 9:15 to 9:45 at which five  All Saints children will celebrate their First Holy Communion. After the Mass, all are welcome to a potluck meal on the church lawn.  Please keep the Bowen, Anderson, Whitney, and Cooper families in your prayers as they  finish preparation for First Holy Communion.

After Mass all who would like to be enrolled in the Brown Scapular Confraternity are welcome to join the first communicants in the enrollment ceremony.   The Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a sacramental worn by Catholics as a sign of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, promising protection from eternal fire for those who die wearing it with faith. It originated in 1251 when Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock, instructing him to share this devotion with the faithful. 

Sisters of Mt. Carmel on the Brown Scapular

Catholic Answers - The Brown Scapular

Work Camp Bake Sale

We will have our last and final bake/goodies sale for Work Camp this coming Sunday at our First Holy Communion TLM on May 3rd. If you can please support our teens as we help them live out their faith in doing for others in our diocese, that would be greatly appreciated. Parishioners can either donate directly,  bake, or buy baked goods to help support our teens! Anything can be baked.

We have raised a little over $1,200. We need to raise $2,700. The money raised goes towards the materials used in the projects that will better the lives of the impoverished people in our diocese. 

Thank you again to all who helped bake or donated goods for us to sell! Please contact Amy Provencher at A.S.Provencher26@gmail.com with any questions.

Here is a link to the Work Camp page on the diocesan website: 

https://evangelizerichmond.org/events/diocesan-work-camp-3/

3) The Monday morning Scripture Study group began a study of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans this week.  They meet Monday mornings at 10 am at  All Saints Catholic Church. It is not too late to join!  The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, with commentary, questions, and notes by Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch are the basis for the class, All are welcome. Contact Kay Beers for more information or with questions.

From the publisher: Based on the RSV-Catholic Edition, this Bible Study of the book of Romans, written by Bible teachers Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, uses the biblical text itself and the Church's guidelines for understanding the Bible. The commentary notes provide insights into the historical, cultural, geographical and theological information pertinent to the book of Romans.

Highlights from the Mammis' talk on Holy Communion and Eucharistic Adoration:

From Fr. Lovasik's The Basic Book of The Eucharist Fr. Lovasik writes "Jesus is in the Sacred Host to share His divine perfections and happiness with you.  He gives you His limitless, most perfect love, that it may fill you with joy and destroy your self-love.  He brings you His infinite bliss so that, forgetting yourself and your troubles, you may find all your happiness in Him and thus enjoy on earth a foretaste of His heavenly joys."

In order to experience this joy to the greatest degree, it is imperative that we do our part to properly prepare ourselves.  St. Bonaventure tells us that he has come to believe that we receive more graces from one Holy Communion well-prepared for than from many, many received with carelessness.

And so, how do we prepare ourselves to receive Our Lord in Communion?

• Upon waking up, let your very first thought be that today my Lord Jesus is going to come into my soul and visit me.

• Imagine your guardian angel saying to you, "Behold, the Spouse cometh; go forth now to meet Him."

• Remember what an honor and tremendous blessing that Almighty God deigns to condescend and visit me today

• Say the Acts of Faith, Hope, Charity, Contrition, Desire, etc.

• It is an excellent practice to choose a special intention for each Communion (e.g. to love our Lord more, to overcome a temptation/fault, to help poor souls in purgatory, etc) and tell God what you're offering your Communion for

• Upon entering the church, kneel down and pray specific prayers of preparation (e.g. Preparation for Communion, Act of Love, Act of Contrition, etc.)

• Immediately after receiving Our Lord kneel down with eyes closed and give Jesus our total attention, love, and thanksgiving; teach your children not to disturb you during these moments after Communion unless it's an emergency and teach them how to say a proper thanksgiving; spouses take turns watching young children so that each spouse can make a proper thanksgiving

• Stay in your pew in silence for several minutes if possible after mass to continue speaking and listening and enjoying this visit from our Lord

To be even more properly disposed to receive the fullness of Our Lord's graces and love during Communion, Fr. Lovasik highly recommends that we adapt these practices in our daily life:

• Perform duties of your state in life as perfectly as possible

• Renew your faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament

• Be sincerely humble; detach yourself from venial sin, from deliberate imperfections, and willful negligence

• Turn to God regularly with confidence that He will heal us and give us rest

• Say the Act of Charity; let your heart be inflamed with real love for Jesus Christ

• Let your soul desire the Blessed Sacrament

• Pray and ask God and Our Blessed Mother to assist you in preparing your heart and soul to receive Him in Communion

• Spend enough time in Thanksgiving after Communion

Finally, let the words of St. Thomas Aquinas move you to increase your desire for the reception of the Holy Eucharist.  He says "The sacrament of the Body of the Lord puts the demons to flight, defends us against the incentives to vice and to concupiscence, cleanses the soul from sin, quiets the anger of God, enlightens the understanding to know God, inflames the will and the affections with the love of God, fills the memory with spiritual sweetness, confirms the entire man in good, frees us from eternal death, multiplies the merits of a good life, leads us to our everlasting home, and reanimates the body to eternal life."  Could we ask for any additional thing?  Let us encourage one another to worthily receive and to delight in this food from heaven, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Another excellent way to grow in desire and love for Holy Communion is to spend time with the "Divine Prisoner of the tabernacle" during the week. Eucharistic adoration is any quiet time spent near our Lord in the tabernacle, pausing in our day to visit him, thank him for waiting there for us, and pondering the mystery by which the Creator and Lord of the universe confines himself to be physically present in the tabernacle. Eucharistic adoration is a fitting complement to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Pillars of Catholic Living

 Thank you JJ and Jessica for a terrific class on Communion and Eucharistic Adoration.  The Pillars of Catholic Living  classes will continue on Wednesday evenings at 6:45pm.   The mystagogy period is of great importance in enabling the neophytes to form closer relationships with the faithful. Everyone is welcome to join us  for this fantastic opportunity to strengthen our community as well as our faith.  Feel free to pack a picnic supper. Contact Vicki Borin for more details or with any question.

May 6th - Scriptural and Spiritual Reading - TBD

May 13th - Mary, Saints, and Devotions - Josh and Susannah Anderson

May 20th - Stewardship and Handing on of Faith - Shawn and Amy Provencher

TBD-  Frequent Confession,  Daniel Sweeney and Robyn Reitz