Men's Group

Next Meeting - please check the date in the latest bulletin here.

The readings for this meeting are available here.

Click here for daily readings.

MEN'S PRAYER GROUP MEETING

Third Saturday of each Month, 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM. All the men of the parish are invited to attend this meeting which begins in teh Chapel at 7:00 AM. Following prayer and discussion, there will be breakfast in the St. Thomas More Hall. Please come join us!

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Gentlemen,

I have attached the mass readings for Sunday for your prayer in advance of our meeting on Saturday morning at 7:00.

Fr. Barron's podcast on the readings is available here.  

In reflecting on our Lord's Passion, Fr. Barron warns against becoming spiritually lazy, as the disciples did when they fell asleep in the garden during Jesus' agony there, and spiritual cowardice, which we see as all of Jesus' disciples fled and abandoned him upon his arrest.

Let's not be spiritually lazy or cowardly!  It's not too late to make use of these remaining days of Lent and the graces they afford to do penance and prepare ourselves for a proper Easter celebration.  Consider the advice of St. Josemaria: 

Are you trying to make sincere resolutions? Ask Our Lord to help you to take a tough line with yourself, for love of him; to help you apply, with all naturalness, the purifying touch of mortification to everything you do. Ask him to help you to spend yourself in his service, silently and unnoticed, like the flickering lamp that burns beside the Tabernacle. And if you can't think of anything by way of a definite answer to the divine guest who knocks at the door of your heart, listen well to what I have to tell you.

 

Penance is fulfilling exactly the timetable you have fixed for yourself, even though your body resists or your mind tries to avoid it by dreaming up useless fantasies. Penance is getting up on time and also not leaving for later, without any real reason, that particular job that you find harder or most difficult to do.

 

Penance is knowing how to reconcile your duties to God, to others and to yourself, by making demands on yourself so that you find enough time for each of your tasks. You are practising penance when you lovingly keep to your schedule of prayer, despite feeling worn out, listless or cold.

 

Penance means being very charitable at all times towards those around you, starting with the members of your own family. It is to be full of tenderness and kindness towards the suffering, the sick and the infirm. It is to give patient answers to people who are boring and annoying. It means interrupting our work or changing our plans, when circumstances make this necessary, above all when the just and rightful needs of others are involved.

 

Penance consists in putting up good-humouredly with the thousand and one little pinpricks of each day; in not abandoning your job, although you have momentarily lost the enthusiasm with which you started it; in eating gladly whatever is served, without being fussy.

 

For parents and, in general, for those whose work involves supervision or teaching, penance is to correct whenever it is necessary. This should be done bearing in mind the type of fault committed and the situation of the person who needs to be so helped, not letting oneself be swayed by subjective viewpoints, which are often cowardly and sentimental.

 

A spirit of penance keeps us from becoming too attached to the vast imaginative blueprints we have made for our future projects, where we have already foreseen our master strokes and brilliant successes. What joy we give to God when we are happy to lay aside our third-rate painting efforts and let him put in the features and colours of his choice!

 

St. Josemaria Escriva, Friends of God 138

 

"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love."   - Bl. Teresa of Calcutta

Remember to keep Fr. Audet in your prayers, that his healing may be speedy and complete.  I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Mike