On Feb. 22, Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Chair of Peter. “A feast for a chair?” you ask.
Yep. You see, Peter wasn’t just any old apostle. Oh, sure, he made a lot of mistakes. (Pretending not to know Jesus, when approached by that woman at the fire after Jesus’ arrest, was a big mistake!) He was impulsive and blustering and given to bouts of cowardice—at least, before the Holy Spirit got hold of him at Pentecost and set him on fire for the gospel  ... 
                                                        read more here or clik on the photo below

       - Curatesy of National Catholic Register, www.ncregister.com​

​Prayer after Communion

Renewed now with heavenly bread,
by which faith is nourished, hope increased,
and charity strengthened,
we pray, O Lord,
that we may learn to hunger for Christ,
the true and living Bread,
and strive to live by every word
which proceeds from your mouth.
Through Christ our Lord.
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One of the most beautiful tunes of Lent are composed to commemorate the suffering of Mary who had to witness the crucifixion and death of her own Son.

“The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ's mother during his crucifixion. Its author may be either the Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III.[1][2][3] The title comes from its first line, "Stabat Mater dolorosa", which means "the sorrowful mother was standing". The hymn is sung at the liturgy on the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Stabat Mater has been set to music by many Western composers.”
​   (Wikipedia) 
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There are many special prayers and traditions designed for Lent. One of them is related to Jesus’ Passion, and is called the Stations of the Cross. We usually celebrate the Stations together in our church, but I do not know if this will be the case this year. You can always pray them at home, favorably on Fridays during Lent or any other day of your choice. 

"Crucified Savior, accept this short meditation on Your passion and death as a sign of my love and gratitude. You sent Your Holy Spirit as Your first gift to those who believe. Help me to welcome the Spirit into my life so that I may follow in Your footsteps and the victory of Your resurrection may grow in me. Together with my fellow believers, let me come frequently to the table of the Lord and receive Your most holy Body and Blood. I ask You to bless the good resolutions I have made. Jesus, for You I live. Jesus, for You I die. Jesus, I am Yours in life and in death. Amen."
​   (Archdiocese of Cincinnati, YouTube channel)
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You should receive by now your Tax Receipt and Letter that we mailed to everyone a few weeks ago. Just in case I copy it below. 
----------------------------------------------------

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

I sent you a letter at the beginning of this Pandemic in 2020 and I never thought that one year later I would be doing the same. This is the best way to reach out to all of our parishioners and friends who attend our church and make contributions and whose addresses we have on file. The first aim of this letter is to let you know that I am always concerned about your wellbeing and I pray for each one of you daily. I am receiving calls and emails from persons who are having difficulty coping with the Pandemic and the situation it creates. You are not alone in your struggles because as the sign in front of our church says, we stand for one another and “please pray for each other”.
Our prayer is very much like the prayer from Psalm 63, “My body longs for you in a dry, parched land where there is no water.” We are all exhausted and long to return to normal. As we embark on our Lenten journey we will be led by Jesus Christ in our prayer through the desert, abandonments, and the darkness of sin and cross to the new beginnings, to the new life that is stronger than evil and death. “May the light of Christ rising in glory dispel the darkness” [Easter Vigil]
I am sending you some blessed ashes. Keep them in your Bible or prayer book as a reminder of this Lent that will make us new people of God. At this time, we don’t know if Ash Wednesday will be possible.
Your tax receipt for your 2020 donations is attached. I want to thank you for your continuous support, especially in these uncertain times. I am always touched to see offertory envelopes arriving, even when the church is closed. We use our funds wisely. We have limited our expenses as much as possible. I was very happy to see our stained-glass window project finalized. We used our savings to pay it off, but it will be reimbursed from the One Heart One Soul Campaign fund.  A special thank you to those who keep their pledges coming in.
Please note that One Heart One Soul Campaign and Canada Helps provide their own tax receipts for all donations made. Thank you for your generosity and please keep supporting your church! “God loves a cheerful giver” [2 Corinthians 9]. There are many ways you can submit donations, by mail, on-line via Canada Helps or in person through the mail slot on the rectory door from Murray Street, (Father’s house door located between the hall and the church.  Please do NOT leave anything in the office mailbox). You can always justify it as essential exercise if asked what you are doing there. :)
What lies ahead is unknown to us but not to God. We trust him and we believe that as much as we cling to him, we are safe. “The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer.” [Psalm 18] May our relationship with God become even stronger this Lent and Easter. “The best is yet to come.”
May God bless you!
 
Fr. Luke
Your Pastor 

Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday" in French, and it is the celebratory carnival that leads up to the beginning of Lent. ... Meat is traditionally abstained from during Lent which is where the word "carnival" is originally derived from, meaning "the removal of meat."

Let us take look on how people cheered up before entering Lenten fast … There was no chance for the carnival this year.
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​These are the last days of the Ordinary Week in the Church Liturgy. We will pick upon Ordinary time again after Easter Season will be oevr and after all following Easter important Solemnities, like Assumption and Corpus Christi. It is now 6th week but we will jump straight to week 11th in June. Some Solemnities replace Sundays but also it is all about the math. The 34th week, the Christ the King Sunday must fall on a Sunday between 20th November and the latest is 26th November. This is why we cut short from week 6 to week 11. I can assure you that preparing a calendar for the Church Liturgy is not an easy task!

Ash Wednesday begins the Holy Season of Lent in only two days. When I am writing this post, it is almost certain that we will not be able to have in-person liturgy. Bishop Crosby and the Diocesan Liturgical team have prepared special resources to mark this day at home alone if you live by yourself or with your family. You can find the prayers, detailed instructions, and other resource for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent here. We will update our website when it will be possible to invite you back to Saint Mary’s. Let us hope, it will be soon.

​Click here or on the image below for more details.

Leprosy was a death sentence but very prolonged in time and cruel. You had to died as an outcast, with your family and friends rejecting you. You were not only dying alive but alone. While leprosy was uncurable then it can be completely healed today.
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Jesus was not afraid however to approach the lepper. He even touched him what was unheard of. This is why Jesus asked the lepper not to tell anyone … Jesus would be afraid to approach Jesus. He wanted to avoid them panicking. It still happened. Some people kept away from Jesus because of this.
We should never let our fears separate us form Jesus. We also have an illness; we often don’t know about, that is eating us from inside. We are slowly dying. It is not a leprosy thou but our sin. It is not the death of our body but the lose of our soul. Jesus is however not afraid to heal us, whenever we come to him.