As with my Holy Land trip, you will certainly be hearing about my retreat experience in the weeks and in the months to come. Be assured that all of you, and those you love, were remembered in a special way in my Masses and prayers in the holy places we were privileged to visit. 

We congratulate and heartily welcome into the family of faith the folks who were baptized and fully received into the Church at the Easter Vigil. We are blessed as a parish family to now have eight new Catholics in our midst!

I thank all of you, our dedicated and faithful parishioners, for being with us on this Easter Sunday and throughout the Sacred Triduum, and for all you do for our great parishes throughout the year. In the end, it is your fidelity to and love for Saint Timothy’s and Saint Bartholomew’s that really makes us great. I am grateful.

The days of Holy Week, and in particular the Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday evening, Good Friday, Holy Saturday night/Easter Sunday) invite us to celebrate this Paschal Mystery more intensely, uniting our hearts with Jesus as we recall the great events which gave us new life.

On this Thursday, March 30th at 7:00 P.M. in Saint Timothy’s lower church, we will be celebrating our annual parish Lenten Penance Service. This is a great opportunity for us to gather as a parish family, to acknowledge our need for God’s mercy, and to confess our sins individually and receive absolution.

I think it is especially significant that we are honoring Saint Joseph and asking his intercession while our world continues to be torn apart, especially by the terrible conflict in Ukraine, and in so many other corners of our world, and our nation. We are desperately in need of God’s help, and Saint Joseph, the great intercessor, will certainly hear our prayers and plead with God on our behalf.

As people of faith, however, we must never forget that we are rooted in the light, and that the light is within us and all through us. This light, of course, is the light of Jesus, Himself. We refer to Jesus as the “Light of the World” because we believe His light is the source of all light in the world.

Archbishop Perez has designated the weekend of March 10-11 as Reconciliation Weekend in the Archdiocese. Certain parishes throughout the five county Archdiocese will be offering the Sacrament of Penance, and the priests of each region (or deanery) will be going to those churches to hear confessions.

I now ask you to please prayerfully consider making a sacrificial gift to this year’s Appeal, for this very important campaign of the Archdiocese, which directly helps our ministries to those who are most poor and vulnerable.

Catholic Schools Week also provides us a chance to give thanks to God for our own Blessed Trinity Catholic School. Mrs. Maureen Pfeiffer, our Principal, and our dedicated faculty and staff, provide a wonderful environment of Christian learning for our children.

Pope Francis has declared today, which is the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, to be the Sunday of the Word of God, in order to promote a closer relationship with Holy Scripture and its dissemination in the world.

Pope Benedict, like all of the popes of the last hundred or so years, will surely go down in history as one of the great popes of the Church. I believe very much that each of the popes of the past century has been just the right choice for the time in which he served. Benedict’s great gift was the fact that he was a preeminent theologian and teacher, and through his phenomenal writings he led many to the truth of Christ and to the richness of the scriptures and our Catholic faith.

I think it is important for us to remember that our celebration of Christmas has just begun. We ended the season of Advent and began the season of Christmas at nightfall on Christmas Eve, and our celebration this year will extend all the way to January 9th, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

In these final hours of Advent, amidst all of the final card writing, gift buying and wrapping, decorating, cooking, baking, and the hundreds of other tasks that we are about, let us not forget to prepare for the great feast of light by preparing room in our hearts for the newborn Jesus.

Next Sunday, December 18th, at 7:00 P.M., we will be celebrating the ceremony of Lessons and Carols in Saint Timothy’s upper church. This beautiful liturgy, which will feature our music ministry, is a wonderful way for us to celebrate the Advent and upcoming Christmas seasons, by listening to the Scriptures and other sacred readings of the seasons and singing carols.

I remind you that the annual Saint Charles Seminary Appeal is taking place at this time. You should have received a direct mailing from the seminary for the appeal, and may use the envelope enclosed in your mailing to send your contribution directly to the seminary, which is the preferred method.

Available to you at the church entrances are the Little Blue Books for the Advent and Christmas seasons, which contain a short thought for each day of the season. Please take a book home with you, and feel free to take one for a shut-in or neighbor who cannot come to church.

Next weekend we do indeed begin the holy season of Advent. You will find within this bulletin an Advent schedule for our parishes. I would suggest that you put this schedule on your refrigerator or bulletin board so that you can participate in our liturgical celebrations and activities during this relatively short season.

By now you should have received the mailing for our annual census/block collection (if you have not received it, please call the rectory and let us know). Please remember that the census information is very important in order for us to update our records and to keep our data accurate. The block collection is equally important for us, since it is one of the single largest sources of income we receive in the course of the year.

Next Sunday, November 13, at the 9:15 Mass, our Confirmation candidates will officially begin their journey to this great sacrament with the Rite of Acceptance as candidates for Confirmation.