8
Gulf Pine Catholic
•
February 27, 2015
Serving the Community within the
Diocese of Biloxi with Dignity & Respect.
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Riemann Service
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Phone: 228-539-9800
There is a Difference...
Riemann Service
A Riemann Family Company
Phone: 228·539·9800
er i t
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iocese of il xi it i it
t.
Letter to the Bishop
From the Archbishop of Chicago
Dear Bishop Morin
,
It is with great gratitude that I write to acknowledge your
contribution of $18,283.50 from your
2014 Collection to Aid the
Church in Central and Eastern Europe
(CCEE). Through your
support, the Collection helps to provide a stable future for the Catholic
Church in this region, one long suffering spiritual repression and
economic hardship. CCEE grants specifically focus on repairing and
building Church structures, strengthening Catholic education and
social services, and developing Church leadership to ensure a solid
future for the Church. In 2014, the collection funded 290 grants
totaling $7.85 million benefiting the Catholic Church in 24 out of 28
countries it serves.
The 2015 Collection aims “to restore the Church and to build
the future” in ways that will eventually enable a strong Church in
this region -- one that is able to independently provide pastoral,
educational, charitable and formation resources and emerge from the
long shadow of strict communism. One way to accomplish this is by
funding projects that focus on caring for every human life.
Let us join together in prayer, asking that the Lord Jesus strengthen
our resolve to restore the church and build the future in Central and
Eastern Europe.
>
Blase J. Cupich
Archbishop of Chicago
P
ope
-A
shes
From page 1
The day’s first reading, Jl 2:12-18, described the Old Testament priests weeping
as they prayed that God would spare their people. “It would do us good to ask, do
I cry? Does the pope cry? Do the cardinals? The bishops? Consecrated people?
Priests? Do tears come when we pray?”
In the day’s Gospel reading (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18), Jesus warns his disciples three
times against showing off the good works they do “like the hypocrites do.”
“When we do something good, almost instinctively the desire is born in us to be
esteemed and admired for this good action, to get some satisfaction from it,” the
pope said. But Jesus “calls us to do these things without any ostentation and to trust
only in God’s reward.”
“Do you know something, brothers and sisters, hypocrites do not know how to
cry,” the pope said. “They have forgotten how to cry. They don’t ask for the gift of
tears.”
The Lenten call to conversion, he said, means returning “to the arms of God, the
tender and merciful father, to cry in that embrace, to trust him and entrust oneself
to him.”
During the 40 days of Lent, he said, Christians should make a greater effort to
draw closer to Christ, which is why the church recommends the tools of prayer,
fasting and almsgiving.
But, he said, “conversion is not just a human work. Reconciliation between us
and God is possible thanks to the mercy of the Father who, out of love for us, did
not hesitate to sacrifice his only-begotten son.”
In the reading from Joel, the prophet calls people to “interior conversion,” the
pope said, a conversion that requires a return to God “with your whole heart.”
“Please,” the pope said. “Let’s stop. Let’s pause a while and allow ourselves to
be reconciled with God.”
Lent, he said, is time “to begin the journey of a conversion that is not superficial
and transitory, but a spiritual itinerary” that goes straight to a person’s heart, the
focal point “of our sentiments, the center in which our choices and attitudes
mature.”
What is more, he said, the reading makes clear that the call is addressed to the
whole community, which is to “proclaim a fast, call an assembly; gather the people,
notify the congregation; assemble the elders, gather the children.”
Pope Francis prayed that Mary would accompany Christians in their “spiritual
battle against sin” and would accompany them in their Lenten journey so they could
exult with her at Easter.
PRAY
FAST
GIVE
PRAY
FAST
GIVE
PRAY
FAST
GIVE
