Lent begins with Ash Wednesday Masses and the Blessing and Distribution of Ashes this week, Wednesday. It is a day of fast and abstinence: meaning we eat light meals, for adults, no snacking….the money we save on cost of food should be used to help those who are hungry be able to eat to live: Operation Rice Bowl, Food for the Poor, Coalition for the Homeless. We also abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday as a penitential practice.

Ash Wednesday Masses:February 22nd:

7:00a.m. in the Cathedral Church
9:00a.m. Parish and School Mass
12:10noon Mass in the Cathedral Church
5:30p.m. Bishop’s Mass in the Cathedral Church
7:30p.m. Mass in the Cathedral Church

Come prepared to be generous for the collection to be taken at each Ash Wednesday Mass for the Amarillo Coalition of Homeless.

This weekend your MAGNIFICAT LENTEN PRAYER BOOKS are available for you. Take one please…they are a gift provided for you to use this Lenten season in order to enrich your prayer life and spirituality.

The yearly Lenten tokens are also available for you if you want one. They are in the Church gathering area: John 3:16 tokens.

Friday evenings of Lent at 7:00 p.m. we will have Stations of the Cross.

RENEW..YEAR 2.. THE PROFESSION OF FAITH…WHAT WE BELIEVE…BEGINS THIS THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 23RD….AT 7:00 P.M. IN THE GYM. Because of 5 Ash Wednesday Masses, we will meet on Thursday this coming week and only this coming week. Then we shift to Wednesday evening for the rest of the Lenten season. Come join us. RENEW: THE CREED.

First Holy Communion for the parish and school children is now completed for this year…congratulations to the families and the boys and girls who received First Eucharist:

Kylie Danae Alfaro Danielle Arias Dakota Canida
Katelynn Caramanica Cory Connelly Ronald Connelly
Tristin Crowley Ava Darnell Arielle Del Rosario
Patelynn Gross Trienan Haiduk Kelton Harbison
Seth Henderson Anthony Hernandez Mariah Hills
Jaiden Hinojosa Kaylea Jaramillo Eleanor Larson
Lechuga Xavier KarissaMassey Alex Mendez
Marjorie Mendoza Max Miller Analynn Paraliticci
Abigail Perez Jacob Perez Ismael Remirez
Rhett Ramirez Caleb Rivera Alessandra Rodriguez
Brylee Rooks Brylea Schmidt Ethan Silva
Alex Silva Mackenzie Torres Alex Valdez
Isaac Velasquez Elizabeth Wallace Rachel Wilcox
Thank you for your help and your support of St. Mary’s School Mardi Gras fund raiser this weekend.Your generous and faithful support of our school makes it the successful school that it is. Thank you.
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Catholic Schools Week has passed and it was a busy, full and enriching week of varied activities from the Science Fair and the fourth and fifth grade science projects…..quite elevated and well done. The Family Nite Dance with 200 “squirrels” and parents jigging and chicken dancing along with the Macarena….hmmmmm. Catholic School Mass many activities in and out of the classes. It was a good week and it enriched all of us with the energy and enthusiasm that only boys and girls can bring to a parish. Well Done!

Diocesan Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation for Adults…Adults>>> who missed receiving the sacrament along the way. You are to pre-register with our parish office. The forms are in the parish office. I will provide some catechesis for those in need. What you need to think about is:

1. You must be a registered, attending member of St. Mary’s.

2. If you are married…it is a valid marriage, you can receive communion.

3. Preparation will be given here at St.Mary’s

4. The bishop gives a retreat on March 31st at the DeFalco Center.

5. Confirmation is April 14th at St.Laurence Church.

Renew is coming up in Lent….make sure you are signed up..it is a wonderful way to do something extra for Lent and enrich your understanding of The Church. The study this season covers The Articles of Our Faith…what we believe and why we believe what we do. Make sure you sign up. We meet on Wednesday evening and we meet for one hour with me.

The St. Mary’s School Sisters and Teachers have their one a year fundraiser…the Mardi Gras Carnival coming up on Saturday, February 18th. Tickets will get you a good substantial meal of brisket and sides. An evening with dancing if that is our pleasure, game tables: dice, cards, wheels, if that is your liking,fellowship…an opportunity to bid on school classroom projects and above all…we help raise funds for our wonderful school. $25 per ticket…tickets are on sale after Masses in the church.

RE-ACTS #1. Saturday,February 11th…here at St. Mary’s, a day to remember and re-kindle the fire of ADORATION, COMMUNITY, THEOLOGY, SERVICE as we hear talks given at retreats from men, women and teens…all together…and I lead you through process in small groups and what the purpose of the retreat was all about. More than 300 have registered. We will have a full house which is wonderful.

Immaculee…tickets are on sale and this will be a stellar evening of reflection for us here in Amarillo. See the parish website for tickets.

I am always most appreciative of your generous and faith filled support and you surprised me last weekend with the spontaneous support given to my homily for Respect Life Sunday. It is a tough subject and many Catholics are not tolerant of hearing the “downside” of bad news. I truly commend you, my dear parish family. I have said in public before….there is nothing I have ever put before you that you are not willing to take a look at and step into. You are a most admirable people and parish. To follow up on last week: This comes from the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops” USCCB news releases: The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States called “literally unconscionable” a decision by the Obama Administration to continue to demand that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception must be included in virtually all health care plans. Archbishop Cardinal-designate, Timothy Dolan,of New York wrote: “In effect we are being told that we have one year to figure out how to violate our conscience.” To force American Catholic citizens to choose between violating their conscience or forgo their healthcare is unthinkable. That is as much an attack on access to health care as it is on religious freedom. Go to your internet access to USCCB news releases and read for yourselves, please…..most interesting….as well as problematic.

St. Mary’s Catholic School Teachers have their yearly fundraiser, Mardi Gras, on Saturday evening, February 18th in the parish activity center. This fundraiser started out when I first came to St. Mary’s as the seed for central airconditioning and heating for the school…..which the parish stepped into almost immediately with a cost of $ 900,000. The fundraiser now helps to build a stronger curriculum, technology, building the curriculum, providing tools and enriching staff development. The parish gives $ 14,500 each month to the school as direct subsidy plus over and above that, continuous funds for updating, remodeling and all the other costs in maintaining buildings. A school is a high dollar item….but I believe it is well worth it in the children we turnout to middle and high school are well developed and well prepared for what lies ahead. Our school also helps to keep St. Mary’s a younger, growing,stable parish….not a downtown old lady of a parish. I ask your help….can you and will you buy a ticket? There will be a very good meal, game tables, dance and music, good company, fellowship….auction of the children’s classroom projects. Will you help?

Re-Acts…it looks as if we are at maximum 300 people registered for Saturday, February 11th as we write a new chapter in the life of ACTS… and a rekindling of the fire and energy of our first retreat. Thanks for the wonderful response and…you will not regret this wonderful day.

Immaculee…tickets are being sold…sponsors are stepping up….get on board…this Lenten opportunity is not to be missed.

On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court of The United States of America handed down its decision on Roe vs Wade regarding abortion, which, by severely restricting state’s rights to regulate abortion had the effect of making abortion legal. That court decision sparked a national debate that is no less difficult and strident today than it was thirty-nine years ago.

Of the many issues that court decision raised, one that is still contested is the question of what role religious and moral views should play in the political arena. Dealing with that question and its answer has become almost as divisive as the question of abortion.

On Saturday, January 21st, Bishop Zurek gathered priests and faithful laity at our Cathedral Church for a Eucharist: Thanksgiving for the Gift of Human Life and a walk to the former Planned Parenthood facility on 15th and Taylor. Our parish celebration of the same memorial will be Monday morning, January 23rd, at 7:00 a.m. Life and choosing it rather than the culture of death is not an option….it is a necessity. We must always be prayerful and hopeful about changing society and do what must be done by living our faith and being confident that our Catholic faith and our Catholic moral values towards human life and the human person can and will change human behaviors.

We Catholics are asked to do what we can to acknowledge the gross violation of human dignity that legal abortions uphold. Some of us will pray, some of us will fast, others will do public and private penance….some will do all of the above. What is life worth to us?

First Holy Communion interviews with the children in faith formation ended this week with our children being interviewed and tested in a twenty minute interview with ten catechists and myself. It is always a most rewarding experience to see the children blossom, grow and understand. Now we move to the individual communion celebrations at weekend Masses and a final group communion of all the children together before Lent. Thank you to all the catechists who helped and gave their ministry and time for this event….they too were enriched. Our way of bringing the children to First Penance and First Eucharist is different….but most rewarding.

Immaculee tickets are on sale at the parish office and through the parish website also…You have read my writings about Immaculee and our Lenten evening at the Amarillo Civic Center Auditorium….be sure to set that evening aside for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear and meet Immaculee.

Renew begins in Lent again with me and WHY CATHOLIC….this year we are doing…What We Believe….THE CREED. Be sure you signed up and are ready to go.

IMMACULEE ILLIBAGIZA IS COMING THIS LENTEN SEASON Friday, March 9th to Amarillo as St. Mary’s Cathedral Lenten evening of reflection and retreat. I hope you will not miss her and her story of reconciliation….seldom in my life have I heard a personal witness and testimony like she delivers.

Immaculee is a survivor of Rwanda, Africa’s 1994 tribal warfare and genocide. Immaculee attributes her survival having hidden 91 days in a three foot by four foot bathroom as tribal warriors of the Hutus went on a killing rampage. Immaculee attributes her survival to prayer and a strand of rosary beads her Catholic father gave her prior of going into hiding. Her faith in God and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the name and title of Our Lady of Kibeho, is being told now….and part of that story is how the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Rwanda and warned of the imminent danger unless there was conversion. That story is told in a small book: “If Only We Had Listened.”

There are not that many opportunities in Amarillo to hear such a dramatic faith filled story of Immaculee’s own conversion on the path of forgiveness after most of her family members were slaughtered. She will teach us all.

Immaculee at the Amarillo Civic Center Auditorium…tickets on sale at the parish as well as on the parish web site. $25.00 is the cost of one ticket and the proceeds of the event go NOT TO THE CATHEDRAL but to women’s charities in the city….this will be our Lenten gift to charities like: Martha’s Home, Downtown Women’s Center, Eveline River’s Sunshine Cottage, Amarillo Agency for Women, and Family Support Services.

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RE-ACTS…A REKINDLING THE FIRE OF THE SPIRIT OF AN ACTS RETREAT AT ST. MARY’S CATHEDRAL ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11th ALL DAY.

FINAL TOUCHES ARE BEING PUT ON THE PLANS FOR THE DAY…SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION AT TABLES: MEN WITH MEN, WOMEN WITH WOMEN, AND TEENS WITH TEENS. YOU WILL HEAR A TALK FROM A MEN’S RETREAT, A TALK FROM A WOMEN’S RETREAT….AND PERSONAL TESTIMONY FROM TEENS.

THERE WILL BE FOOD,,,,ADORATION, WORSHIP AND PRAISE AND MASS. SIGNUP….THERE WILL BE SPOTS FOR ONLY 300 AND WE ARE AT OVER 100 APPLICATIONS ALREADY. DO NOT MISS THIS NEW PIECE OF ACTS. $5.00 COST FOR THE TOTAL DAY’S ACTIVITIES.

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First Holy Communion interviews begin this week on Tuesday the 17th for all the children who have been prepared during this school year of catechesis….and then First Holy Communion begins next weekend for the rest of the month before Lent….so the children are going to communion regularly during the rest of the school year before school is out for summer.

The Home Study Class for Catholicism on the internet had the wrong access listing….again it is www.amm.org/chss/chss.asp. People called and could not access the site….it was because it was not printed correctly. Try again.

January 21st, here at St. Mary’s Cathedral, we mark the Roe versus Wade Supreme Court decision with Mass on Saturday, January 21st at 10:00 a.m. presided over by Bishop Zurek and priests of the diocese as con-celebrants followed Rosary and walk to the former Planned Parenthood Facility.

You have probably seen in the parish bulletin and in other announcements that St. Mary’s Cathedral Lenten Retreat this year on Friday, March 9th at 7:00 p.m. will be an evening of reflection and a guest speaker: Immaculee Ilibagiza, a 1994 survivor of tribal warfare in Rwanda, Africa. Immaculee’s journal of survival, recovery and reconciliation is most awesome and a most appropriate Lenten reflection. One million men, women and children died in the open slaughter of tribal warfare. Immaculee herself and seven other women survived and escaped by hiding for 91 days in a small cubbyhole bathroom and went undetected by the soldiers and warriors. How Immaculee built a new life and has come to reconciliation is most noteworthy. Be sure to take advantage of this time. Tickets can be purchased through the parish website….there is an account being set up this week for paypal accounts. The cost of tickets is $25.00 per ticket. The evening event will be at the Amarillo Civic Center Auditorium. I hope you will want to be a part of this. All profit and proceeds from this event will be given to women’s charities in the city….Amarillo Agency for Women….Downtown Women’s Center….Eveline River’s Sunshine Cottage….Martha’s Home….and Family Support Services.

RE-ACTS….An opportunity to re-kindle the ACTS Retreat experience coming to the Diocese of Amarillo and to be held at St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish….on Saturday, February 11, 2012. Men, Women, and Teens who have been on a retreat are invited and applications are available and being taken. There’s a five dollar…$5.00 fee that will cover the cost of lunch. That is it. You sit at table groupings that appropriate men with men, women with women, and teens with teens. You will hear a talk chosen from all the men’s talks that have been given over the years. You will hear a women’s talk given from all the talks over the years. You will hear a male and a female teen’s talk and personal testimony….then experience the dynamics of the teens retreat. There will be worship and praise and Adoration and closing Mass at 5:30 p.m. One hundred applications have already been received and we will take only the first 300….so sign up soon….or you may not get in.

My heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the parish and parish family members for your many Christmas cards….Christmas gifts….and presents. You are a most generous and kind parish family. I sincerely thank each one of you and all of you…and most especially for your prayers, support and love.

The NEW ADULT FAITH FORMATION CLASS…..on CATHOLICISM….led by Josh Raef begins this weekend. This Catholicism class is presented by Father Robert Barron of Mundelein Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. Thank you, Josh, for taking responsibility for leading this group study on Sunday mornings.

A New LECTIO DIVINA study for men is available: MEN-ALIVE IN CHRIST. It sounds very interesting and I would like a core group of men to work with me and take a serious look at it….Think about it.

I also came across CATHOLIC HOME STUDY SERVICE…sponsored by the Vincentian priests…a free correspondence course on the Catholic faith. No cost, no formal class attendance….done at home by computer. Nine available courses: www.amm.org/chss’chss.asp. This class of cores is highly recommended by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Cardinal Archbishop emeritus Justin Rigali of Philadelphia. Take a look!

This Thanksgiving and Christmas charity chosen for a special tithe and gift at the end of the fiscal year was Catholic Family Service and a gift from the parish of $ 6,800. The parish regularly donates to the many downtown charities that help the needy….this year, as Catholic Family Service starts up with new leadership under the direction of Nancy Koons, I felt it was appropriate to look to this agency to bless with our parish gift.

How would our parish of St. Mary’s change….or how would any parish change if its men prayed regularly together?….if our men understood their faith?….or if the men regularly led their family in spiritual activities?

Men in the United States have buddies but not necessarily many close friends. We men tend to be loners and remain isolated. Men are natural philosophers who need to talk to other men about the most important things in life. Strong male friendship needs to be revived if Catholic men and their children are to get on with the holy and ambitious task in this new millennium to build up the civilization of love and truth in the 21st century.

Many parishes have men who want more out of their relationship with God but they often times do not know that other like minded men even exist. One of the bigger surprises in Catholic Churches today is that there are spirituality components specifically for men. In St. Mary’s Cathedral Church there are men’s groups such as:That Man Is You, Men’s ACTS Retreat small groups, Renew, Knights ofColumbus, the new exploring Catholicism class and what I hear is the beginning interest in Lectio Divina. I would hope that this interest in a men’s group for Lectio Divina would take a look at MAN ALIVE IN CHRIST….a new format for lectio divina that focuses on small groups of men praying and focusing on the texts of Sacred Scripture.

“The catechesis of adults is the principal form of catechesis because it is addressed to persons who have the greatest responsibilities and the capacity to live the Christian message in its fully developed form.” The Catechism of The Catholic Church.

The Man Alive In Christ programs provide catechesis in a male-only setting where friendships can develop. The Man Alive vision is that men become wise and loving husbands,fathers, friends and workers through knowledge and daily application of the Catholic faith. This vision becomes realized through discussion based catechesis in a structured but flexible small group format. I think it might be looked at seriously.

Msgr.HW

January 3rd the picture taking for the new parish picture directory begins.

January 1st, Blessingof new Stephen Minister candidates as they begin their formation of 50 hours of training and learning.

Christmas 2011

In a time of widespread disenchantment…is there any hope? Is it possible to re-kindle the fire of enthusiasm and hope? Christmas is a good time to ask the question. To appreciate Christmas we need to reflect upon the world in which the first Christmas happened. Despite appearances, that world was in many ways similar to our own. Peace was a word and little more than a dream. Nations were rivals and enemies, not neighbors, Rulers, with few exceptions were opportunists, not leaders. In a world of great suffering, poverty was nearly universal and hunger was a constant reality. Disease and famine took huge tolls and kept life expectancy extremely low. The elderly were revered, in part for the fact that there were so few of them. People who lived in such darkness looked for any light. The star of Bethlehem was a sign that an even greater light had come.The journey of the wise men….the Magi, underscores the significance of this light for the whole world. There were angelic hosts because this birth was a singular bridging of the heavenly realm and the worldly realm because the world had grown deaf to celestial music and blind to signs and wonders. There were shepherds, a stall for animals, and a manger because no place is too lowly for God to make holy. There were peasant parents because most people were peasants.

Our own remembering and reliving of the story stirs up our own personal memories as well as the memories we share with the faithful of the ages. It always reminds us of the power of God’s love and of the difference it makes when we receive it in gratitude and joy.The spiritual life is a life in which wait, actively present to the moment,trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination, fantasy or prediction .

The cultural transformation of Christmas continues. We cannot stop it, nor should we want to try. We can be true to our understanding of Christmas and bear authentic witness to The Incarnation and the birth of Jesus Christ. That more people than ever celebrate some kind of Christmas represents an opportunity for the Church and for us as Catholics to practice our faith….show people who we are by how we live and act…..give personal witness and testimony to our religion….it all gives us an opportunity to have an influence. A Blessed and Merry Christmas to you, my dear parish family. Msgr.HW

The end of year has been considerable and generous for which I am always grateful….so much so that the Parish Finance Council has recommended and I support the advance payment down on the parish loan for the new church of an extra $ 200,000. Thankyou.

Iam most grateful for the small army of volunteers and helpers with the Christmas decorations, the Nativity Creches and the Great Tree in the church,plus the flowers. It is all very beautiful.

I was surprised as a child to learn that Christmas was not celebrated in the same way by everyone. Our next door neighbors in Wisconsin were Orthodox Jews and so Hannukah was celebrated, not Christmas. I remember asking my mother why Herbie Lepp had no Christmas tree….and we did….my mother simply said because they were Jewish…at the time that made no sense to me and somehow a menorah was not a good substitute for a Christmas tree. There were also Russian Orthodox Catholics who celebrated Father Christmas and January 6th, Epiphany was celebrated more than December 25th….which was good, but as a child to have to wait until the 6th of January when all the world…in my mind…was fixed on December 25th made no sense to me. As a newly ordained priest, Bishop sent me to Our Lady of Grace in Lubbock for my first assignment where I first encountered the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Las Mananitas….and I fell in love with another concept of the Blessed Virgin Mary other than the one I grew up with as a child: Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The Virgin’s celebration on December 12th has remained now the beginning of the Christmas season for me accompanied by hot chocolate and tamales and pan dulce and the beginning of Posadas and Pastorelas. I learned different people celebrate Christmas in different ways, and I learned to stretch and grow.

If Santa Claus personifies one approach to Christmas, Scrooge personifies its exact opposite…..fortunately his is a story of eventual redemption. This is not always the case, however with what is done with the rest of Christmas.

We hear this weekend in Luke’s Gospel Chapter 1 verses 26-38…THE ESSENCE OFCHRISTMAS….the angel Gabriel appears to Mary of Nazareth and the word“Yes.”

The moment of Gabriel’s “annunciation” was not an occasion for doctrine,theology or belief. The issue was whether Mary, who obviously believed in God and was an observant Jewess, would trust God enough to say. “YES.”Mary’s answer would change her life forever, but her faith response was a simple submission to the will of God. “Behold, I am the handmaid of theLord; let it be done to me according to your word.” The essence of faith,however daunting, is simple, childlike trust in the will of God. We come to the last week of Advent and our time of preparing….use the time we have well and invest that time in those who are most important to you. Time is the one thing you have…how you choose to use it is another thing. We really do not get second go-arounds with our children. Teach them well by showing them what Christmas is all about. Christmas without Christ makes no sense at all.

Well, the First Sunday of Advent came and went and we experienced the New Roman Missal and it was well done by all of you. Yes…we had some slips back into old language. I did it myself standing next to the Bishop at the 9:15 a.m. Mass as a con-celebrant. The Bishop said at the Preface: “The Lord Be With You.” And I said: “And also with you.” Oops….We survived. For the next weeks and months we will all have to work at our worship and the texts….but if you listen to the words…..the clarity of the thought and the prayerfulness of the texts is wonderful.

The School and Parish Halloween Carnival is reporting a profit for the Parish School of St. Mary’s of $87,000 to $89,000. Thank you for your wonderful and generous support of the parish school and “squirrels.” With a pay out of prizes in cash and things purchased and food supplies bought with a pay out of $41,000….we did very well indeed. Thank you again.

St. Mary’s Parish School Christmas Concert and Musicale…if you have never been to our school Christmas Program….trust me….you have missed a truly wonderful evening of about an hour’s time in length. The boys and girls performing have worked on the songs, music and dance routines since September….you will be amazed. Tuesday evening, December 6th at 6:30 p.m. in the parish gym. Please come and see and enjoy. It is wonderful.

The Holy Day of The Immaculate Conception of Mary…..and Mass schedule:

Wednesday, December 7th at 9:00 a.m. the anticipated Mass for school and parish

Thursday, December 8th Masses: 7:00 a.m.; 12:10 noon; and 5:30 p.m.

Renew began again this past Wednesday evening and will continue through the Wednesday evenings of Advent in the gym…7:00 p.m. Come join us.

Next weekend the CARA in-pew study of the parish as we take five minutes to work on and complete the in-pew at Mass self-study for the National Center of Applied Research.

The Special Collection for the month of December is for the retired men and women religious of the Catholic Church in the United States. The Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ will be speaking at Masses the weekend of the 4th and 5th of December…if…you can make an offering to this collection in behalf of the retired religious….it would be much appreciated.

SACRAMENT OF PENANCE, CONFESSION, RECONCILIATION BEFORE CHRISTMAS:

Monday, December 19th…7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday, December 20th…7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Thursday, December 22nd..7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Friday, December 23rd…..7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Quiet evenings of Penance before Christmas in the Daily Mass and Adoration Chapel before Christmas….now plan ahead.