This Sunday, we welcome our Bishop Gerald Barbarito to celebrate the 12:30 p.m. Mass, and to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to over 30 of our teens and one adult. They have been preparing for a long period of time, and are now ready to express their faith more profoundly and to practice and to offer their service to God’s people. We congratulate them on embarking upon this stage of their journey in life in order to show that they profess the belief made for them in Baptism!

This Sunday, we also welcome Steve Dudenhoefer, lay-missioner and founder of our Guatemalan mission in Ak’Tenamit, Guatemala. There, we are continuing to expand the Father Tom Moran Vocational High School serving 6,000 Mayan people in the rainforests of Northeastern Guatemala. Steve is again asking us to support the school where over 500 children from 100 villages are being educated. Since the average family income is less than $100 per month, this hands-on training of students will be the only way that they and their families and villages will be able to overcome poverty. That second collection will be taken up next weekend (March 28-29). Checks may be made payable either to the “Guatemalan Tomorrow Fund,” or to St. Vincent Ferrer Church, with the appropriate memo: “Guatemalan Mission.”

There’s a new Marriage Preparation program based on the Theology of the body that has been exciting to young couples preparing to live their marriage in a Christian covenant. Based on Pope John Paul II’s revolutionary new insights found in his Theology of the Body, “God’s Plan for a Joy-Filled Marriage” explores the “whys” behind the “whats” in a non-threatening and convincing manner. It has helped thousands of couples come to a more profound understanding of marriage. The weekend program will be conducted on Saturday, May 16th and Sunday, May 17th at Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center in North Palm Beach. “God’s Plan for a Joy-Filled Marriage “ is an interactive seminar that offers married and engaged couples a compelling vision of God’s glorious plan for marriage, love and human sexuality more than perhaps any other program available today. When people think of Christian teaching on sex and marriage, they often
think of a list of prohibitions. “God’s Plan for a Joy-Filled Marriage” offers a refreshing, liberating vision of marriage and marital love – one that helps couples fully embrace God’s glorious plan for their lives. For more information, contact Meaghan Hildebrandt at meg615@gmail.com or call at (561) 803-7692.

God bless all of our parishioners who participated in the recent 40 Hours Eucharistic Days. This was a “first” for our parish, celebrating Jesus’ Presence in the Blessed Sacrament on our altar as part of a diocesan-wide observance marking the 25th anniversary of our establishment. We hope to make this an annual Eucharistic occurrence in our parish. With Lent moving along so swiftly, Easter will soon be upon us. Our parish Lenten Penance Service will be on Thursday, April 2nd at 7:00 p.m. There will be several priests available to help us that evening, and I would like to encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to go to Confession in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation that evening.

Our Lenten Fish Frys are proving to be a very popular and successful joint endeavor on the part of our Knights of Columbus and our Teens from our Middle School “Edge” program. Each Friday evening, up to and including April 3rd, from 5 to 8 p.m., you’re invited to join us in a delightfully delicious dinner in our Parish Center for a most reasonable price. The dinner helps support the two sponsoring organizations.

The 4th annual Long-Sleeve Relief Drive, sponsored by the Florida Catholic, will run until Palm Sunday, April 5th. In consideration of these stressful economic times, we greatly appreciate all the personal commitments you will make in helping to feed and clothe our brothers and sisters in Christ. The demand on organizations to help the unfortunate victims of our economic circumstances is immense, so our school children will once again help in collecting these usable clothes with long sleeves that will help protect our migrant workers against the mosquitoes and other critters which prey upon them during their work. You may drop off your articles of long-sleeved clothing at the large box by the front door of the s c h o o l a t t h e b e g i n n i n g o f e a c h s c h o o l d a y m o r ning. God bless you!

Very Rev. Canon Tom