Text Box: PLEASE TAKE HOME A “RICE BOWL” from the vestibule of the church. We will collect this money on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010. This is a Lenten program of CRS, the official overseas relief & development agency working on behalf of the Catholic community in the USA. 75% of your gifts to Operation Rice Bowl come to CRS to fund development projects overseas and Lenten education efforts in the USA. Twenty-five percent of contributions support hunger & poverty alleviation efforts in dioceses in the USA. Collection on Ash Wednesday is for the St. Vincent de Paul Society to feed the hungry people in Oakland. We are also collecting imperishable food items. In the vestibule of our church, barrels for food are placed. “I was hungry and you gave me food.” PLEASE SHARE YOUR FOOD WITH HUNGRY PEOPLE. Lenten Soup Suppers on Saturdays at 6 pm Sign up sheet is in the folder in the vestibule of our church. You can bring soup, bread, or butter (one of these); or just come and enjoy the food and company. PLEASE let us know if you will be coming so we know how much food we need. Call Lily Mullen at (925)827-1946 or email me at lily.mullen@gmail.com LENT Lent is the time of prayer, fasting & almsgiving. In addition to this traditional trio we give you some other (10) suggestions: Stations of the Cross (every Friday after 8:00AM & 6.00PM Masses). Rosary (pray for peace around the world and in our families; vocations) etc.... Extra daily Holy Mass. 4. Lenten Lamentations (all Sundays of Lent at 5:00PM; (Sunday March 28 – 4:30PM); Sacred Scripture reading. 6. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (Friday’s 2:00 - 3:15PM & Saturdays 4:00 – 4:45PM) 7. Self-denial of special food, drinks, tobacco or TV programs. 8. Visit the sick or the homebound. Almsgiving to the poor. 10. Come always on time and stay till the end of the Holy Mass. Wait till the Last Blessing. Give to Almighty God the whole Mass. Maybe you have some better ideas? Try to do something extra for God, neighbor, and for yourself. Put these ideas into action!!!!!!! PARISH LENTEN RETREAT Today is the last day of Parish Lenten Retreat. All participants will receive a Special Blessing. Those of you, who attended daily for our Retreat, have Confession and prayed for intentions of our Holy Father are able to receive Plenary Indulgence. 4.00PM – Penitential Service with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament & Confession 5.00PM – Vigil Mass with Conference Text Box: 03/07/2010 - Sunday - Last of the Parish Retreat 8.30AM, 10.30AM & 12.30PM all Holy Masses with conferences. 5.00PM – Bitter Lamentations (Lenten Vespers) with Special Sermon 5.45PM – Holy Mass with Conference MAY GOD BLESS TO ALL PARTICIPANTS WHO IS OUR RETREAT MASTER? Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, (Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary) has been involved in spreading the message of Divine Mercy for over 50 years. A native of Adams, Massachusetts, more than 55 years a professed religious and 50 years a priest, Fr. Seraphim is a member of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Province. With licentiate degrees from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (The Angelicum) and the Pontifical Institute of Eastern Church Studies (The Orientale) in Rome, he lectured for several semesters in the Department of Theology at the Catholic University of America and served in seminary and formation positions for the Marians. He was Rector of the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy and Director of the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy, both located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. For more than 20 years he was Vice-Postulator for North America for the Canonization Cause of Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska, the "Secretary" and "Apostle" of Jesus (The Divine Mercy) and "...God's gift to our time" He was a witness to the first miracle attributed to Saint M. Faustina's intercession that opened the way for her Beatification in 1993, as well as the coordinator of the efforts that served to verify that miracle and a second one which made possible the adding of the Religious Sister to the list of Saints on April 30th 2000. Fr. Seraphim also held various administrative roles in his St. Stanislaus Kostka Province and in the Congregation's Generalate in Rome, as well as pastoral roles in Eastern Rite parishes in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. During the 1980s, after the Holy See lifted the ban on Sister Faustina's writings and forms of Divine Mercy devotions, Fr. Seraphim was called to head the Divine Mercy Department at the Marian Helpers headquarters in Stockbridge, MA. Fr. Seraphim served as theological advisor for the award-winning video docu-drama Divine Mercy - No Escape and for the devotional video Sister Faustina: The Promise of Mercy. He also played a significant role in the production and narration of a video released in 1992, Sister Faustina: The Apostle of Divine Mercy. Then, from November 1991 to October 1995, he served as director of the Association of Marian Helpers under the honorary title "Father Joseph." In this capacity, he supervised the scripting and production of another video, Time for Mercy — released in 1994 by the Marians in conjunction with Marian Communications Ltd., which won a First Place Gold Camera Award in international competition for outstanding creativity in the production of Audio Visual Communications. In October 1995, Fr. Seraphim was assigned to full time promotion of The Divine Mercy