Dear friends,

At the 9am Mass this Sunday, we welcome Damien Everitt, Matthew Hasking and Tom Zaranski to our parish. Damien, Matthew and Tom are in their final stages of seminary formation and are preparing for ordination to the diaconate towards the end of the year. They will come to the 9am Mass throughout much of the year, and will be a presence in the community and also participate in various ministries. This is an important phase of their formation and St. Agatha’s will provide them with a solid pastoral and practical dimension in their on-going discernment and reflection. I am sure that you will make them welcome throughout the year and will support them with your words of encouragement and prayer. You will enjoy getting to know them, and this community will benefit from their gifts.

Also this Sunday, we look toward the Lenten season which begins this Wednesday. As part of our annual Lenten discipline, we are encouraged to participate in almsgiving through Project Compassion. Envelopes and money boxes are available to collect this weekend. Please take one home as a sign of our desire to develop a generous heart during this Lent by giving expression to the “greatest commandment of the law”, the love of God and the love of our neighbour. This Lent, after the ash is washed away and we move through this journey to Easter, let us hold in our prayers the oppressed, the hungry, the broken hearted, the captive, the prisoner. In a time “when the divide between the mega-rich and the forgotten poor is ever widening”, may we bring the good news to those most deeply affected by the inequities in our world. Let us take home a Project Compassion box or envelope set and give generously to our neighbours who are amongst the poorest and most vulnerable people in our world.

Fr. Anthony