Lent is a time of prayer and penance, when Christ wants to lead us back to our baptismal promises of dying to sin and of living for God. We prepare ourselves to enter once again into Jesus’ Paschal mystery and to renew it in our lives.
Click on the below for full article https://www.catholicyyc.ca/lent.html

Please open the link below for the Pastoral Letter of Bishop McGrattan to the Faithful on the Program of Spiritual Renewal in the Diocese of Calgary https://www.catholicyyc.ca/

Speak out against expanding the criteria for euthanasia & assisted suicide.

Bishop McGrattan asks the faithful to write their MPs today to let them know that we do not support the proposed expansion of the criteria for euthanasia or MAiD.  Click on the link below for full message

https://www.cccrs.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Moses proclaims in the first reading that God is asking us to be holy as God is holy, and that we are never justified in sin if or when our brothers and sisters behave badly. This is easy to say and hard to live. When Jesus says we are not to offer resistance to evil people, He isn’t telling us to become doormats. He is asking us not to return evil with evil, but to respond with the loving actions of prayer, extending love and generosity to enemies, and to offer kindness in all situations, even while we recognize and work against evil taking root in ourselves and the world. Peacemaking is not passive or easy, but it is our calling to witness how God works.

Prayer of the Faithful: For peaceful and loving responses to evil in our world, we pray to the Lord. Holy God, help us to follow you in responding to evil with perfect love. May our witness effectively build your Kingdom of mercy and love. Amen.

Reflection: CCCB
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Taken from the Facebook page of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

The first reading from Sirach has such a compelling and strange reminder: before us are life and death, good and evil, whichever we choose will be given to us. It’s strange, isn’t it, to think that when offered these choices anyone would freely choose evil and death? But we do, and the Gospel reading tells us why, albeit in a strange way if we read it literally! When Jesus says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away,” He isn’t suggesting literal mutilation of the parts of our bodies or souls that give into temptation. He is reminding us that sin takes root in our habits and attitudes, and often death and evil come to feel more comfortable than life and goodness. We become blind to what is good when sin gets familiar and we cling to the things that hurt us. How often do we regret a vindictive or angry word but seem unable to choose silence or kindness? Yet what we choose is in fact what we get. When we find this happening to us and we are given the grace to see where we have been choosing death, we get to choose again. Get to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, see a counsellor, apologize to those you’ve hurt, and do the work that will support God’s rooting out your attachment to sin. Choose life!

Prayer: For the courage to choose life when it means letting go of our attachment to sin and death, we pray to the Lord.

Baptised Jesus, you whisper over each of us the words your Father spoke over you: “This is my Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” May we be people who hear you speaking this over us, who believe it, and who proclaim it over all your people wherever we find them. Amen

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Taken from the Facebook page of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary