Celebrating “St. Catherine of Siena” after 50 Years! St. Catherine of Siena was born during the outbreak of the plague in Siena, Italy on March 25, 1347. She was the 25th child born to her mother, although half of her brothers and sisters did not survive childhood. Catherine herself was a twin, but her sister did not survive infancy. Her mother was 40 when she was born. Her father was a cloth dyer.

This year, St Catherine of Siena Parish celebrates 50 years of praise and worship of God, ministries and community building. The successes of the past 50 years falls squarely on the faith-filled shoulders of many women, men and children. Families and friends who saw a need, rallied together and found a solution for the common good.

I wish to express my sincere thanks and gratitude for the participation of our parishioners in the Sacred Triduum—Holy Thursday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Good Friday’s Passion of the Lord and our beautiful Seven Last Words, and the Great Easter Vigil—the active participation, the music and the liturgies were beautiful. I thank you all for making our parish experience alive, well and joyful.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, At the Last Supper which we commemorated on Holy Thursday, Jesus took bread and wine and instituted the Eucharist, instructing the Apostles to “Do This in Memory of Me.” (1 Cor. 11:24) When we come together for the celebration of Mass, we not only experience our unity as living members of the Body of Christ, but we also receive Him — body and blood, soul and divinity — in the Holy Eucharist. This is so, precisely because He is not to be found among the dead, but among the living, and that is our Easter joy.

What does Easter mean for you? Easter is supposed to mean unending joy, forgiveness and mercy, love and hope, and the gift of Eternal Life, among many other faith-inspired purposes. While we are Easter people and celebrate Easter—the Resurrection of Christ—all the time, technically the Easter Season is between the Great Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday night until the celebration of Pentecost, which this year falls on Sunday, May 19.

This Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday, when the Church proclaims the triumphant entrance of Jesus of Nazareth into Jerusalem. Jesus rides a donkey and had fresh palm branches placed upon his entrance path yet in just a few short days, the triumphant entrance and praise will turn to horror and shouts of “crucify him, crucify him!”

As we prepare to enter into Holy Week, the most Sacred time in our liturgical year, we shall celebrate God’s Love for us and His desire to suffer, die and be raised from the dead so that we—all of us—might live for ever. This weekend we celebrate Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered triumphantly into Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, the elders and the people turned on Him; they scourged and mocked Him, nailed Him to the Cross and then once dead, buried Him. However, God had a plan. His Plan!

It was an honor to bring our team of 22 teens and chaperones from both parishes on our 2024 Boston Mission trip this past weekend! I cannot begin to explain how proud I am of each of these teens. They demonstrated compassion for the poor and homeless, and witnessed living conditions that I am sure they have never seen or imagined. They listened to many stories of people who have fallen on hard times, who have often had their dignity stripped from them. The story of a rare-book seller whose sales slowed and he eventually lost his business and everything

Wednesday, March 13 at 7 pm Fulfill your Easter Duty and join us for the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesday night, March 13 at 7 pm. Three priests will be present to hear confessions and grant God’s Absolution— Monsignor Frank Matera and Fr. Matthew Gworek, pastor of St. Patrick in Farmington and St. Mary Star of the Sea in Unionville, will join Fr. Michael. Be Forgiven, Be Refreshed and Be Prepared for the Easter Season, celebrating God’s love and desire for you to be His friend.

The above tagline, taken from the Gospel of Luke (11:31), is the brand message of Catholic education. What is the something greater here? It is faith, it is Christ and it is you. Catholic education is not just about cursive writing or erasers and blackboards—it is so much more. Catholic education is about forming the whole child, it is about knowing who the child is, who the child is called to be, and going full force to seek the excellence of the child.

We are in the kick-off season of the 2024 Archbishop’s Annual Appeal (AAA), the largest ministerial campaign for the Archdiocese of Hartford (AOH), which funds the good works of the local Church of Hartford. What are the Church’s good works? Simple, they are the works of the body of Christ—you and me—that imitates the daily activities of feeding the hungry, healing the sick, teaching the ignorant, saving souls and more that Jesus did as He walked the face of the earth more than 2,000 years ago.

Once again, my deepest thanks to our parishioners for the support both of our 2023 Advent Giving Tree program, which raised more than $71,000 in support of the Knights of Malta House of Care and our parish’s Neighbors in Need fund. The total collected during Advent was divided nearly evenly.

This second Sunday in Lent we hear the account of the Transfiguration of Jesus atop Mount Tabor. The Catholic Church understands the Transfiguration as a significant event (an epiphany) to reveal the Divinity of Jesus and as a manifestation of His glory. This epiphany happened before three of His disciples, Peter, James and John as well as in the presence of Moses and Elijah, who spoke with Jesus

With the arrival of Lent, St Catherine’s of Siena will once again partake in the annual Lenten Mercy Project. During this season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the St Catherine Church Lenten Mercy Project gives us the opportunity to participate by supporting a variety of organizations that embody the Corporal Works of Mercy.

Archbishop Leonard P. Blair has appointed Eileen Landi as our parish’s 2024 St. Joseph Medal of Appreciation awardee. Eileen joined our parish in 2018 and got involved straight away. She currently servers as a Lead Usher at the Masses, a Eucharistic Minister, Heads up our Bereavement Ministry, and joins in on many other parish events and activities—from our parish carnival to our Senior Breakfast Ministry and so much more. She is always ready, willing and able to help.

For many, Lent is a difficult time. It is all about giving up, sacrificing, and focusing on the suffering servant of Jesus Christ, a new kind of messiah. Moreover, we have some 2,000-plus years of history to help understand the “suffering season of Lent.” Imagine what it was like for the people of Jesus’ time? It was all new. Giving up, by way of choice; a new messiah who was service-oriented rather than to be the object of other’s service; a king of duty versus a king of the high-and-mighty.

Jesus Christ is the central point of our Marken Gospel. So is an uncomfortable message. So is rejection. As w ell is the notion that even the “bad” character in a gospel can teach us something. From two Sundays of Vocation stories to the object of the gospel being the subject of Christ Himself, God promises to send someone else to fill the role of Moses. Enter Jesus Christ, the New Testaments new Moses.

This Sunday, Word of God Sunday, is a wonderful opportunity for priests of the Archdiocese of Hartford to put a special emphasis in our homily to further promote the Power of God’s Word in Sacred Scripture in our daily lives as well as to promote the need for our parishioners to study Scripture and find new ways to apply it to our family, work, and school lives and in community engagement

Join us Saturday, February 10th at 3:30! Participating in the Mass is the most important thing Catholics do each week. It is the source and summit of Christian living. In the liturgy, we experience and celebrate the presence of Christ among us: in Word, in sacrament, and in their brothers and sisters. In this interactive presentation, we will explore how the parts of the Mass form us for lives of missionary discipleship.

I would love you to consider being a lector, Eucharistic minister, or altar server. The church runs smoothly when the priest and the laity all perform their roles both in the liturgy (at Mass) and in the parish (in ministries). Vatican II called for the “full and active participation of the laity in rhetorical Church.