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~SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME~

February 22 and 23, 2025​

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Saturday          - Haliburton     4:30 pm           Mary Pearsell – Catholic Women’s League

 

Sunday            - Bancroft        10:00 am           Missa Pro Populo – Mass for the People

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*** PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ROSARY IS PRAYED BEFORE MASS AT 8:30 AM ***

 

Monday           - Bancroft         9:00 am           Dave McGarry – Mary Lynn McGarry

 

Tuesday           - Bancroft         8:00 am           Isabel York – Dennis and Marcella Purcell

 

Wednesday     - Haliburton                            

                                                    8:30 am           Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

                                                    9:00 am           Rosary

                                                    9:30 am           Special intentions of Judy

 

Thursday         - Bancroft         8:30 am            Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

                                                    9:00 am            Rosary

                                                    9:30 am            Krystal Bassett – Jack and Roseanne Wilson

           

Friday              - Bancroft         9:00 am           Marek Wijas – Darek and Ewa Czajkowski

   

First Saturday - Bancroft        9:00 am           Deceased relatives and friends of the Kavanagh Family                                                                                                           - Clare Kavanagh-Byerley

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~ EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME ~

March 1 and 2, 2025

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Saturday          - Haliburton     4:30 pm           Mary Pearsell – Her Family

 

Sunday            - Bancroft      10:00 am           Missa Pro Populo – Mass for the People

 

 

 

 

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THE SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME:  The Gospel is taken from St. Luke (Luke 6:27-38). It would at first sight appear that the demands that Christ makes on our charity here are anything but easy. Loving one's enemies is asking a lot. Blessing them and praying for them might be all right for St. Francis but expecting it of us seems to be going very far. Asking for a blow on the second cheek while the first is still twinging with pain seems fit only for a martyr. Not to try to take tack what was stolen from us looks very foolish. Yet it was Christ who made all these demands.

However, before we give up in despair, and decide that this type of Christianity is not for us, let us look a little more closely at the demands that are made. To love our enemy does not mean we must throw our arms about him every time we meet him (he would not let us anyway!). It means we must do all in our power to rid our minds of any hatred of him, and try to see the good that is in him. Not judging and condemning comes under this heading. Human sinful beings that we are, our faculty for seeing in our neighbor the real man as he is before God, is very limited and very prone to error. There are justly convicted robbers and murderers in our jails, in whom God can see a lot of goodness even now, and perhaps future citizens of heaven later on.

Not demanding back what was unjustly taken from us does not mean that we may not have recourse to the legal or other means available to us for obtaining compensation in such cases. What it does forbid is personal (generally forceful) restoration of our rights and property.

Another consoling point to bear in mind is that the vast majority of our fellowmen have no inclination to injure us in our person or our property and will never do so. If we feel we have a lot of enemies only waiting for the chance to pounce on us, we would do well to examine our own consciences very carefully and then look for the many good points there are in our neighbour's character.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, life for life" was the practice amongst the Jews at the time of Christ and for centuries before (Ex. 21 :23-25). Christ sets up the "golden rule" of fraternal charity in place of this Law of Talon. Every man should truly love his neighbor for he is his brother. What is more, Christ's mission on earth has made him a son of God and an heir to heaven. Our chief interest in our neighbor must therefore be a spiritual interest. If he offends us, he offends God which is much more serious. Our charity should help him to seek God's forgiveness. That he should seek ours is of very minor importance in comparison with that.

You would like your neighbour to help you to reach heaven. "You go and do likewise" to your neighbor, and you will both get there.

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—from The Sunday Readings, Year C by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

 

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ST. JOSEPH’S ORATORY OF MOUNT ROYAL

ST. JOSEPH NOVENA

March 10th to 18th, 2025

Solemn Feast, March 19th

 

With Joseph, let us walk in Hope!

 

With Joseph, let us walk in hope!  We invite you, in the spirit of the Jubilee year, to come and nourish your hope and strengthen your faith with others through prayer and listening to the World of God.  As Pope John Paul II said during an apostolic journey to the Netherlands in 1985:

 

“Where there is hope, prayer is born.

Where prayer is born, hope is renewed.”

 

Come and join us during these 9 days of the Novena dedicated to Saint Joseph, to pray together, to stay the course, and strengthen your friendship with Joseph.  Learn from his example to become, in this time of significant decline in faith, watchful guardians of hope.

 

For more information or to book a group, Call Visitor and Pilgrim Services at

514-733-8211 or 1-877-672-8647

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