Will take place immediately following the daily Mass on Tuesday mornings. We will venerate the exposed Blessed Sacrament and conclude with Benediction. This Eucharistic devotion is meant to offer all the faithful an opportunity to spend time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. We will begin at 9 am and conclude at 10 a.m. It is understood that some folks have to go to work or attend to a family members needs, this does not preclude you from spending some time before the Lord. If you cannot stay for the whole hour, that’s O.K

We are already in the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time and this weekend’s Gospel of Mark (4:26-34) provides us with the well-known parable of the mustard seed. What does it mean? In this parable Jesus says, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”

We all know that recently the Archdiocese of Hartford reconfigured its parishes, closing some and merging others--into a stronger and proactive group of Catholic communities. For some, and understandably so, this is very difficult. It is hard and we must be honest about it. However, times are changing. People do not practice their faith, families do other things on Sundays--sports, work--and there is much confusion and misinformation about important Church teachings.

In today’s gospel from Mark (3: 20-35) we hear some pretty “disturbing” and usual statements of concern about Jesus—from His own family: “He is out of His mind,” they say. Jesus’ behavior is disturbing to them—and Mark states that they “want to seize Him” and take Him away. In fact, Jesus’ contemporaries call Him “Beelzelbul” But as many well educated and meaning folks have noted in the past, “You can’t judge the past with current knowledge (or devotion). And we can’t take our understanding of Mary and Jesus’ contemporaries and their role in His earthly life and apply our own understandings to the actual happenings of the day).

For everything there is a season…and the “season” is coming to a close for our current Baptismal font, which I believe is our parish’s original one since it matches the original and former altar, presider’s chair, ambo and tabernacle altar—or at least that what the “provenance” suggests.

On each Tuesday, our parish will venerate the Blessed Sacrament immediately following daily Mass (approximately 9 a.m.). This Eucharistic devotion is meant to offer all the faithful an opportunity for one hour to come before the blessed Sacrament and pray in silence for particular (stated) as well as silent personal intentions.

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, was formerly known as "Corpus Christi". It is a solemnity (the highest rank) and is celebrated on the first Thursday or Sunday after the feast of the Holy Trinity. This feast originated in France in the mid-thirteenth century and was extended to the whole Church by Pope Urban IV in 126

This Sunday we celebrate the “Birthday of the Church” (Pentecost) and the sending of the Holy Spirit, both corporately to the institutional Church and individually to each and every believer. This is a celebration of Love--the Love which the Father and the Son have for each other and so manifested as the Holy Spirit among us as well as the Love of Christ our Lord to be with us always until the end of the ages. The Holy Spirit is sent to remind us of all that Jesus taught us, to reveal His Truths, and them to lead us to the Truth so that we may live it out in our daily Christian lives.

Saint Catherine of Siena presents, "Maker Fun Factory". At Maker Fun Factory children will discover that God made them the way they are but for a purpose, too! Our Vacation Bible School Program is filled with incredible Bible-learning experiences. Some of our other STAND OUT activities include; science fun gizmos, team building games, COOL bible songs and tasty treats. Don't miss this life-changing adventure for your kids.

In the Catholic Church the month of May has always been “Mary’s Month” when we have honored and recognized Mary’s role in our own personal as well as collective faiths lives. This year for the first time in Church history, due to Pope Francis, there are three (3) Marian Feasts celebrated on the Church’s liturgical calendar. The Pope has added the Feast of the Role of Mary as Mother of the Church to our liturgical celebrations. The three feasts celebrated this month are: (1) Our Lady of Fatima on May 13th; (2) Mary, Mother of the Church on Pentecost Monday, May 21st; and, (3) The Feast of the Visitation on May 31st.

As we enter into the Sixth Sunday of this Easter Season and being only 15 days away from Pentecost Sunday—the birthday of the Church—we consider the meaning of the first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given to the Church (and the world) by God the Father to provide us with ALL TRUTHS and guide us to those truths, so that we can successful make our spiritual journey to deepen our Christian faith.

We are told by scripture scholars that the Gospel of John uses the word “remain” more than any other New Testament writer. And that there is a real significant meaning for the word “remain” for John, and that the evangelist uses the image of vine and branches to “develop a significance of Jesus remaining in the disciples and the disciples remaining in Him.”

Audrey VERONICA Andrews, Brett THOMAS Araniti, Patrick GEORGE Barnard, Francesca LUCY Beaver, Alexander FRANCIS Bourque, Madeline MARY Bourque, Tyler JOSEPH Brouillard, Jackson JOHN Bulger, Madelynn CHRISTINA Burkett, Zachary JOHN Calnan, Amanda HERMIONE Carucci, Mackenzie MARY Cellerino, Sophie MARGARET Cellerino, Tyler AMBROSE Coiro, Lillian CECILIA Connelly, Justin PETER DeFina, CLICK TO READ MORE!!

As we enter into the Third Sunday of Easter we hear once again of “disbelief” or “unbelief” or just plain “uncertainty” as the disciples encounter the Risen Lord and wonder if what they see is “real.” We know that the disciples and apostles needed some kind of “proof” and many searched for something in the here-and-now to connect with their faith beliefs. Jesus gives his followers this “here-and-now” moment when He tells them, “Why are you troubled?

As we celebrate the 50 days of the Easter Season in our Parish, we are each called to continue on as Christ’s Disciples in the ways we freely choose to live-out our Christian faith in our daily activities of life. The Lenten Season was the time in which we hopefully acted to well form our practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, so as to be more “perfect” Christian disciples living out our faith in-and-through the ways we fuse our faith into our families, work and social ethics. My Good Friday homily asked us to consider the question posed by the 11th Station of the Cross: “Is my soul worth this much?”

Each year (and actually every Sunday) at Eastertime we are called to refocus our faith on the Great promise of Easter and now we have the fifty (50) days of the Easter Season to really “buy-into” the Promise of Christ and see how we can redirect our daily lives to reflect the love, the compassion and the mercy of God in-and-through the Domestic Church—our families—for it is the family where the Church truly celebrates the “Mass” and the entirety of our faith.

When together we celebrate 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.

Holy Week begins a most sacred and venerable time for Christians and most specifically for Roman Catholics alike. We will celebrate the Passion, death and Resurrection of the Savior of the world. As last week’s gospel noted, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies it will produce much fruit. Father Raymond Brown, scripture scholar, asks us to look upon the crucified Christ as a grain of wheat and in His self-emptying death He fell to the ground and died, producing the greatest harvest of all

In today’s Gospel of John we hear God the Father’s voice from heaven reassure Jesus in His questions and His fear at the hour of His death—and we are reminded, as Scripture Scholar Father Raymond Brown points out, that God reassures Jesus as He did the apostles at the Transfiguration—and us today—of His Eternal Love.

Each year the Archdiocese of Hartford, under the direction of Archbishop Leonard Blair, presents parishioners across the Archdiocese with the Archdiocesan Saint Joseph Medal of Appreciation for their continued service to the parish and the Archdiocese. The Saint Joseph Medal is awarded either to an individual or to a married couple. This year I am happy to announce that the 2018 Awardees from our parish are Christine and Tom Tanski. Christine and Tom Tanski have been involved in our parish’s community and spiritual life in many different ways