Father Bob's announcement

Happy Easter!

Congratulations to those who were Baptized last weekend: Stephanie, Riley & Ryan Remien, John Sturtz and Bella Champagne.

Congrats to those formally received into the Catholic Church:  Greg Remien, Ashley Rife & Keenan LittleJohn.

Congrats to those completing the Sacraments of Initiation: Jessica Ferguson & Don Bernard III.

This Saturday we will celebrate the Baptism of 13 children!

Next weekend begins our series of First Communions. We will have over 70 young persons celebrating their first reception of communion at Masses throughout all of May.

Thanks to all those Lectors, EM’s, sacristans, singers, altar servers, decorators, Deacon Dave, Fr. Boby who helped to make our celebration of Easter Sunday and Triduum go so smoothly. It is a tremendous amount of work, especially mentally. So glad to have celebrated it all. I wish though more people had attended Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil–these are not really optional days but are meant to be celebrated by the whole church fully and completely.

That being said, the Easter Sunday Masses were nicely attended:  8am 530 total; 10am 630 total; & 12pm 220.

Happy Easter (starting tonight). Our Vigil will start at 8pm during which we celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection through the Baptisms of two adults and two young persons, as well as receiving into the church formally several others, then celebrating their confirmations and first reception of Eucharist. If you have never attended the Vigil, try it. It is an amazing ceremony (longer than normal).

We will be decorating the church for Easter at 10am this morning. Come by and help if you can, as we also need to get the Chapel set up too.

Easter Sunday will be full, so please be patient with everyone. Do your best to NOT save seats, but have everyone arrive at the same time. It helps.

Communion to the Sick and Homebound – if you are already performing this ministry, I would like you to attend a training for the new ministers on Weds. April 23rd at 5:30pm. This way everyone will be on the same page. If anyone would still like to sign up for this ministry, please come to this training as well.

Easter Egg hunt tomorrow!!  After the 11am mass in Plumas Park.

We will be decorating for Palm Sunday this morning at 10am, if anyone wants to help.

For the Triduum and Easter Sunday Masses look below. Also just to remind everyone, confessions can NOT be heard on Good Friday or Holy Saturday; and that on Good Friday, it is a day of strict fast. So for all healthy adults – one full meal, 2 lesser meals, no snacks, no meat.

The funeral mass for Fr. John Corona will be May 9, at St. Galls in Gardnerville. The mass will start at 11am

Last week ended crazy…fire alarm alert at 5am, check security cams, nothing..but dressed and went over to check. Then burglary alarms went off on the way. Got there, all kinds of noises as the fire department set it all off. Turns out some kind of glitch in the system. Then Saturday morning became aware of a little minor vandalism, but security cams did not catch anything (except raccoons).

This coming Thursday is the annual Chrism Mass. It is held at St. Rose  of Lima, 5:30pm. All are invited and encouraged to attend. The Bishop blesses the Oils for the upcoming year, the priests renew their promises, and this year too we accept into the diocese formally Deacon Francis Coyne.

It appears that Fr. John Corona’s Mass of the Resurrection will be May 9 (St Teresa of Avila, in Carson City). That would have been his 92 birthday.

FFE’s, or Family Faith Encounters are certain events within the parish that Students in the Confirmation program need to attend with their parents to get credit. They replace the idea of service hours, so as to inspire families to talk about their faith more openly. When we have events that qualify as a FFE, we indicate it as such; but such events are meant for the whole parish. This is all part of the Diocese of Reno’s plan as Confirmation is moved to 7th grade.

Finally, it is with a degree of sadness that I announce that Dr. Lauri Anne Reinhart has submitted her letter of resignation as Director of Religious Education. She will be retiring as of May 30. She will remain in the parish as this is her home. Please join with me in thanking her for 27 years of ministry and work in our parish and diocese.

A note of sadness as Fr. John Corona passed away on Wednesday morning this past week. Fr. John had been the long time pastor of St. Galls in Gardnerville, overseeing the construction of the new facility decades ago. He was always warm and generous to me. Fr. John was originally from the East Coast, his accent betrayed him. He came to our diocese as a new priest, and as a late vocation and served faithfully for decades. When arrangements have been made I will inform the parish. Rest in Peace our faithful brother.

This coming week will be our Reconciliation service (Weds night). Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity. There will be four guest priests helping out.

This past week I got a reminder about End of Life Care and wishes. It is an extremely good idea to have on file your wishes for your care if you become incapacitated – Power of Attorney for Health Care. For example, do you wish for every effort to be made to be resuscitated or minimal, or something in-between. Do those now before it gets too late. (Mine is completed and filed).

NEEDED-An adult who can visit the homebound and nursing homes to take communion. Please let me know soon (pastor@olsparish.com) 

Each spring the Diocese of Reno sponsors the Annual Volunteer Appreciation Award Banquet. Each parish and school award two volunteers for their work and stewardship. This year we at the Parish acknowledge Janet Roberts and Leon Carroll, the School will acknowledge Katie Glensor and Alicia Viray.  The Banquet will be on April 25th at the Atlantis Hotel and Casino. We can reserve extra tables if needed, but met the office at the parish know if you wish to attend.  Tickets are 80$. We need to know by March 27th.

OLSS will be on Spring Break this coming week. Washoe Co. continues theirs as well. So traffic ought to be okay around the church.

Parish Reconciliation Service will be April 2nd, starting at 6:30pm. it is an opportunity to celebrate this Sacrament and utilize other priests. St. Rose will host theirs on Thurs. April 3 (6pm??)

Our parish has become quite international and ecumenical. The Korean Catholic Community has been using our chapel for a couple of years to celebrate Mass. We will also be providing space to the Ethiopian Orthodox Community to celebrate their liturgies. It is nice to be able to provide this for groups.

This Sunday, the Bishop will be here to celebrate the Rite of Election of Children. Children from the diocese (but mostly from Reno-Sparks-Carson City) who will be received into the Church at Easter come before the Bishop to be recognized. All are welcome to attend.

Weeks ago I mentioned a name change:  RCIA to OCIA. (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults to Order of …). This is the process by which non-Catholics become Catholics. The name change reflect that idea of a process that does involve ritual, but also time in the parish learning what it means to live as a Catholic. It is not purely about information, but about realization. By the way, I did not change the name, the Church changed the name.

Just a reminder that clocks will be changing tonight, spring ahead one hour!

This weekend there are two celebrations for those who are becoming Catholic. At the parishes, we celebrate the Rite of Sending. We send our Catechumens (those unbaptized) and our Candidates (baptized but not fully initiated) to Bishop Mueggenborg. He will celebrate the Rite of Election (2pm St. Rose) with, accepting them to be received into the Church at Easter. All can attend the Rite of Election (it is a amazing to see all those people joining our church). We will celebrate the Rite of Sending at our 10am mass.

Starting Monday night, I will be having a discussion on “Dilexit Nos” the Pope latest Encyclical. There are a few copies left at the office to purchase, or go online to Barnes and Noble. Open to all!

Hello March! And we will be off to a busy week starting this evening with the Vintage Affair Fundraiser. Later this week it will be Ash Weds and all that it entails. Yippee

Lent: Reminder that Ash Wednesday is a Day of Fasting; for healthy adults only 1 full meal, lesser meals for the others, no snacking, no meat. Fridays of lent no meat.

Also the “goal” is not about self punishment/denial; rather it is to create more space for love. Here are some suggestions:

• Fast from time spent on gaming and give that time to being with friends and family.
• Fast from expensive meals out and spend time in with family; give the money saved to charity.
• Fast from Social Media and read a spiritual book
• Pray differently; asking God for wisdom
• Come to Adoration and be adored by God
• Celebrate Reconciliation

BTW Sundays of Lent still Count as Lent.

Someone asked what is a “Liturgy of the Word”.:  Basically its the first half of the mass. We will have the opening prayer, readings, homily, ashes, prayers, final blessing and then we go

Good Saturday morning to all. Happy Feast of the Chair of St. Peter as well, celebrating St. Peter nd the Papacy.

Hard to believe that this coming week is the end of February. It flew by quickly. Which means Lent will be starting up the following week. Hopefully the mailing will go out with activities coming up and the Easter Schedule.

Fr. Boby and I will be getting new housemate. Fr. Norlito Concepcion OA (Order of St. Augustine) will be moving in on Monday. He is assigned to Holy Cross parish in Sparks as assistant priest. Officially he won’t have any duties at OLS, but we may see him around. 

Girl Scouts will be selling cookies after most of the masses this weekend, so be prepared!