Our first reading, from the Old Testament, sees God drawing Abram into faith, with a miracle and promises of innumerable descendants. The Psalm affirms our desire for God: “Your presence, O Lord, I seek.” In the second reading, Paul tells the Philippians to avoid men who behave badly. “Their end is destruction,” he warns. “…stand firm in the Lord.” Our Gospel from Luke relates the Transfiguration, when the three apostles struggle to hold their ground at the vision of the glorified Jesus.

The third Annual Good Shepherd School dinner asks for a donation for the meal purchase. Please call Jodi at the school to reserve places for one of the seatings: 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, 6:00, 6:15, 6:30 PM. Takeout is available from 4:30 to 6:30 PM. Here is the School Office number: 801-751-8223. The menu is pasta with sauce, roll, salad, and dessert.

Parish families are invited to an evening of dinner, Stations of the Cross, Prayer and Confesssion next Sunday, March 16, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at St. John.

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the most important penitential days of the liturgical year. They are both days of fast and abstinence. The rule of fasting states that only one full meal a day can be taken. Two small meals, “sufficient to maintain strength”, are allowed, but together should not equal another full meal. Eating between meals breaks the fast, but drinking liquids does not. The rule of fasting obliges all Catholics from 18 to 59. Abstinence refers to the eating of meat. The common estimation of the community is used to determine what falls under the category of meat. The rule of abstinence binds all Catholics 14 years or older. The substantial observance of the laws of fast and abstinence is a serious obligation. · Self-imposed fasting on the other weekdays of Lent is recommended. Abstinence on all Fridays of the year is also highly recommended. Parents and teachers should see to it that, even those who are not bound by the laws of fast and abstinence because of age, are to be brought up in an atmosphere that is conducive to a sense of penance.

Please take a bottle from the baskets at church, and fill with money, to be returned by Easter, April 20. Futures is a pregnancy care center in Lyndonville, "offering compassionate care, life affirming options, information, and education for women and men facing unexpected pregnancies." https://www.futurespregnancycare.org

Stations will take place Fridays at all three churches in the Corpus Christi parish. Here are the times: St. Elizabeth - after the 8:30 AM Mass; Queen of Peace and St. John - 6:00 PM.

Classes for Grades Pre-Kindergarten through 6 run from 9:45 to 11:15 AM every Sunday, except for the first Sunday of each month, when students will attend Family Mass at St. Elizabeth at 9:35 AM. Registration forms are on the parish website: corpuschristi.vermontcatholic.org/religiouseducation, or can be picked up at the back of each church. Please send them to the parish: [email protected], or drop them off at the parish office at the rectory. Registration is still open.

Deacon Pete Gummere leads this group the third Sunday of each month at the St. John Rectory at 1:00 PM. The ministry focuses on prayer, but will include a time for sharing thoughts and experiences. This new ministry encourages praying for the deceased, and for comfort and help for their families. Please call Deacon Pete for more information: 802-274-0942.

The Word of the Lord today begins with the Book of Deuteronomy, as Moses recounts the suffering history of his people, ending with the joy of their entering the Promised Land. We hear the same reassurance in our Psalm, “No evil shall befall you”. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, repeats this refrain: “for if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Our Gospel from Luke tells the familiar story of Christ’s forty days in the desert and his victory over Satan’s temptations.

Today we begin our penitential journey to the Church’s greatest Solemnity, Easter Sunday. The word Lent derives from a German word for spring. This day, we fast and abstain from meat following Church guidelines. Our priest wears purple vestments, we no longer pray the Gloria or sing the Alleluia, and church decorations are spare. All music must be instrument accompanied singing. Honoring saint feast days, except for Solemnities (St. Joseph, the Annunciation) is optional. Some writers describe this paring down and reducing as reflections of the penitent’s losing, casting off the encumbrances that bar our salvation. "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!" said St. Paul. Ashes are a sign of humility, penance, and mortality,

Paige will give her final 20-minute talks about her pilgrimage to and attendance at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis last July. Paige will speak at this Sunday's coffee hour at Queen of Peace after the 8:00 AM Mass.

Please turn your clocks AHEAD one hour Saturday night, March 8 or Sunday, March 9. Resetting your clocks correctly will help you arrive at Mass on time Sunday morning.

The next coffee hour will be Sunday, March 9 at Queen of Peace after the 8:00 AM Mass. Paige Lindholm will give her last talk on her pilgrimage to last summer's National Eucharistic Congress. Come enjoy a hot cup of coffee.

In the seventeenth century, Our Lord asked French nun, now Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, to honor His Sacred Heart on nine consecutive first Fridays, by attending Holy Mass and receiving Holy Communion. Jesus said, “I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine first Fridays of consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they will not die under my displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, my divine Heart making itself their assured refuge at the last moment."

There will be a special collection on Ash Wednesday to support Vermont Catholic Charities. This agency provides financial and emotional support to individuals and families throughout Vermont through the programs offered which include: counseling, emergency aid, prison ministry and residential care homes. Please drop your donation, cash or check, into the collection basket at Ash Wednesday Masses, or contribute through the Catholic Charities website: https://www.vermontcatholic.org/ministries-programs/ catholic-charities/ash-Wednesday appeal/. You also may mail a check to Vermont Catholic Charities, 55 Joy Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403. Please know that every gift - whatever the size-makes a difference. Thank you!

Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras in French, is the day before Ash Wednesday. It takes its name from the old tradition of eating butter, eggs, animal fats, and meat for the last time before the Lenten fast that forbid these foods. Today, we abstain from these items only if we choose to give them up for Lent. Fat Tuesday often was, and still is, a last chance for merrymaking before the solemn, 40-day penitential season leading to Easter. Catholic in many countries celebrate the day by making pancakes and doughnuts, which include lots of fat, butter, and eggs. Mardi Gras today sees parades and often wild celebrations such as in New Orleans. The term Shrove Tuesday comes from an old word for confessing one’s sins, or being shriven. Penitents would seek Confession on this day to enter the Lenten season with a clean soul. The day’s colors are green, purple, and gold: gold for God’s power, purple for his royal justice, and green for our faith and hope for eternal life.

His Excellency, The Most Reverend John J. McDermott By the Grace of God and of the Favor of the Apostolic See ELEVENTH BISHOP OF BURLINGTON DECREE On May 9, 2024, His Holiness, Pope Francis declared an Ordinary Jubilee for 2025 with the Papal Bull “Spes non confundit” reminding the faithful that “the Pilgrimage is a fundamental element of every Jubilee event and that “in the coming year, pilgrims of hope will surely travel the ancient and more modern routes in order to experience the Jubilee to the full” (Spes non Confundit 5). In this Bull, in addition to the Holy Doors and Jubilee Churches in Rome, our Holy Father indicated the importance of also making other places at the local level spaces of welcome in which to generate hope (23). Therefore, I hereby establish that for the duration of this Jubilee Year – from the promulgation of this decree to December 28, 2025 – these are to be considered the Jubilee Churches in the Diocese of Burlington: – Cathedral of Saint Joseph (Burlington) – Church of St. John the Evangelist (St. Johnsbury) – Church of St. Michael the Archangel (Brattleboro) – Church of Christ the King (Rutland) The Norms of the Decree on the Granting of the Indulgence during the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025, issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary on May 13, 2024, state that all the faithful, who are truly repentant and free from any affection for sin, who are moved by a spirit of charity and who, during the Holy Year, purified through the sacrament of penance and refreshed by Holy Communion, prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, will be able to obtain from the treasury of the Church a plenary indulgence, with remission and forgiveness of all their sins, in the following ways: 1. Pilgrimages The faithful, pilgrims of hope, will be able to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence granted by the Holy Father if they undertake a pious pilgrimage to any of the above Jubilee Churches and devoutly participate in any of the following: – Holy Mass – A ritual Mass for the conferral of the sacraments of Christian Initiation or the Anointing of the Sick – A celebration of the Word of God, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Stations of the Cross, the Marian Rosary, the recitation of the Akathist hymn, a penitential celebration which includes the individual confessions of the penitents (as found in the Order of Penance). – Engage in a suitable period of time in Eucharistic adoration and meditation, concluding with the Lord’s Prayer, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and prayers to Mary, the Mother of God, so that in this Holy Year everyone “will come to know the closeness of Mary, the most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children” (Spes non confundit, 24). 2. Works of Mercy and Penance In addition, the faithful will be able to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if, with a devout spirit, they participate in popular missions, spiritual exercises, or formation activities on the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, held in a church or other suitable place, according to the mind of the Holy Father. The faithful who are truly repentant of sin but who cannot participate in the various solemn celebrations, pilgrimages, and pious visits for serious reasons (especially cloistered nuns and monks, but also the elderly, the sick, prisoners, and those who, through their work in hospitals and other care facilities, provide continuous service to the sick), can obtain the Jubilee Indulgence under the same conditions if, united in spirit with the faithful taking part in person (especially when the words of the Supreme Pontiff or the diocesan Bishop are transmitted through various means of communication), they recite the Lord’s Prayer, the Profession of Faith in any approved form, and other prayers in conformity with the objectives of the Holy Year, in their homes or wherever they are confined, offering up their sufferings or the hardships of their lives. The faithful will also be able to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if they visit, for an appropriate amount of time, their brothers and sisters who are in need or difficulty (the sick, prisoners, lonely elderly people, disabled people), in a sense making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them according to the usual spiritual, sacramental, and prayer conditions. The faithful can repeat these visits throughout the Holy Year, even daily, acquiring a plenary indulgence each time. A plenary indulgence can be acquired only once in the course of a day. However, the faithful who have carried out an act of charity on behalf of the souls of Purgatory, if they receive Holy Communion a second time that day during a Eucharistic celebration, can obtain the plenary indulgence twice on the same day, applicable only to the deceased. Given at the Chancery Office in South Burlington, Vermont, this 15th day of January, in the year of Our Lord 2025.

Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom. May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeks transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally. May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. To you our God, eternally blessed by glory and praise for ever. Amen.

The Knights of Columbus have issued another matching challenge to the parish to support the repair of the brickwork at St. John's Church. The cost of that work is $13,000. The Knights will match - dollar per dollar - the first $5,000 in donations for that purpose by September 10th of this year. Checks should be drawn to Corpus Christi Parish and marked "Brickwork Fund.” Please drop your donation in the collection basket.

Father Harlow seeks donations to a scholarship fund he is setting up as he marks his 31st year as a priest. Father's goal is to help students afford an education at Good Shepherd Catholic School. To contribute, please send checks to Father Harlow at the rectory. Please write checks to GSCS and note "Father Harlow Scholarship."