Sunday Mass:

Saturday  Vigil    5:00 PM

Sunday                  8:00 AM
                             10:00 AM
                               5:00 PM

Daily Mass:

Mon. - Fri.             6:30 AM
                               8:30 AM
Saturday               8:30 AM

Holy Days

                               6:30 AM 
                               8:30 AM
                               7:00 PM

Healing Mass:

Third Sunday of the Month

                             1:30 PM                    

Bulletin

 Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

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Pope's Letter & Prayer


 

ST. JOHN the EVANGELIST CCD
Grades:  Kindergarten through Junior High
Phone: 916 -483-4628
Email: [email protected]

February 19
Our catechists tremendously missed being with our classes on Sunday due to the three-day holiday reserved for Presidents’ Day. On Tuesday, February 21, remember to celebrate the Feast Day of St. Peter Damian, who was one of the most saintly figures who throughout every year lived a Lenten path of virtue. Peter was born in Ravenna in 1007, and he was the youngest child of a very large and poor family. At a very young age, he lost both of his parents, and one of his elder brothers, who treated him like a slave, adopted Peter. As he matured, Peter was ordered to tend swine. Out of pity, another one of Peter’s brothers, Damianus, an archpriest, enrolled him in several institutes to be formally educated. First, he entered school in Ravenna, then he attended school in Faenza, and finally he enrolled at the University of Parma, where he was observed to be an astute pupil with great scholastic ability. Throughout the year, Peter fasted, prayed continually, and armed himself against feeling pleasure by always wearing a hairshirt under his clothes. He was ordained to the priesthood, and consistently he engaged in almsgiving, and daily he invited poor and hungry people to his dinner table in the evenings, because Peter took great pleasure in serving people using his own hands. At the age of twenty-five, Peter ,who earlier had adopted the middle name Damian, was now a master at teaching theology and Canon Law. In 1035, Fr. Peter Damian resolved to embrace the monastic life. While he was focusing on this life change, two religious monks from Fonte Avellana visited him, and he learned much about their mode of life. Thus Fr. Peter Damian joined their hermitage, and then he lived a life of extreme austerity. His self-mortification in penance affected Fr. Peter Damian’s health, and he developed insomnia. Upon his recovery, Fr. Peter Damian spent considerable time becoming well versed in the Holy Scriptures. With the unanimous consent of his fellow hermits, Fr. Peter agreed to govern their community should his superior die. When in 1043 their abbot died, Fr. Peter Damian directed this holy family governing them with great wisdom and purity. Later, he founded five other hermitages, whose priors under Fr. Peter Damian’s direction fostered a spirit of solitude, charity, and humility. Pope Steven IX in 1057 appointed Fr. Peter Damian to become the Cardinal-bishop of Ostia. For the next twenty-five years, the Most Reverend Peter Damian became active in Church synods, and papal diplomatic missions to settle conflicts between numerous bishops and their communities. The Most Reverend Peter Damian fought simony with great vigor, and he upheld clerical celibacy. Always he supported an ascetical life for monks, and he encouraged a more common life for the secular clergy. As a writer, the Most Reverend Peter Damian was eloquent, and his writing was voluminous. His written works included sixty-seven treatises, numerous letters, sermons, hymns, liturgical texts, and prayers. The Most Reverend Peter Damian’s most famous work is De Divina Omnipotentia, which discusses the power of God in a very long letter. In this letter The Most Reverend Peter Damian focused on the scope of divine power, and he quoted that God could even annul past history. The Most Reverend Peter Damian was often chosen as a legate to preside over seriously difficult matters. In 1069, he was chosen by Pope Alexander II to persuade Emperor Henry IV of Germany not to divorce Bertha, his wife. He entreated the king to follow the law of God and the Cannons of the Church in this matter. Consequently, King Henry IV ended his plans for a divorce. Soon the Pope permitted the Most Reverend Peter Damian to return to his life of a simple monk, but another emergency developed, and again, the Most Reverend Peter Damian was called upon by the Pope to become a legate to bring peace back to Ravenna in 1072 when Henry the Archbishop of Ravenna had been excommunicated for serious crimes. When the Most Reverend Peter Damian arrived in Ravenna, he soon learned that this archbishop had just died. Thereafter, the Most Reverend Peter Damian imposed penance on the archbishop’s accomplices and reconciled the inhabitants of Ravenna. Enroute back to Rome to report his findings to the Pope, the Most Reverend Peter Damian became sick with a severe fever, and he died on February 22, 1072, on the eighth day of his illness at Faenza while his monks were reciting Matins around him. It was in 1828, that St. Peter Damian was declared a Doctor of the Church. Many of St. Peter Damian’s disciples became great lights of the Church including St. John of Lodi, who became St. Peter Damian’s successor in the priory of the Holy Cross. Curiously with all the conflicts that St. Peter Damian resolved, he is considered to be the Patron Saint of Headache Sufferers.
OUR PRAYER: ALMIGHTY GOD, HELP US TO FOLLOW THE TEACHINGS AND EXAMPLE OF ST. PETER DAMIAN. PLACING CHRIST ABOVE ALL THINGS ESPECIALLY DURING LENT, MAY WE BE EVER ACTIVE IN THE SERVICE OF YOUR CHURCH AND ATTAIN THE JOYS OF ETERNAL LIGHT. AMEN

Yours in Christ,
Mrs. Joanne Giffard, CCD/Religious Education Coordinator          [email protected]