pick a day to pray IN MAY, 2020

Hello Family,

Praying for you all today!  No matter what each of you are going through, there is nothing that we cannot ask for in prayer!  My prayer for you is to know that you are truly loved and truly cared for, all the time.  If you feel you are called to be praying at this time for others, I would like to invite you to join me in a month-long Rosary prayer to Our Blessed Mother. May is traditionally a month to celebrate Mothers and of course Mary is our Blessed Mother in Heaven who is our most perfect mother!  Together, in this effort, our voices will join with hers in bringing our petitions to Jesus to relieve all from the effects of the Coronavirus at this time. 

I am asking please, for you as a family to commit to praying a Rosary on any one day in May. You pick your own date, starting this Friday, May 1. All are welcome to join.

CLICK HERE to sign up, or if you have any questions.

You may say an entire Rosary on that day - I will send you specific instructions - most of you do have a little Rosary guide from our Family Home Study this year. If you have little children and would like to abbreviate the prayer, you may say 5 decades of the Rosary with only 3 Hail Mary’s vs. all 10 Hail Mary’s for each. Our Mother will be pleased with all efforts to storm heaven with this request.

A Special Place to Pray

You are welcome to pray anywhere, at home, inside, outside, or on a walk.  Father Ray has graciously invited each family, if they wish, to come to the outside of the church on your day to pray.  You could pray your Rosary with your family at the Rosary Garden facing E. Dunstable Rd, or at the Blessed Mother statue between the stairs facing the parking lot, or at the statue in the rear of the parking lot, up on the hill. 

Please email me your date in May, as soon as you decide to join us in prayer and tell me which place and time (if you are coming to the church so we can give families privacy at each location)! I am grateful to all who consider joining us in this “Pick a Day in May to Pray!” You may also pray for your personal intentions during this time and keep a “Praise Journal,” because when praying the Rosary with Mary-Mary wants to outdo us in generosity-so just keep asking!

In Jesus Name through Mary,

Maryann

P.S.  HERE is a Saint Coloring Page and biography; St. Louis de Montfort - one of my favorite Marian Saints. He loved Mary as I do!

 

Mother's day, May 10, 2020

Hello Family,

Happy Mother's Day!

Here is a Mother’s Day Card for the children to make and some coloring pages:

Mother's Day Card from iheartcraftythings.com
Mother's Day Coloring Page from joditt.com
Our Lady of the Rosary Coloring Page from
immaculateheartcologingpages.wordpress.com

Maryann

Thank you!

4.23.20

Dear Immaculate Conception Family, 

Thank you all who are staying close to us during this time of social distancing!  Whether you are tuning in on our Live Stream offerings (weekend, weekday Masses, special services and Adoration), email messages, thank you cards, notes, cookies, donuts, and/or sending us Easter pictures of your family to post on the website, we are most grateful for it all!  You are so important to us and we miss you a great deal.  We will get to see each other face to face soon, but in the meantime, honor the Greatest Commandment that we learn from Jesus - Honor the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, AND LOVE one another (your neighbor - or your spouse, your sibling, etc.-) as you love yourself!  And definitely start with loving yourself, how God first Loved you-completely! 

Please know that we praying for all of you who are sick, or who have family members who are sick and/or financially, psychologically or situationally compromised at this time!  As the Psalmist reassured us in today’s readings:

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;  and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. 
Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the LORD delivers him (US).”
Psalm 34:19-20

Maryann

CLICK HERE to see our growing Photo Library. Keep sending in your pictures!
 

Divine Mercy Sunday, April 19, 2020

Hello Family, 

Happy Easter!  We are an Easter people, who know that with God, there is always life after death and light after darkness!  Therefore, we are privileged to have 50 days to celebrate - from Easter until Pentecost on May 31. So keep greeting everyone with “Happy Easter!”  In our current environment of uncertainty, therefore, we will BE the light needed to get through this!

We continue our celebration with our regular weekend masses at 4pm on Saturday, 4/18 and at 10am on Sunday, 4/19 through Live Stream at iccnashuanh.org.  In addition, we will present a very Special Divine Mercy Celebration this coming Sunday, 4/19, at 3pm also through Live Stream.  We invite all our families each year to join in this life-changing celebration!
 

Divine Mercy

One of the amazing graces that Jesus continues to give us (if we know about it and ask for it!) every day is Divine Mercy.  Divine Mercy was given to us from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, while He was on the Cross.  When the Roman soldier pierced the Heart of Jesus on the cross, “...immediately, blood and water flowed out…” John 19:34.

But, I guess God did not think we understood what actually happened when that blood and water flowed out to the world.  So, He sent messages and visions to a humble nun from Poland in the 1930s.  The nun, who became Saint Faustina, eventually wrote a diary to specifically describe the incredible meaning of Divine Mercy.  From her encounters with Jesus, St. Faustina described and had painted a beautiful image and gave us a most powerful prayer called the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

Here are the ABC’s of Divine Mercy:

Ask for God’s Mercy - God wants to hear from us constantly, asking Him to forgive our sins and to have Mercy on us and on the whole world!

Be Merciful - God wants us to receive His Mercy and to have it flow through us to others! We are to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does for us-we pray this every day in the Our Father (forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive those who trespass against us!)  We are praying at this time in the prayer that Jesus taught us, for Him to HELP us forgive others, as most of the time it is hard to do on our own!

Completely Trust in His Mercy - God wants us to know that the graces of His Mercy are dependent upon our trust!  The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive it! 

For a fun craft, and a yummy ice cream snack to remind your children of the Divine Mercy Message,  please visit the fabulous Lacy at Catholic Icing:

catholicicing.com/celebrating-divine-mercy-sunday-with-kids/




 

Easter Triduum 2020

Hello Family,

Our entire Immaculate Conception Parish Staff is praying for you all and I am letting you know that we WILL see a Resurrection this weekend in our Easter Sunday Mass!  May it give us all hope that we too will rise out of this COVID-19 Pandemic.  Let us do the praying for the sick and dying, our Church and our clergy, our government leaders, all those working on the cure and the vaccines, and all the healthcare workers, essential employees and the media who are working very hard (I know that is some of you-Thank you!) Also, let us not forget others who are homeless or food insecure at this time.  I wanted to share something I read this week from the “Little Black Book,” that we all received on Ash Wednesday that really hit me as something that can help us all who believe, through this trial:

“Jesus never promised that he would prevent all evil, sickness, tragedy or sin.  After all, he gives us free choice.  But he did promise that he could come to any evil situation or our own doing or of someone else’s doing—small or great—and pull goodness and life out of it.
Jesus said that his goodness would be more powerful than any evil.  He was that good.
Well, if he could go even to death on the cross-a senseless death at the age of 30 or so-a humiliating, repugnant, awful death-and pull life out of it, then the good news is true. 
He can come to any human situation and draw life.
And so, the early Church told the story over and over again-long before the Gospels ever were written….of the way Jesus died and they ended that story with the announcement that he pulled life out of it-the announcement of the Resurrection.
Great story…and all true!”

Source: The Little Black Book, Six-minute meditations on the Sunday Gospels of Lent (Cycle A) based on writings of Bishop Ken Untener (1937-2004)

Many blessings!

Maryann
 

Triduum Schedule 2020

With Readings and Family Fun Coloring, Food and Craft Ideas
to help you Remember, Celebrate and Believe!

Masses and Friday’s Stations will be live streamed on our Home Page at the times specified below.

HOLY THURSDAY, April 9
7pm Live Stream of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper (the First Mass ever!)
Readings: usccb.org/bible/readings/040920.cfm
Activitie: CLICK HERE to Print out a Holy Thursday Coloring Page thanks to Oriental Trading’s “Free-N-Fun” offering.
 
GOOD FRIDAY, April 10
3pm Live Stream of the Stations of the Cross;
7pm Live Stream of the Mass (Veneration of the Cross)
Try making this “Symbolic Lunch” with your children remind them of the significance of this day for all at catholicicing.com
Readings for the 7pm Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/041020.cfm
 
HOLY SATURDAY, April 11
7:30pm Live Stream Easter Vigil (night before) Mass
Readings (note that it is most likely that not all of these readings will occur but there is flexibility to the pastors to chose): usccb.org/bible/readings/041120.cfm
Easter Coloring Pages (from OT Fun-N-Free) to enjoy:
Coloring Page 1 - Coloring Page 2 - Coloring Page 3
 
EASTER SUNDAY, April 12
10am Live Stream - and we can sing ALLELLUIA once again!
Readings: usccb.org/bible/readings/041220.cfm
Celebrate with Mass and then serve special food, dress up if you feel like it and THANK the Lord for this new day!
More fun Easter Crafts and Coloring Pages (from OT Fun-N-Free):
Activity Page 1 - Activity Page 2 - Coloring Page

Spy Wednesday

Hello Family,

I promised you would hear from me today regarding the Holy Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter!)  but I forgot to mention that today, Wednesday of Holy Week  is called “Spy Wednesday.” This is  Interesting, right?  Why?  Read about it:

Wednesday is known as Spy Wednesday because on this day Judas made a bargain with the high priest to betray Jesus for 30 silver pieces (Matt 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:1-6). This is also the day that Jesus was anointed with an expensive jar of alabaster by the woman at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper (Matt 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-19). Source: catholiculture.org

Spy Wednesday Food Idea from Lacy at catholicicing.com

For this day, (Lacy says) try making “money bag wontons” for dinner to symbolize the bag of silver that betrayed Jesus. 

I will be sending you more information and activities on the Triduum tomorrow that you can enjoy while at home.
Just a reminder, Holy Thursday Mass will be streaming live via the website at 7pm tomorrow night. No morning mass or Holy Hour tomorrow.

More to come. Stay tuned, but just in case you go for your shopping trip before Sunday, here is an amazing recipe for Resurrection Cookies for Easter Sunday:

Easter Story Cookies (multiple classroom and large group use)
 

Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020

Hello All, 

Our Children’s Enrichment Core Team is hard at work hoping to bring you some at-home experiences to share with your children for Holy Week, the week Jesus changed the world for us all!  Attached to begin, is instruction to make a cute little clothespin donkey, like the one Jesus road into Jerusalem on, as read in this Sunday’s Procession into Mass.  For many other activities, coloring pages and lessons for the entire Holy Week, go to this fabulous Catholic website: catholicicing.com
 

Pray with your children for the end of the Coronavirus and for all the sick and dying, for our families, our church and the world to keep hope alive to know God will provide!

God Bless, Maryann

Family Home Study, the Home Edition

CLICK HERE  to watch on our  Video Library Playlist