FIRST WEEK OF LENT - CARE FOR GOD’S CREATION: : On Ash Wednesday your Lenten journey of 40 days began. Catholic Relief Services invites you to make this journey in solidarity with your global family, and Operation Rice Bowl makes this easy and enriching. It is a journey of prayer, fasting, learning and giving. To be Catholic means to be linked not just to our local communities, but also to our global community. Your participation in Operation Rice Bowl during this Lenten season will challenge you to expand your own horizons. You will be provoked to alleviate suffering and combat injustice. Most of us have clean water whenever we want it. Ciro didn’t have this experience. He and his neighbors in rural Guatemala had to carry water for miles to meet their village’s needs. With the help of Catholic Relief Services, they were able to construct a water supply system. Together, we can induce tremendous change: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” OUR LADY OF LOURDES: February 11th is 150 years since the apparitions of Our Lady to a 14 year old girl Bernadette Soubirous in the grotto of Massabielle, near Lourdes in southern France The Blessed Mother Mary appeared 18 times to this young peasant girl. She revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision, and told the girl to drink from a fountain in the grotto. No fountain was to be seen, but when Bernadette dug at a spot designated by the apparition, a spring began to flow. The water from this still flowing spring has shown remarkable healing power, though it contains no curative property that science can identify. Lourdes has become the most famous modern shrine of Our Lady. The Catholic Church has designated this day as the World Day of the Sick to reflect on the meaning of pain and the Christian duty to take responsibility for it in whatever situation it arises. This year this significant day is also connected to the celebration of the International Eucharistic Congress at Quebec in Canada. AN INVITATION: Join other adults in their 20’s & 30’s for a day of prayer, worship and reflection. Be at Wadhams Hall by 9 AM Saturday the 23rd of February, or come early on Friday February 22nd and stay the night for added time to mingle, share and pray in an atmosphere of Catholic Spirituality. A suggested donation would be welcomed, but not necessary to attend. $30 Friday – Saturday; $20.00 Saturday only. For more information: Call the Director of Young Adult Ministry, Gib Patenaude: (518-637-2091) or email: gpatenaude@dioogdensburg.org NORTH COUNTRY CATHOLIC: The annual North Country Catholic subscription campaign begins next weekend. For 62 years, the NCC has served as a vital source of information, evangelization and unity for the 128,000 members of our diocesan family. Bishop Cunningham has urged every Catholic family of the North Country to subscribe. During the coming year, the NCC will provide extensive coverage to the unique events of the universal church in 2008 -- Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States, the International Eucharistic Congress which will take place just across the border in Quebec, World Youth Day in Australia and more -- as well as all the important news affecting Catholics of he North Country. Be sure to subscribe next weekend. Subscription envelopes are in your box of envelopes as well as at the entrance to the church. A yearly subscriptions costs $25. The Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian for Lent O Lord and Master of my life, keep from me the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter. Instead, grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of wholeness of being, humble-mindedness, patience, and love. O Lord, grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brothers and sisters; for You are blessed now and ever and forever. Amen. (Recite this prayer every day of Lent) SETON 20 WEEK DRAWING: Seton Catholic Central School invites you to participate in its Twenty-Week Club. Price of a ticket is $20. With this ticket you are eligible for a $250 a week drawing for EVERY draw for twenty weeks. Drawings are at halftime of the Seton Saturday night bingo. You will find application forms at the entrance to the Church.